DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme

A class reunion of the twenty-somethings in the old school. What one remembers, what the individual has new to tell. One of them: Marieluise. Her love, her work, her demands on herself and the world into which she is coming of age.

How the class community is formed. The children's environment and the experiences and discoveries that the school gives them. They are reflected in the lessons. At the end of the school year they receive their first report card and are "Young Pioneers".

East German documentary short about Somalia in 1976.

A documentary about the village Kienitz at the river Oder, about the people, their life, their history.

A film about five street children; children who have had to grow up too soon. The footage was shot at Christmas 1992, in Berlin. Claudia, 13, wants to show her mother "that kids can do what they want". 13-year-old Danny thinks Germany’s lousy, having lived on the streets for two years. His mother doesn’t try to contact him any more. Jonas, 13, is convinced that a bright future lies ahead of him. He shifts between his parents’ house and the streets, but feels most at home in a street riot. 13-year-old Daniela doesn’t want to leave home, despite suffering at the violent hands of her father. We meet her in a women’s refuge centre. David, 13, shows the director, his father, first-hand what street children go through and the pain they inflict upon their parents.

A life story from a bygone era. In a retirement home, the 90-year-old Hermann Reußner tells his story. He was born in 1891 in Dessau, back when a duke still reigned there. As a soldier under the German emperor, he participated in World War I. Reußner talks about his beginnings as a cook in the famous hotel Adlon at the Pariser Platz in Berlin. Later, he was head chef there for 30 years. This private life story gets impressively illustrated with photos and film footage.

The first summarizing film about the path of the class and the common stations in life. But also about the different paths in the profession, in love, marriage and family. As well as a soldier. A group chronicle, viewed from the historical distance of the 35th year of the end of the 2nd World War and after 18 years of shooting in peace, which ensured everyone the first human right: they were allowed to live.

The film follows the creation, construction and design of the “Grand Hotel” on Friedrichstrasse in East Berlin: from the excavation pit to the shell of the building to its completion and the handing over of the keys.

Documentary about the sisters Lene and Berta who live in a village in Thuringia.

Palermo, pearl of the Mediterranean, is one of the most popular holiday resorts for European and American tourists. What they do not see, however, are the narrow lanes in the city centre, where thousands upon thousands crowd together in damp and dark holes. The fate of the children is especially moving. Only half of the children in Palermo go to school. Their life is nothing but work and misery. But when they grow up, unemployment awaits them.

An East German documentary by Andrew and Annelie Thorndike investigating NATO General Hans Speidel’s alleged role in the 1934 assassination of Yugoslav King Alexander I and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou. Drawing on archival footage and documents, it scrutinizes Speidel’s past and postwar career, provoking controversy and a ban in West Germany. The film won First Prize at the 1958 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and the Heinrich Greif Prize in East Germany.

Documentary film about the Spanish Civil War.

Women workers in East Germany.

Voigt, Kroske and Richter were among the first filmmakers who documented the events of the historic 9th of October 1989. Their “material” reflects them from different angles: protesters, workers, opposition members, policemen, street sweepers and functionaries. THE document of the “peaceful revolution”.

A documentary about German director Konrad Wolf (1925–1982).

What became of Hitler’s last array, born in 1928, visited 40 years later?

This documentary reports on the master potter Otto Engelmann from Klingmühl, who was commissioned to make black painted clay heads of Karl Marx in the spring of 1973. Engelmann briefly explains the individual work steps from mixing the casting slip to firing the clay heads and then painting them. An old craft is vividly captured on camera and accompanied by original sou

This short film depicts Omega, one of Hungary's most successful rock bands, on tour in the GDR.

The final exam of sixteen and seventeen year olds at the end of the 10th grade. The individual in the minutes in which he is supposed to show what he can do and who he is. A last class party before the community ends and one goes apart.

For over a year, the film team accompanied an eighth grade class and interviewed the students about their first romantic relationships as well as their relationships to parents and teachers. The young people's comments are accompanied by scenes of their daily lives and songs written by director Konrad Weiß. The resulting documentary is a sensitive, emotional, and humorous portrait of early adolesence that also provides information and advice for teenagers.