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Der Augenzeuge (The Eyewitness) was the newsreel in the Soviet Occupation Zone and in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and was produced by the state film company DEFA. It appeared with a length of 15 minutes from 19 February 1946 to 19 December 1980 (issue 52/1980).
All issues of Der Augenzeuge are made accessible and licensable as part of DEFA's entire film heritage via the PROGRESS archive platform. [1]
Newsreels had been released in Germany since 1914 and were regularly shown in cinemas before the main films.
After World War II, the National Socialist newsreel Die Deutsche Wochenschau produced by UFA was cancelled by the Grand Alliance and replaced by new newsreels in the three German occupation zones. The American and the British occupation zone produced Welt im Film , the French occupation zone Blick in die Welt and Soviet occupation zone Der Augenzeuge.
Der Augenzeuge was published bi-weekly in the beginning and weekly from August 1946. The newsreel was named by Marion Keller, the editor-in-chief from 1947 to 1948. [2]
From issue 12/1946 to issue 1/1949, every episode began with the campaign Kinder suchen ihre Eltern (Children seek their parents), which took up a suggestion by children's author and screenwriter Erich Kästner. Approximately 400 children were able to find their parents with their help. [3]
From the 13th issue onwards the motto Sie sehen selbst, Sie hören selbst, urteilen Sie selbst! (You see for yourself, you hear for yourself, judge for yourself!) devised by its first editor-in-chief Kurt Maetzig appeared at the top of each newsreel. With the founding of the GDR in October 1949, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) increasingly exerted its influence on reporting, the slogan was abolished and the newsreel was mainly used for SED propaganda. After the East German uprising of 1953, the editorial paternalism was reduced and Der Augenzeuge became more cosmopolitan again. [4]
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic, was a state that existed from 1949 to 1990, the period when the eastern portion of Germany was part of the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. Commonly described as a communist state in English usage, it described itself as a socialist "workers' and peasants' state". It consisted of territory that was administered and occupied by Soviet forces following the end of World War II—the Soviet occupation zone of the Potsdam Agreement, bounded on the east by the Oder–Neisse line. The Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin but did not include it and West Berlin remained outside the jurisdiction of the GDR.
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany, often known in English as the East German Communist Party, was the governing Marxist–Leninist political party of the German Democratic Republic from the country's foundation in October 1949 until its dissolution after the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. The party was established in April 1946 by the merging of the Communist Party of Germany and Social Democratic Party of Germany.
The Free German Youth, also known as the FDJ, is a youth movement in Germany. Formerly, it was the official youth movement of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Socialist Unity Party of Germany.
DEFA was the state-owned film studio of the German Democratic Republic throughout the country's existence.
Neues Deutschland is a German daily newspaper, currently headquartered in Berlin.
Kurt Maetzig was a German film director who had a significant effect on the film industry in East Germany. He was one of the most respected filmmakers of the GDR. After his retirement he lived in Wildkuhl, Mecklenburg, and had three children.
Wolfgang Leonhard was a German political author and historian of the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic and Communism. A German Communist whose family had fled Hitler's Germany and who was educated in the Soviet Union, after World War II Leonhard became one of the founders and leaders of the German Democratic Republic until he became disillusioned and fled in 1949, first defecting to Yugoslavia and then moving to West Germany in 1950 and later to the United Kingdom. In 1956 he moved to the United States, where he was a popular and influential professor at Yale University from 1966 to 1987, teaching the history of communism and the Soviet Union, topics about which he wrote several books. After the Cold War ended, he returned to Germany.
Trace of Stones is a 1966 East German film by Frank Beyer. It was based on the eponymous novel by Erik Neutsch and starred Manfred Krug in the main role. After its release, the film was shown only for a few days, before being shelved due to conflicts with the Socialist Unity Party, the ruling communist party in the German Democratic Republic. Only after 23 years was the film shown again, in November 1989.
Girls in Gingham —sometimes called Beaverskin—is a 1949 German drama film directed by Kurt Maetzig.
Das verurteilte Dorf is an East German propaganda film directed by Martin Hellberg. It was released in 1952. The film is about a man who returns from a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp to his home village in occupied West Germany and leads a resistance to the American military's plans to demolish the village to build an airfield. The film was commissioned to build East German opposition to the United States and support for the Soviet Union during the early Cold War.
The Democratic Bloc was an association of political parties and organizations in the GDR.
The Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) merged to form the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) on 21 April 1946 in the territory of the Soviet occupation zone. It is considered a forced merger. In the course of the merger, about 5,000 Social Democrats who opposed it were detained and sent to concentration camps and jails.
Walter Janka was a German communist, political activist and writer who became a publisher.
Lucie Pflug was a senior cultural official in the German Democratic Republic.
Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich was a German novelist and historian of the classical period. As a writer she concerned herself with two distinct cultures: that of Ancient Greece and that of the "North American Indians". As an East German academic she was an influential authority on Ancient Greece. Away from the university she wrote novels concerned with the North American Indians which became classics of East German children's literature.
Michael Tschesno-Hell was a screenwriter and cultural official of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik.
Michael Kann is a German film director and actor. He was born in Berlin, East Germany, on 13 January 1950.
Joachim Werzlau was a German pianist, radio consultant and composer. He belonged to the first generation of composers in the GDR, where he was also active in organisations and politics. As a pianist, he played for the theatre, for Mary Wigman's dance school, and a kabarett, among others. He composed popular songs, music for audio plays, film scores, incidental music, and three operas. With films such as Nackt unter Wölfen and Jakob der Lügner, he was the most popular film composer of the GDR of his time.
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