Hans-Eberhard Leupold

A sequence of nine individual biographical sketches with a prologue and epilogue on Golzow and the long-term observation. Deepening of the preceding chronicle. The Golzow people in the present, from which retrospective views of the previous life and the life conflicts of the individual are given.

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Young people talk to the camera about their ideas of marriage and plans for their future lives.

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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.

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Young people discuss life problems such as moving into their first apartment, but also how to shape their own future.

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The documentary tells the story of Anke, Birgit and Katrin, who are training to become cattle breeders and graduate from high school. During this time, they live in a boarding school. The three girls talk about their everyday lives and reflect on their future.

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A stroll through East Berlin in 1977 - unique original recordings of the GDR capital by day and night, summer and winter, accompanied by music, offer a comprehensive insight into the diversity of urban life at that time. Numerous sights, famous buildings and squares, such as the television tower, the Red City Hall, the Palace of the Republic, Alexanderplatz and Unter den Linden, are shown. Popular places for leisure and recreation are also filmed, including the zoo, Volkspark Friedrichshain, the Christmas market on Alex and the Pankow outdoor pool. The film team also interviews a wide variety of Berliners, giving an impression of the lifestyle and everyday life of the capital's inhabitants at the time. The cityscape is rounded off with insights into new housing developments, renovated streets, businesses, restaurants and stores as well as official political events, military parades and memorial ceremonies.

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A village in the Republic celebrated its traditional clover festival in the summer of 1976. In the form of a political feuilleton, the film conveys to the viewer the new attitude to life of the people in the countryside.

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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.

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The film is a reportage showing the help of workers from the GDR in the industrial reconstruction of Syria. We witness the friendly relationship between workers from both countries, who are jointly involved in the construction of the cotton spinning mill in Homs. In impressive pictures the exoticism of the environment and the mentality of the Syrian hosts is shown. At the same time it becomes clear that the workers from the GDR become 'ambassadors of the GDR' through their collegial behaviour and good work.

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During the Battle of Stalingrad, five German soldiers and officers are taken prisoner of war by the Soviets. In an interview, they talk about the fear of retribution, the question of guilt and the gradual shattering of an enemy image. The process of their rethinking is also due to their encounter with the "National Committee Free Germany". Pilot officer Charisius got into conversation with the Soviet writer Fedin in the camp. Decades later, Charisius remembers it. Pictures of the destroyed Stalingrad and scenes of the men in their present-day environment complement the conversation.

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Documentary reports on the annual icing of the Oder in the 160-kilometer border area between the GDR and the People's Republic of Poland. Icebreakers from both countries with experienced skippers join forces to make the international waterway between Frankfurt and Szczecin navigable again. Everyone works hard as a team and even a broken-down ship cannot stop them from achieving their goal. A look back at the winter of 1947 with its flooding shows what the freezing of the river and the subsequent thaw can do if the ice floes are not drained into the Baltic Sea via Lake Dammsch in good time. The skippers from both countries have known each other for years and trust each other; the camaraderie that has developed on the Oder unites the people, they control the river in winter for the common benefit of all.

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They are now no longer children. Young citizens distinguish themselves. The time before the Jugendweihe and its celebration. They visit Weimar, the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp, the Schwedt petrochemical combine, and decide to go into business after the eighth grade, stay until the tenth, or take the Abitur in the district town.

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Promotional documentary for Rostock and Warnemünde with no commentary. Eleven film themes are set to a suite by composer Günter Kochan. Alternating image sequences of the old and new Rostock blend harmoniously with the music and show a proud, but also battered Hanseatic city, right up to the 750th anniversary with its national and international guests.

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Portrait of Interflug airline captain Günter Schneider.

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At a Bach concert, a letter is read aloud in which the legation council of the Federal Republic of Germany tries to poach the musicians of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Nicosia.

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The film’s subtitle identifies it as a “study of the constructive discontent of a composer”. It is a portrait of the pugnacious musician Paul Dessau (1894 – 1979), who was controversial in East Germany, as a teacher. It follows the composer as he rehearses the “Bach Variations” with the Berlin state opera orchestra, as well during classes at the Polytechnic School I in Zeuthen, where he strives to teach the students a critical attitude. In an interview, Dessau bemoans the simplification of artistic media and elucidates the meaning and necessity of “hard sounds in an era that is not soft”. As we see when he works, “pleasure requires effort” … “art is never comfortable. Building socialism is not comfortable at all. That’s why I’m in favour of the uncomfortable”.

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Documentary on Bernd Köhlert, a West German mercenary whose death in the Congo caused a sensation

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The epilogue to the film "The Laughing Man" (1966), which alternates between objectivity and anger, exposes the involvement of the West German mercenary Siegfried Müller in the war against the Congolese government Lumumba. In the sequel, new witnesses against Major Müller have their say, including a former school friend and a French paratrooper colonel. GDR lawyer Kaul reports on the status of the criminal proceedings against Müller, while the final images show the war criminal feeding the ducks in South Africa.

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The age group in a group portrait of the fifth grade. They make suggestions for filming at school, in their free time and at home. Growing challenges through the lessons that bring knowledge and new questions and broaden their horizons.

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In a reception camp for ethnic Germans in Eisenach, the director gets to know the girl Doris S. who went to West Germany and came back. This film interview tells the story of her individual fate in a divided Germany.

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The Belgian documentarian Frans Buyens interviewed passers-by in East Berlin and Dresden, factory workers and technical draftswomen at the Warnow shipyard in Stralsund, small business owners in Chemnitz, LPG farmers in the countryside, foreign students at the Gottfried Herder Institute in Leipzig and industrial workers in Magdeburg and Eisenhuettenstadt. "The GDR seen through the eyes of a foreigner" was the original title of the film. A few years after the Wall was built, Buyens documented the approval, disapproval and fears of the interviewees.

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A film about the Germany meeting at Pentecost 1964. It focuses on questions and answers from young Germans from East and West during a club discussion.

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A few days after the GDR built the Berlin Wall, West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer commented that this was "an infamous and brutal act against our brothers and sisters in the Zone." Director Walter Heynowski digs into this ubiquitous West German expression, using footage from West German newsreels and TV programs, and compares the life of "brothers and sisters" in East and West Germany. In this propagandistic documentary, the director juxtaposes images of class hierarchy and conflict in the West, with images of a flourishing East.

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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".

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