Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft
Encyclopedia
Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft, better known as DEFA, was the public-owned film studio in East Germany throughout that country's history.
zone of occupation in Germany as the first film production company
in post-War
Germany. While the other Allies
, in their zones of occupation, viewed a rapid revival of a German film industry with suspicion, the Soviets valued the medium as a primary means for re-educating the German populace as it emerged from twelve years of Nazi
rule and mindset.
Headquartered in Berlin
, the company was formally authorized by the Soviet Military Administration
to produce films on May 13, 1946, although Wolfgang Staudte
had already begun work on DEFA's first film, Die Mörder Sind Unter Uns (The Murderers Are Among Us) nine days earlier. The original company board of directors consisted of Alfred Lindemann, Karl Hans Bergmann and Herbert Volkmann, with Hans Klering
as administrative Secretary. Klering, a former graphic designer, also designed DEFA's logo. On August 13, 1946, the company was officially registered as a joint-stock company. By the end of the year, in addition to the Staudte film, it had completed two other feature film
s using the former Tobis studio facilities in Berlin and the Althoff Atelier in Babelsberg. Subsequently, its principal studio would become the one in Potsdam
originally built by Ufa in the 1920s.
On July 14, 1947, the company officially moved its headquarters to Potsdam and on 13 November 1947, the company "stock" was controlled by the Socialist Unity Party
or SED, which had originally capitalized DEFA, and pro-Soviet German individuals. Soviets Ilya Trauberg
and Aleksandr Wolkenstein joined Lindemann, Bergmann and Volkmann on the board of directors, and a committee was established under the auspices of the Socialist Unity Party to review projects and screen rushes
.
In July, 1948, Lindemann was dismissed from the board of directors because of alleged "financial irregularities" and replaced briefly by Walter Janka. In October, 1948, the SED was instrumental in replacing Janka, Volkmann and Bergmann as corporate directors with official party members Wilhelm Meissner, Alexander Lösche and Grete Keilson. In December, the death of Trauberg and the resignation of Wolkenstein resulted in two more Soviets in their stead, Aleksandr Andriyevsky and Leonid Antonov.
In the meantime, throughout 1948 the separation of directions for Germany between the Soviet zone and the zones controlled by the other Allies blossomed. The SED eventually determined to become openly Communist
and, even more so, Stalinist. On May 23, 1949, the Allies' Germany became officially the Federal Republic of Germany
, popularly known as West Germany, and on October 7, 1949, the Soviet zone became the official country, the German Democratic Republic
, popularly known as East Germany. All DEFA interests were now incorporated into this new nation as its "people's" film monopoly according to the strictures of Stalinist Communism and socialist realism
, and effectively an arm of the government. On June 23, 1950, Sepp Schwab, a hardline Communist, was appointed director-general of DEFA.
As the Soviet-Communist-Stalinist influences more and more infected DEFA, the definition of desirable and acceptable themes for films became more and more narrow. Even as early as June, 1947, a film writer's conference held in Potsdam produced general agreement that the "new" German film needed to disavow and avoid both subject and stylistic considerations reminiscent of those common during, and before, Nazi rule on German screens. By 1949, expectations for scripts were codified around a small number of topics such as "[re-]distribution of land" or "the two-year plan". As in the Soviet Union, the excessive control placed by the state on authors of screenplays, as against other literary works, put off many competent writers entirely from contributing to East German film, while others found their efforts rejected for ideological reasons at any stage in script development, if not from the outset. As a result, between 1948 and 1953, when Stalin died, the entire film output for East Germany, excluding newsreels and non-theatrical educational films, amounted to fewer than 50 titles.
In the 1960s, DEFA produced the popular Red Western
The Sons of the Great Mother Bear, directed by Josef Mach
and starring Gojko Mitić
as the Sioux
Tokei-itho. This spawned a number of sequels and was notable for inverting Western-cliches by portraying the native American
s as the "good guys", and the American army as the "baddies".
In 1992, after German reunification, DEFA was officially dissolved and its combined studios sold to a French
conglomerate, Compagnie Générale des Eaux
, later Vivendi Universal. In 2004, a private consortium acquired the studios. The films produced at the DEFA studios after World War II included approximately 950 feature films, 820 animated films, more than 5,800 documentaries and newsreels, 4000 German synchronisations of foreign language movies, which were acquired by the privatized version of the former East German film distribution monopoly, Progress Film-Verleih GmbH.
DEFA films are now enjoying a revival in Germany and the United States: in October 2005 the Museum of Modern Art
in New York City hosted a two-week DEFA festival, and several titles are now commercially available on DVD from US distributor First Run Features
(see link below).
Today the PROGRESS Film-Verleih is the distributor for all DEFA-Movies for Television and Cinema. Icestorm Entertainment is the exclusive distributor for release for Video
and DVD
. DEFA films can be rented or purchased from the DEFA Film Library at the University of Massachusetts and many titles in NTSC format are now available on DVD from US distributor First Run Features
(see links below).
History
DEFA was founded in the Spring of 1946 in the SovietSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
zone of occupation in Germany as the first film production company
Production company
A production company provides the physical basis for works in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, and video.- Tasks and functions :...
in post-War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Germany. While the other Allies
Allies
In everyday English usage, allies are people, groups, or nations that have joined together in an association for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out between them...
, in their zones of occupation, viewed a rapid revival of a German film industry with suspicion, the Soviets valued the medium as a primary means for re-educating the German populace as it emerged from twelve years of Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
rule and mindset.
Headquartered in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, the company was formally authorized by the Soviet Military Administration
Soviet Military Administration in Germany
The Soviet Military Administration in Germany was the Soviet military government, headquartered in Berlin-Karlshorst, that directly ruled the Soviet occupation zone of Germany from the German surrender in May 1945 until after the establishment of the German Democratic Republic in October...
to produce films on May 13, 1946, although Wolfgang Staudte
Wolfgang Staudte
Wolfgang Staudte , born Georg Friedrich Staudte, was a German film director, script writer and actor. He was born in Saarbrücken....
had already begun work on DEFA's first film, Die Mörder Sind Unter Uns (The Murderers Are Among Us) nine days earlier. The original company board of directors consisted of Alfred Lindemann, Karl Hans Bergmann and Herbert Volkmann, with Hans Klering
Hans Klering
Hans Klering was a German actor, director, voice actor, graphic designer and author. He joined the Communist Party and went into exile in the Soviet Union in 1931, returning to Germany in 1945...
as administrative Secretary. Klering, a former graphic designer, also designed DEFA's logo. On August 13, 1946, the company was officially registered as a joint-stock company. By the end of the year, in addition to the Staudte film, it had completed two other feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
s using the former Tobis studio facilities in Berlin and the Althoff Atelier in Babelsberg. Subsequently, its principal studio would become the one in Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
originally built by Ufa in the 1920s.
On July 14, 1947, the company officially moved its headquarters to Potsdam and on 13 November 1947, the company "stock" was controlled by the Socialist Unity Party
Socialist Unity Party of Germany
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the governing party of the German Democratic Republic from its formation on 7 October 1949 until the elections of March 1990. The SED was a communist political party with a Marxist-Leninist ideology...
or SED, which had originally capitalized DEFA, and pro-Soviet German individuals. Soviets Ilya Trauberg
Ilya Trauberg
Ilya Trauberg was an Russian director born in Odessa on December 13, 1905 who died in Berlin on December 18, 1948.- Director :* 1927 : Léningrad aujourd'hui - Documentaire...
and Aleksandr Wolkenstein joined Lindemann, Bergmann and Volkmann on the board of directors, and a committee was established under the auspices of the Socialist Unity Party to review projects and screen rushes
Dailies
Dailies, in filmmaking, are the raw, unedited footage shot during the making of a motion picture. They are so called because usually at the end of each day, that day's footage is developed, synched to sound, and printed on film in a batch for viewing the next day by the director and some members...
.
In July, 1948, Lindemann was dismissed from the board of directors because of alleged "financial irregularities" and replaced briefly by Walter Janka. In October, 1948, the SED was instrumental in replacing Janka, Volkmann and Bergmann as corporate directors with official party members Wilhelm Meissner, Alexander Lösche and Grete Keilson. In December, the death of Trauberg and the resignation of Wolkenstein resulted in two more Soviets in their stead, Aleksandr Andriyevsky and Leonid Antonov.
In the meantime, throughout 1948 the separation of directions for Germany between the Soviet zone and the zones controlled by the other Allies blossomed. The SED eventually determined to become openly Communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
and, even more so, Stalinist. On May 23, 1949, the Allies' Germany became officially the Federal Republic of Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
, popularly known as West Germany, and on October 7, 1949, the Soviet zone became the official country, the German Democratic Republic
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
, popularly known as East Germany. All DEFA interests were now incorporated into this new nation as its "people's" film monopoly according to the strictures of Stalinist Communism and socialist realism
Socialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of realistic art which was developed in the Soviet Union and became a dominant style in other communist countries. Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style having its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism...
, and effectively an arm of the government. On June 23, 1950, Sepp Schwab, a hardline Communist, was appointed director-general of DEFA.
As the Soviet-Communist-Stalinist influences more and more infected DEFA, the definition of desirable and acceptable themes for films became more and more narrow. Even as early as June, 1947, a film writer's conference held in Potsdam produced general agreement that the "new" German film needed to disavow and avoid both subject and stylistic considerations reminiscent of those common during, and before, Nazi rule on German screens. By 1949, expectations for scripts were codified around a small number of topics such as "[re-]distribution of land" or "the two-year plan". As in the Soviet Union, the excessive control placed by the state on authors of screenplays, as against other literary works, put off many competent writers entirely from contributing to East German film, while others found their efforts rejected for ideological reasons at any stage in script development, if not from the outset. As a result, between 1948 and 1953, when Stalin died, the entire film output for East Germany, excluding newsreels and non-theatrical educational films, amounted to fewer than 50 titles.
In the 1960s, DEFA produced the popular Red Western
Ostern
The Ostern or Red Western was the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries' take on the Western.It generally took two forms:...
The Sons of the Great Mother Bear, directed by Josef Mach
Josef Mach
Josef Mach was a Czech actor, screenwriter and film director.Josef Mach worked as a journalist and stage performer at the beginning of his career, then in 1938 was appointed assistant director of short films at Grafo Film Studio working with director Václav Kubásek...
and starring Gojko Mitić
Gojko Mitic
Gojko Mitić is a Serbian director, actor, stuntman, and author. He lives in Berlin....
as the Sioux
Sioux
The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
Tokei-itho. This spawned a number of sequels and was notable for inverting Western-cliches by portraying the native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
s as the "good guys", and the American army as the "baddies".
In 1992, after German reunification, DEFA was officially dissolved and its combined studios sold to a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
conglomerate, Compagnie Générale des Eaux
Compagnie Générale des Eaux
Compagnie Générale des Eaux was a French multinational company which gave birth to three world's leaders in their respective fields: VINCI, Veolia Environnement and Vivendi....
, later Vivendi Universal. In 2004, a private consortium acquired the studios. The films produced at the DEFA studios after World War II included approximately 950 feature films, 820 animated films, more than 5,800 documentaries and newsreels, 4000 German synchronisations of foreign language movies, which were acquired by the privatized version of the former East German film distribution monopoly, Progress Film-Verleih GmbH.
DEFA films are now enjoying a revival in Germany and the United States: in October 2005 the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
in New York City hosted a two-week DEFA festival, and several titles are now commercially available on DVD from US distributor First Run Features
First Run Features
First Run Features is an independent film distribution company based in New York City. First Run was founded in 1979 by a group of filmmakers in order to advance the distribution of independent film...
(see link below).
DEFA Film studios
- DEFA-Studio für Spielfilme in PotsdamPotsdamPotsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
-Babelsberg - DEFA-Studio für Trickfilme in DresdenDresdenDresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
- DEFA-Studio für populärwissenschaftliche Filme in Potsdam, Alt-Nowawes
- DEFA-Studio für Wochenschau und Dokumentarfilme in BerlinBerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
- DEFA-Studio für Synchronisation in Berlin-Johannisthal
- DEFA-Kopierwerke in Berlin-Köpenick and Berlin-Johannisthal
- DEFA-Außenhandel in Berlin
Today the PROGRESS Film-Verleih is the distributor for all DEFA-Movies for Television and Cinema. Icestorm Entertainment is the exclusive distributor for release for Video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
and DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
. DEFA films can be rented or purchased from the DEFA Film Library at the University of Massachusetts and many titles in NTSC format are now available on DVD from US distributor First Run Features
First Run Features
First Run Features is an independent film distribution company based in New York City. First Run was founded in 1979 by a group of filmmakers in order to advance the distribution of independent film...
(see links below).
See also
- Broadcasting in East GermanyBroadcasting in East GermanyRundfunk der DDR was the radio broadcasting organisation for the German Democratic Republic from 1952 until German reunification...
- Culture of East Germany
- DEFA Film LibraryDefa film libraryDEFA Film Library is situated at University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA, the library offers a wide range on English subtitled movies of the former GDR, East Germany. Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft, better known as DEFA, was the public-owned film studio in the East Germany throughout that...
Books
- Allan, Sean Allan & Sandford, John, (eds.) DEFA: East German Cinema, 1946-1992. New York and Oxford, Berghahn Books, 1999
- Bergfelder, Tim; Carter, Erica & Goektuerk, Deniz, (eds.) The German Cinema Book. Berkeley: BFI/University of California Press. 2003.
- Berghahn, Daniela. Hollywood behind the Wall: the Cinema of East Germany. Manchester: Manchester University PressManchester University PressManchester University Press is the university press of the University of Manchester, England and a publisher of academic books and journals. Manchester University Press has developed into an international publisher...
, 2005 - Beyer, Frank. Wenn der Wind sich dreht. Econ. 2001.
- Elsaesser, Thomas & Wedel, Michael. The BFI Companion to German Cinema. London: British Film Institute, 1999.
- Gregor, Ulrich. Geschichte des Films ab 1960. Rowohlt. 1983.
- Habel, F.-B. Das grosse Lexikon der DEFA-Spielfilme, Berlin: Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, 2000
- Hake, Sabine. German National Cinema. New York. Routledge. 2002.
- Jacobsen, Wolfgang [Ed.] and Kaes, Anton [Ed.] and Prinzler, Hans Helmut [Ed.]. Geschichte des Deutschen Films. J. B. Metzler Verlag. 1993.
- Knietzsch, Horst. Film: Gestern und Heute. Urania-Verlag. 1967.
- Knietzsch, Horst [Ed.]. Prisma: Kino- und Fernseh-Almanach 17. Henschelverlag. 1987.
- Manvell, RogerRoger ManvellRoger Arnold Manvell was the first director of the British Film Academy , author of many books on films and film-making, and authored and co-authored many books on Nazi Germany, including biographies of Adolf Hitler, Rudolf Hess, Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Göring...
& Fraenkel, Heinrich. The German Cinema. Dent & Sons. London. 1971. - Naughton, Leonie. That Was the Wild East: Film Culture, Unification, and the `New´ Germany. Ann Arbor. 2002.
- Pflaum, Hans Günther, & Prinzler, Hans Helmut. Cinema in the Federal Republic of Germany. Bonn: Inter Nationes. 1993.
- Schenk, Ralf & Richter, Erika (eds.) apropos: Film 2001 Das Jahrbuch der DEFA-Stiftung. Das Neue Berlin. 2001.
- Schittly, Dagmar. Zwischen Regie und Regime: die Filmpolitik der SED im Spiegel der DEFA-Produktionen. Berlin. 2002.