Between Magic and Education – first fairy tale films in the GDR

Christin Niemeyer
ATER University of Caen (France)
Between Magic and Education – first fairy tale films in the GDR
1) First reflections on East German children's films in general and fairy tale film production
in particular.
In the context of the re-education of the German population after the Second World War, the Soviet
Military Administration encouraged, from 1945 onwards, the instauration of a German cinema,
which would of course be under soviet control and unambiguously socialistic. In his speech on the
occasion of the licensing of the DEFA (“Deutsche Film AG”) in 1946, general Toulpanov
underlined this educational function of an East German film production. 1 Soon, this educational
approach also led to a particular interest in film production for children. In 1952 the « Verordnung
über die Bildung des Staatlichen Komitees für Filmwesen » (Ordinance regarding the creation of a
state-run committee for films) confirmed this particular concern by creating a studio that was
dedicated to producing films exclusively for children. Soon one genre turned out to be very
important for this studio: the fairy tale film.
However, socialism invented neither cinema nor fairy tale films. The origins of the latter can be
traced back to two processes which marked the nineteenth century: the increasing importance of
illustration in books which provoked and coincided with the transformation of the media landscape
which led, eventually, to the invention of motion pictures in 1895. 2 At the beginning of the twentieth
century, the film inherited and overtook the long discussions about the difficult relationship between
the word and the image – a discussion which was rapidly transferred to cinematographic adaptations
of fairy tales. In this context, fairy tale films were originally rejected by many theoreticians. Their
principal argument against the transposition of literary fairy tales to motion pictures was rooted in a
certain fear that “the film might damage the fairy tale in its oral or written form”.3
Nevertheless, fairy tale-films rank among the first and the most successful genres of early cinema
since 1895, especially those created by the French director Georges Méliès. The titles of his short
1
BUFFET Cyril, Défunte DEFA: Histoire de l’autre cinéma allemand. , Edition du cerf, 2007 p. 20
LIPTAY Fabienne, WunderWelten. Märchen im Film, In: «Filmstudien Band 26»Ed. by Thomas Koebner, Gardez!Verlag, 2004, p. 26/27
3
LIPTAY, p. 27/28: original quotation, all translations made by the author: “Unterschwellig wird die Kritik am
Märchenfilm von der Befürchtung genährt, der Film könne dem Märchen in seiner schriftlich oder mündlich
überlieferten Form schaden.”
2
1
films were, among others, Cendrillon (1899, Cinderella), Le petit chaperon rouge (1901, Litte Red
Riding Hood) et Le royaume des fées (1903, A Kingdom of fairies). Initially, these films were
produced for a heterogeneous audience without any distinction between adults and children. The
first veritable fairy tale film for children did not appear until the nineteen-twenties .
In Germany, the production of films for children started in the nineteen-thirties. Their topics were
almost exclusively based on fairy tale stories and nearly all of them were characterized by a partial,
and often very moralistic or even preachy point of view.4 The first grand classique of fairy tale
films- La Belle et la Bête (1946, Beauty and the Beast) by Jean Cocteau for example, and also the
first films produced at the DEFA-studios- did not appear until 1945.
After World War II in the Soviet zone of occupation, the popular discourse about the values of
literary fairy tales – as a genre which was widely appreciated by the National socialist cultural
policy – also influenced the orientation of the young East German cinema. At this time, the success
of this genre (in comparison to other types of films shot in the GDR) was far from foreseeable.
Even if Walter Beck, director of a great number of fairy tale films in the GDR, does not remember
any official reservation against fairy tale films5 in relation to East German cultural policy, it is a
matter of fact that the genre did not find immediate appreciation amongst the political leadership or
amongst the East German ethnologists or literary scholars. On the contrary, as Katrin Pöge-Alden
shows in her study about fairy tale reception in Germany, there were many arguments against the
ethnological researches about fairy tale stories and the creation of a distinct branch of research on
this topic. Ilse Korn, an East German librarian, teller of fairy tales and employee of the GDR
ministry of culture, outlines in 1952 four principal arguments against the reintroduction of fairy
tales into the East German cultural scene. First of all, fairy tale stories – due to their origins within
4
LIPTAY, p. 14. One of the most famous producers of German children's films in the nineteen-thirties was Alf
Zengerling. After World War II, his work was continued by Hubert Schonger and Fritz Genschow. The work of these
three producers of early German fairy tales films is nowadays considered far too moralistic and even augural to the
Nazi ideology and its recourse to fairy tale tradition. In this context, it is interesting to consult the writings of Ron
Schlesinger, mostly published on the Internet. See his analysis on propagandistic deformation of fairy tales in the films
of Zengerlein and Genschow: SCHLESINGER Ron, « Heil dem gestiefelten Kater! » - NS-Propaganda in
Märchenfilmen zwischen 1933 und 1945. on the Internet: http://leviathan0712.posterous.com/heil-dem-gestiefeltenkater-ns-propaganda-in (consulted on 17/08/2011)
5
BECK Walter, Zur Geschichte des DEFA-Märchenspielfilms für Kinder. In: Hören, Lesen, Sehen, Spüren.
Märchenrezeption im europäischen Vergleich. Ed. by Regina Bendix and Ulrich Marzolph. Schriftenreihe
RINGVORLESUNGEN der Märchenstiftung Walter Kahn, Bd. 8, Baltmannsweiler: Schneider, 2008, p. 186 : “In einer
westfälischen Zeitung liest man […]: 'Man wäre in kulturpolitischen DDR-Kreisen sehr froh gewesen, wenn das
Märchen abgeschafft worden wäre. Das bunte Kind der Volksphilosophie brachte nur Ärger.' Derlei ist völlig verfehlt
und gehört zu den abträglichen «Legenden » über jene Zeit. Ich erinnere keine solche [Haltung – note of the author]
und ich konnte in den vorhandenen Belegen nirgends eine solche aufspüren.“ Here, Walter Beck quotes a Westphalien
newspaper which affirms that the political leadership of the GDR would have liked to see the fairy tales disappear
« because this variegated child of popular philosophy » would have caused nothing but trouble. Walter Beck, director
of seven DEFA-fairy tales, disapproves of this statement which he considers « historically incorrect » as the documents
in the Federal archives would prove. Yet, recent well-documented researches such as that of Kathrin PÖGE-ALDER as
well as various documents which I found myself in the Federal Archives (BArch DR 117 ) prove him wrong.
2
unprogressive periods of history – would not have any positive influence on the present of a
socialistic country and would even be harmful in view of the development of a democratic pacifism.
In a second argument they were criticised for their utopian and illusionist tendency and for not
being anchored very firmly in reality. Therefore, they would be able to distract the attention of the
reader from the needs, duties and responsibilities of reality. Furthermore, due to the excess of
violence of fairy tale story lines, the moral value of these tales should be questioned. In this context,
the authors remind us that we should not forget that it was precisely these kinds of stories which
contributed to German chauvinism and militarism, which finally led to the outbreak and
implementation of fascist ideology. A fourth and final argument reinforced the latter as it
highlighted the archaic language of fairy tales, and as such, they could hardly be recommended for
teaching German language and being studied in school.6
It in fact took some time to dissipate the widespread opinion that fairy tales would be “one of the
sources of fascist 'Ungeist'”.7 If these arguments often illustrated a certain ignorance of the genre,
the majority alluded to the manipulation of fairy tales by the Nazi regime and their integration to the
national-socialist ideology as propagated by authors like Edmund Mudrak and Karl von Spieß.8
From the nineteen-fifties many ethnologists and other intellectuals started to fight against these
prejudices. This was the case of Wolfgang Steinitz who can be considered the pioneer of the East
German ethnology and whose articles accomplish a turning point in the common opinion about
fairy tales. In his article in Neues Deutschland (16th and 17th November 1951), which was the
mouthpiece of the unique party SED, Steinitz argues for the incorporation of fairy tales into the
“national cultural heritage” (“nationales Kulturerbe”) and criticises the widespread negative
attitude towards fairy tales as a deficiency in the commitment for the labour movement
(“Arbeiterbewegung”) and the insufficiency of knowledge about the history and the structure of
fairy tales.9 Another factor which influenced the reintegration of fairy tales into the “national
heritage” has to be seen in the reception of the very active research on Russian folklore in general
and fairy tales in particular in the Soviet Union. The most famous publications were written by
Vladimir Propp.10 As all too often, the example of the “big socialist brother” was also the beginning
6
Quoted according to: PÖGE-ALDER Kathrin, Märchen als mündlich tradierte Erzählungen des Volkes. Zur
Wissenschaftsgeschichte der Entstehungs- und Verbreitungstheorien von Volksmärchen von den Brüdern Grimm bis zur
Märchenforschung in der DDR, Peter Lang, 1994, p. 195. PÖGE-ALDER refers to an article in the East German
journal Der Bibliothekar: KORN Ilse, Zum deutschen Volksmärchen. Eine Anregung zur Diskussion. In: Der
Bibliothekar, H. 7/8 (1952), p. 438/439
7
WALLESCH Friedel, Sozialistische Kinder- und Jugendliteratur der DDR, Berlin (Est), 1977 (Schriftsteller der
Gegenwart ; 25), p. 24
8
VON SPIEß Karl ; MUDRAK Edmund, Deutsche Märchen – deutsche Welt. Berlin 1939
9
STEINITZ Wolfgang, Die deutsche Volksdichtung – ein wichtiger Teil des nationalen Kulturerbes. In: Neues
Deutschland, 16th and 17th of November 1951
10
PÖGE-ALDER, Märchen, p. 197 ; cf. PROPP Vladimir, Morphologie du conte. Paris: Seuil, 1965
3
of a paradigm shift in the GDR.
In the following years up to 1970 the official attitude towards fairy tales was determined by the
works of Steinitz who demanded that these stories be considered as national heritage so that the
working class of the GDR could know and appreciate them.11 And indeed, all these efforts reaped
the benefits: On the eigth congress of the SED in 1971, Steinitz's assertions were even accentuated
in a very socialistic way: as literary creation they now seemed to be a real testimonial of people's
lives and struggles during the last centuries. They would even give a voice to people's social
aspirations for a better world. As we can read in the following citation of quotation from 1979 by
the ethnologist and specialist in German studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin Waltraud
Woeller, the research and the propagation of fairy tales now becomes a priority for the research on
life and culture of the working class :
Die marxistisch-leninistische Märchenforschung sieht in den Märchen Zeugnisse
des dichterischen Gestaltens des werktätigen Volkes und den Ausdruck seiner
sozialen Hoffnungen. Sie ordnet es in den grösseren Zusammenhang der
Erforschung von Lebensweise und Kultur der werktätigen Klassen und Schichten
ein.12
No sooner had it been agreed that fairy tales had a very positive influence on a child's development
in the socialistic sense ; did they become an inherent part of the “national cultural heritage”. And in
this context, it was all too natural that this new attitude interfered with the development of the new
East German cinema. In fact, two of the first films which saw great success were adaptations of
literary fairy tales Das kalte Herz (The Cold Heart, 1950) by Paul Verhoeven and Die Geschichte
vom kleinen Muck (The Story of Little Muck, 1953) by Wolfgang Staudte.13 By now and as a
consequence of these first successes, fairy tale films played a large part in the East German film
production. Nevertheless, with former discussions in mind, the official political requirement obliged
the film crews to make sure that the script brought to light the historical context of the fairy tale in
question in order to give a “progressive interpretation”14 to the cinematographic adaptation.
Furthermore, in reality, there was no fairy tale film shown in East German cinemas whose script
had not been revised or rewritten in this sense. These interpreted versions served the socialistic
11
cf. STEINITZ Wolfgang, Deutsche Volkslieder demokratischen Charakters aus sechs Jahrhunderten. Bd. 2,
Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1954 et 1962, as quoted in PÖGE-ALDER, Märchen, p. 199
12
WOELLER Waltraud, Märchen. In: Deutsche Volksdichtung, 2nd edition Leipzig, 1987, p. 127
13
In general, The Story of little Muck and The Cold heart are cited amongst the first DEFA-Films. Yet, they were
produced and distributed without any specific target audience in mind and thus cannot be considered fairy tale films for
children. If we discuss them in this very particular context of fairy tale films, it is because of the impulse that their
immense success gave to this young genre and their importance for the East German cinema in general. This importance
is illustrated, inter alia, by the great number of reviews about them, which all outline the notoriety of their directors
(Wolfgange Staudte / Paul Verhoeven) and their extraordinary quality. As a matter of fact, they figure among masterpieces of German cinema just like Murderers among us (Staudte, 1946, Die Mörder sind unter uns).
14
REIMANN, p. 50
4
identity and ideology because they “transmitted the historical lessons of the present time to young
people” and helped “to educate in becoming to become fully-fledged socialists”. 15 From now on,
any production of fairy tale films was checked in reference to its “pedagogical and ideological
content”16 The official policy now argued for fairy tales' qualities and their capacity to open
children's eyes to a bright future in socialistic form and, at the same time, cherish the common past
narrated by these tales. Some more or less precise directives concerning the realization of a valuable
socialistic interpretation of fairy tales were fixed during the nineteen-fifties. In 1955 Werner
Hortzschansky, then director of the GDR's Zentralinstitut für Lehrmittel (Central Institute of
pedagogy), outlines them in the official East German film-journal Deutsche Filmkunst :
Soweit es dem Charakter des Märchenstoffes entspricht, sind die in ihm behandelten gesellschaftlichen
Konflikte realistisch zu gestalten und die kritischen Momente, die die Einstellung der einfachen
Menschen zu den bedrückenden Verhältnissen ihrer Zeit widerspiegeln, zu unterstreichen. So wird im
Märchenfilm der Widerstand der breiten Volksmassen gegen die Herrschaftssysteme und das Sehnen der
Unterdrückten nach einer besseren, lichteren Zukunft deutlich.17
Later in this text, Hortzschansky reaffirms that soviet adaptations of fairy tales continue to serve as
models for any socialistic fairy tale-film; outlining and praising their “profound humanism and their
remarkable abundance of folklore”18.
So it was in the nineteen-fifties that the foundations for the rich fairy tale-film production of the
DEFA studios were laid. During the forty years of existence of the GDR, these films figured
amongst the most important genre of East German cinematography and are, even nowadays, often
quoted as DEFA films of high quality. 19 Though, they also can be considered a reflection of the
political development and the social changing at a particular moment of the GDR's history. Over
the years and depending on the particular political and cultural situation,
their “progressive
15
REIMANN, p. 50
KÖNIG, WIEDEMANN, WOLF: DEFA-Märchen – Arbeiten mit Kinderfilmen, KOPÄD: München, 1998, p. 12
17
HORTZSCHANSKY Werner, Das Märchen im Film. In : Deutsche Filmkunst Beilage 5/1955, p. 19. The author aims
to emphasize the social conflicts and the critical aspects in fairy tale films , especially every reflection of the calamity of
the upper classes, which is an integral part of a fairy tale. However, this has to be done without compromising its intial
character. He conludes that in this perspective, fairy tale films could reveal the resistance of the people against
oppressive regimes and the yearning of the oppressed for a better and brighter future.
18
REIMANN, p. 50. Nevertheless, when comparing the Soviet and the East German fairy tale films of this and of later
periods, many differences can be mentioned, in the setting as well as in the general approach. While the Soviet
productions accentuate the Russian folklore (folkloric songs, references on famous fairy tale characters like the witch
Baba Yaga as well as Ded Moroz or Father Frost, an equivalent to Santa Claus in Russian folklore) East German fairy
tale films develop – especially during the nineteen-sixties and seventies – in the direction of a minimalistic setting or
remain rather classical. However, there is hardly any folkloric element, neither songs nor traditional costumes, to be
found in them.
19
Even today, twenty years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, East German fairy tale films are often broadcast on German
TV, especially during Christmas holidays. The most famous of them, like Die Geschichte vom kleinen Muck and Drei
Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel (Three Chestnuts for Cinderella, 1973) still assure a high viewing rate. This continued
success story recently spawned some imitators: Since 2008, the public broadcast stations of the ARD have begun to
produce new adaptations of classic fairy tales (most of them based on the writings of the Grimm Brothers) under t he
label “Sechs auf einen Streich” (Six on one stroke) and continue this series in 2009 and 2010-2011.
16
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interpretation” (the character, style, the obviousness of their socialistic message) varied
considerably. Therefore, the particularities of initial fairy tale productions during these years of
“construction of socialism”, the general policy of the nineteen-fifties, cannot be converted directly
to any other period of the GDR's history. For any analysis of films of the following decades it is just
as important to take into consideration the particular political and social context as it was for the
previous and the upcoming period. In this perspective, the relatively small number of fairy tale
films of the DEFA20 enables us not only to analyse them in an extensive manner, but also to
examine the shifts and the continuities of the close interrelation between the GDR's politics, history,
society and art by way of one particular genre of the East German cinema.
2) The large scope of realization in the nineteen-fifties and the political implications of these
productions
The first fairy tale films of the DEFA were Das kalte Herz (The Cold heart, 1950) by Paul
Verhoeven and Die Geschichte vom kleinen Muck (The Story of Little Muck, 1953) by Wolfgang
Staudte. While neither of them had been produced expressively for children they were considered
vanguard for their genre by reason of their “progressive interpretation” and their “artistic
realization”21. In reality, the plot of the literary fairy tale of Little Muck (by Wilhelm Hauff, 1826)
was subject to a certain number of modifications in order to reinforce the social aspects and
problems of this tale for the cinema version.22 The Frame Narrative presents the problems with
which a person – in our case, an old malformed man – can be faced confronted by a collective of
persons. In the beginning of Staudte's film, this old malformed man is persecuted by a gaggle of
children who mock and insult him precisely for his malformation. In the end, the old man manages
to find a place where the children can not approach him and starts to tell them the story of his life:
the story of young Muck who had once saved the country from harm. By sharing the memories of
his past with the children, Muck gains their respect and manages at last to be accepted by the
20
According to the way of counting and the classification, between 39 and 130 fairy tale films were produced between
1950 and 1990. In his essay on the DEFA fairy tale studios, Walter Beck mentions “39 classical fairy tale films” (cf.
BECK, Geschichte des DEFA-Märchenspielfilms für Kinder, p. 185); in another recent publication Joachim Giera counts
130 DEFA-fairy tales. cf. GIERA Joachim, Vom Kohlenmunk-Peter, dem kleinen Muck und seinen Leuten.
Märchenfilme aus den DEFA-Filmstudios. In: Die Kunst des Erzählens. Festischrift für Walter Scherf. ed. by Gerndt,
Helge; Kristin Wardetzki. Potsdam: Verlag für Berlin-Brandenbhurg, 2002, p. 293. It is more likely that Walter Beck's
counting is right, especially by limiting the quantity to classical adaptations of fairy tales and excluding modern fairy
tale films.
21
HÄNTZSCHE Hellmuth, Die Entwicklung einer sozialistischen deutschen Kinderfilmproduktion – künstlerische
Prinzipien und Tendenzen. In: „Und ich grüsse die Schwalben: der Kinderfilm in europäischen sozialistischen
Ländern“, éd. par Hellmuth Häntzsche. Berlin (East), 1985, p. 253
22
REIMANN, p. 51
6
collective from which he was once excluded. The orchestration of young Muck's adventures covers
the major part of the film and criticises by means of satire the despotism of the sultan's court, a
critique that can be understood as a general social critique of monarchic or other elitist regimes.23
Nevertheless, the slight signs of ideology in Der kleine Muck are barely noticeable and largely stick
to the original storyline, which is not the case with all DEFA fairy tale films of this period. Das
tapfere Schneiderlein (Helmut Spiess, 1956, The brave little tailor) for instance, presents quite a
different approach: The pictures and patterns of this film are unwieldy interfused by their socialistic
message. The young tailor of this production is so affected by the socialist habitus that, at the end,
he chases away all the members of the royal court who tried to betray him. As a corollary of this, he
of course will not marry the princess but the maidservant who had helped him faithfully since his
arrival at the court. And as tailor and maidservant, capped by the typical headpieces of their
profession instead of a crown, they will sit down on the throne and found a new, popular kingdom.
The socialist implication in this film is particularly evident and goes too far even for Marxist critics,
to such an extent that one of them wondered ironically if the Grimm Brothers themselves had had a
Marxist education.24 Having consulted the archive-documents concerning this film in the
Bundesarchiv in Berlin Lichterfelde we discovered that these modifications of the plot of the
literary fairy tale were the product of long discussions before the beginning of the production: the
initial scenario had to suffer various modifications and extensive cuts due to the official objective of
emphasizing the socialist message and the “progressive interpretation”.25
The opposite approach can be observed in Francesco Stefani's Das singende klingende Bäumchen
(Francesco Stefani, 1957, The Singing ringing tree). This production is most probably one of the
most popular fairy tale films ever shown in East German cinemas and on the GDR Television. With
its abundance of marvellous images to recreate a veritable fairy tale atmosphere (the transformation
of the princess is only one of the most impressive examples) the film seemed to correspond
23
REIMANN, p. 52
KNIETSCH Horst, Die seltsame Mär vom Schneiderlein. Dans : „Neues Deutschland“, 3.10.1956.
Original quotation:“Was wir bisher noch nicht wussten, Drehbuchautor Kurt Bortfeldt und Regisseur Dr.
Helmut Spiess demonstrierten es in ihrem Farbfilm ‚Das tapfere Schneiderlein’: die Märchenbrüder Grimm waren
geschulte Marxisten. [...] Die Schöpfer des Films haben alle Märchenfiguren klassenmäßig grob rubriziert. […] Die
besten Kinder- und Hausmärchen, und dazu gehört auch ‘Das tapfere Schneiderlein’ sind erfüllt von humanistischen
und demokratischen Ideen, die keiner gewaltsamen Bearbeitung bedürfen.”
25
cf. BArch DR 117 32349 et DR 117 26308 (T1 /4): Here is one example to illustrate this: In the first original scenario
written by Peter Podehl and abandoned afterwards, it was planned that the tailor should marry the princess at the end of
the film. In fact, this ending corresponds to the plot of the literary tale. However, in an expertise dated on 26th of April
1955 and presented by the Produktionsgruppe Jugend- und Kinderfilm this ending was harshly criticized, because it
would “cover the clearness of the critic on the feudalistic social order” which is clearly evident in the rest of the plot
(original quotation: “verwischend für die Eindeutigkeit der Kritik an der feudalistischen Gesellschaftsordnung”).
Quoted according to: BArch DR 117 26308, 1/4. Later, the character of Traute is introduced. In the end of the final
version, it is Traute, maidservant at the court and the tailor's faithful friend during his adventures, who will marry the
protagonist and together they create a new « popular » kingdom, while the mean princess and the entire court are chased
away.
24
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perfectly to the children's imaginary world. However, the GDR critics did not share this opinion and
accused it of transmitting first and foremost a “bourgeois idyll” and of not giving enough points of
reference for children's imagination, who – in accordance to the official policy – have to be
prepared for integration into the socialistic community.26 Moreover in 1985 Hellmuth Häntzsche
summarises the crux with Das singende klingende Bäumchen in these words:
Bei ‚Das singende klingende Bäumchen’ lag es daran, dass keine sozialistisch realistische
Interpretation vorhanden war. Man verlor sich in eine idealistische Konzeption…27
But as previously mentioned, these critics never stopped the national – and even international –
success of this film.
A third example to illustrate the diversity of DEFA productions in the nineteen-fifties would be Die
Geschichte vom armen Hassan (Klein, 1958, The Story of poor Hassan). Its scenario represents the
interesting experiment of applying Brecht's theory of popular theatre on a fairy tale film. However,
this attempt did not prove successful and remained without any influence on the further evolution of
DEFA fairy tales. The Uigur tale has been realized as a parable – a genre which was particularly
appreciated by Bertolt Brecht28. The poor servant Hassan, who at the beginning of the film was
completely obedient to his condition on the bottom of the capitalist society, which he was born in
and exploited by his master, discovers by means of an increasing exploitation and by suffering of
more and more cruelty of the latter, that richness and poorness are not given by Allah and not
therefore eternal and unalterable values. In terms of the reception of this film, we can observe the
exact opposite of what we have seen with Das singende klingende Bäumchen: the East German
critics are very enthusiastic about this stylistic experiment accompanied by a veritable reflection on
the class struggle. Yet, the audience did not appreciate the repletion of socialistic moral and missed
the magic of fairy tale. Therefore this experiment remained the only one of its kind.
In this context it is worthwhile to take a closer look at the further development of DEFA's work on
children's productions. In the first instance, a group of DEFA film makers assembled in the autumn
of 1952 in order to create a special working group for children's films. Walter Beck, who would
later become one of the most productive directors of children's films, would call this first initiative
26
HÄNTZSCHE Helmuth (Ed.), …und ich grüße die Schwalben. Der Kinderfilm in sozialistischen Ländern,
Henschelverlag, 1985, p. 253
27
op. cit HÄNTZSCHE, Schwalben, p. 253: “Concerning ‚Das singende klingende Bäumchen’ the problem was that
there was no realistic socialistic interpretation. One got lost in an idealistic conception...”
28
Brecht particularly appreciated theatre plays presented as parables. He conceived these plays in order to make his
audience apply the plot of the play to their own life and experience as well as to the society in which they live. (Cf. Der
gute Mensch von Sezuan/ The Good Person of Szechwan , 1938-1940; Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui/ The
Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui , 1941, etc.) So writings of his genre always contain a moral or a political message which is
supposed to lead and to better the social attitude of the audience. The plot of The Story of poor Hassan is clearly
organized according to Brecht's model of parabolic narration.
8
for a cinema for a young audience “the germ cell of children's film” in the GDR. 29 Two years later,
the Central Committee of the SED encouraged the DEFA to set up a special dramaturgy-group for
children's film (Kinderfilm-Dramaturgengruppe). The objective of this group was to work on
research of forms and criteria in order to increase the quality of children's films and at the same
time to assure a high pedagogical level and – most important of all – the control of the political
value of the films to be shot. So the task was at least threefold : to shoot a high number of films
which will be sure to instruct, indoctrinate – and last but not least – enchant the young audience.
This first working group was dissolved in 1959. From then on, the work on this genre was
integrated to the studio which was in charge of the feature-film (Spielfilmstudio) in general. A new
working group for films for children and teenagers (Kinder- und Jugendfilm) was created in 1963,
but again dissolved shortly afterwards (1970). In spite of all this upheaval concerning the
organization of the work on children's films, the genre itself, and in particular the fairy tale film,
never lost its eminent role in the DEFA production. Especially the latter was considered by more
than one as a pillar and a rather “riskless” genre. To give just one example : After the prohibition of
one of her films for political reason, Albert Wilkening, then General director of the DEFA, strongly
recommended shooting a fairy tale film to the female director Iris Gusner, so that her former
ideological “faux-pas” would be forgotten:
Machen Sie einen Märchenfilm, mit dem können Sie nicht anecken. Das ist Ihre
Chance, sich zu rehabiliteren und zu zeigen, daß Sie Ihr Handwerk
beherrschen.30
The fairy tale seemed to be a perfect instrument to make one's mark in the DEFA, to exculpate
oneself from a mistake or a bad reputation and all this while working in conditions which were
much more accommodating than those for feature-films and adult-productions.31
In any case, we can observe a great variety of styles, representations, and stage props during this
29
BECK, Geschichte des DEFA-Märchenspielfilms für Kinder, p. 187. Original quotation: “Die Gruppe gilt als die
'Keimzelle Kinderfilm', wie damals einmal protokolliert wurde.”
30
POSS Ingrid; WARNECKE Peter (Hrsg.): Spur der Filme. Zeitzeugen über die DEFA. Berlin: LINKS-Verlag, 2006,
p. 314. Wilkining advised Iris Gusner to “make a fairy tale film. So you can't offend anyone. This could be your chance
to redeem yourself and to prove that you are proficient in your profession.”
31
The insight of the documents which we consulted in the Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv) reaffirms this impression.
In the documents concerning Sechse kommen durch die Welt, directed by Rainer Simon, we can observe that the
relatively large number of subversive allusions on the misuse of power by the East German political elite - as for
instance the abundance of decoration they offered one to another – nor the parodistic presentation of the king who
resembled in more than one way Walter Ulbricht – did not prevent the official approval for the shooting and the
distribution of this film. On the contrary, in the discussions during the meeting for the approval or refusa l of the film,
the censors criticized the music chosen for this film and the final shot which presents a kind of desert landscape and did
not seem optimistic enough to the censor audience. Cf. BArch DR 117 26319, 1/2. Nevertheless, this film was not a
great success However, his run-up-story proves that there was a certain liberty or a certain laxness in the evaluation
concerning the production of fairy tale films, at least at certain periods of the DEFA history.
9
first period of the DEFA fairy tale film. This large scope can be explained by the enthusiasm and the
willingness of the first directors of this genre to try new approaches and styles. The
cinematographic recommencement of these first years of the DEFA permitted a certain number and
range of experiments. The genre of “fairy tale film” stood to benefit at the same time from a “niche
existence” within the larger genre of children's film – wherefore the working conditions were
considered less rigorous than for other genres – and from the great importance which the political
class accorded to this genre which seemed perfectly suited as a decent indoctrination of futuresocialists. However, whether one speaks about Little Muck, The Cold Heart or the Singing ringing
tree – DEFA's first fairy tale films figured and still figure amongst the most beautiful examples of
this genre.32
3) A prospect of the production of fairy tale-films after the 1950s
Since the popularisation of television in the GDR at the beginning of the nineteen-sixties the
attendance rate in East German cinemas dwindled considerably. This development also concerned
the children's film because the East German television proposed very interesting programmes for
children from the outset. The coexistence of the two institutions was accompanied by the creation of
new supervising bodies. Since 1961, the National Center for children's film in the GDR (Nationales
Zentrum für Kinderfilm in der DDR) watched over the whole production of films for children, be it
on the television or for the cinema.33 From then on, the DEFA and the TV-studios of the GDR joined
forces and worked together on various projects. Naturally this new situation provoked new
discussions, thereunder those about different aesthetic criteria for TV films and those produced for
the big screen. These debates remained, for the most part theoretical, specifying technical details
concerning the length of scenes or the relation between picture and sound.
After the dissolution of the artistic working group for children's and teenagers' film (Künstlerische
Arbeitsgruppe für Kinder- und Jugendfilm) the field was open for any director who would like to try
to produce films for a young audience.34 And as mentioned above, due to relatively liberal working
32
KÖNIG Ingelore, WIEDEMANN Dieter, WOLF Lothar (Ed.), Zwischen Marx und Muck. DEFA-Filme für Kinder,
Henschelverlag, 1995, p.11 : The authors show that the films of the first decade (nineteen-fifties) achieved the greatest
success with the audience. In spite of their excellent quality for some of them, the productions of the ninety-sixties and
seventies did reach the level of their predecessors. Though, it is important to take into consideration the social progress,
especially the development of the television which had an enormous influence on the evolution on attendance in East
German cinemas. Another aspect which must not be forgotten is the contemporary political situation : A film shot at the
time of the Eleventh Plenum of the SED in 1965 certainly did not have the same chances to succeed as a production of
the early nineteen-seventies where the calm after the coming into power of Erich Honecker raised many artists' hopes
for greater freedom in the cultural life of the GDR.
33
KÜBLER, 1981, p. 230
34
HANSPACH Beate, Märchen – man weiß sie und liebt sie – zur Entwicklung des Märchenfilms in der DDR . In: Vom
Zauberwald zur Traumfabrik, 1987, pp. 44-52, here p. 49
10
conditions quite a number of directors experimented in this field with varying levels of success and
official recognition.35 Howsoever, since the nineteen-sixties there has been a noticeable shift
concerning the fairy tale film productions of the DEFA due to a new generation of directors who
began to work in this genre. During these years, some directors of children's film even became
specialized in fairy tale productions by shooting the most known and shown productions of this
genre.
One of the most active fairy tale directors of the DEFA was Walter Beck (born in 1929). He started
his career in the nineteen-sixties and continued to shoot fairy tale adaptations until the end of the
GDR. His filmography contains more than 14 children's films and 7 fairy tales, such as: König
Drosselbart (King Thrushbeard, 1965), Dornröschen (Sleeping Beauty, 1971), Der Prinz hinter den
sieben Meeren (Across the Seven seas, 1982), Der Bärenhäuter (The Man in the Bear's skin, 1985),
and Froschkönig (Frog Prince, 1987). The work of Walter Beck is not only very substantial but
distinguishes itself through veritable experimentation with different styles and forms. In his first
classical fairy tale-film König Drosselbart he uses a minimalistic setting to outline the
psychological aspects of the plot and the personal development of the princess. In one of the last
DEFA fairy tales Beck shot for the DEFA, Froschkönig, he evolves the original plot to a new story
which questions the intentions and the character of a princess who seems to be quite too easily
recompensed for a bad action. Beck often adopts and mixes elements from other fairy tales and
even introduces historical or literal allusions to his setting; an approach which is especially evident
in one of his most “ideological” fairy tales Dornröschen.36
Among other films of the nineteen-sixties, one can mention Die goldene Gans (The golden Goose,
1964) directed by Siegfried Hartmann (born in 1927). Hartmann is today concerned a veteran of
children's and fairy tale films with a large filmography, which encompasses three of the most
famous DEFA fairy tale productions: Das Feuerzeug, (The Tinder-Box, 1958), Die goldene Gans
(1964) and Schneeweisschen und Rosenrot (Snow-White and Rose-Red, 1979). These three films
represent rather classical settings without any experimentation and are widely congruent with the
literary model. The same diagnostic is valid for Gottfried Kolditz's Schneewittchen (Snow-White,
35
Steffen Wolf reminds us nevertheless of the key benefits of working for a children's production at the beginning of a
career: a director who fails on a feature film for adults provoked many problems for his studio and all his colleagues.
Though, a failure in shooting a fairy tale film did not have any dramatic consequences – the risk was minimal. On the
contrary, often a great success in the children's genre meant that the director shifted towards the production of “real”
films which meant the loss of a gifted director for further children's productions. So often the children's film was
considered an “experimental ground” for young directors who abandoned this first step as soon as they could aspire to
greater projects. Cf. WOLF Steffen, Kinderfilm in Europa. München-Pullach/Berlin: Verlag Dokumentation, 196, p.164
36
See page 15
11
1961)37. It is Kolditz's third38 fairy tale film as a director Frau Holle (Mother Holle, 1963) which
stands out among the others. This film was entirely shot in a studio and accentuates deliberately the
artificial aspects of the setting. This approach, often used in the GDR primarily in order to reduce
the cost of the production, turned out to be rather successful and found one of his most active
imitators in Walter Beck who used a very similar setting for his film König Drosselbart (King
Thrushbeard, 1965).
In a completely different context we have to mention two fairy tale-films made by Rainer Simon
(born in 1941) who can be considered the enfant terrible of the DEFA fairy tale family39. His first
DEFA fairy tale Wie heiratet man einen König (How to marry a king, 1968) introduces a large
number of new elements to the classical genre of the fairy tale. One can not only notice some erotic
allusions, but also intertextual references and a questioning of the traditional way to tell a tale.
Simon does not content himself in tacitly accepting and applying the classical situation between the
film crew and its audience which can be described as: “We will now tell you a fairy tale” - with all
that this situation implies from “once upon a time” up to “and they lived happily ever after”. The
plot of his adaptation of the Grimms' tale Die kluge Bauerntochter (The Peasant’s Wise daughter)
deliberately casts doubt on this conventional point of view and rather proposes a story “that could
be a tale” (or not). He sets up a subtle game on the conventions of the genre by using and misusing
them, providing a new twist on the well-known and rather old-fashioned story. Alas, this modernity
remained unique in this genre and did not have any impact on further fairy tale-productions of the
37
It is interesting to take a closer look at the setting of Kolditz's Schneewittchen,. This the GDR production seems to be
strongly inspired by one of the most well-known adaptations of this fairy tale, and the least likely to please socialist
censors: Walt Disney's version of 1946. Starting with the dress of the protagonist which is nearly an exact copy of the
one which Disney's Snow White wears, even the young girl's walk in the forest seems to imitate typical Disney scenes :
accompanied by a little gentle music, she easily approaches all kind of animals who inhabit the forest which let her
caress them without any fear. Last but not least, throughout the entire film the dwarves never tire of singing a song
which - though the lyrics and the melody have been changed – strongly resembles the internationally known “Heigh
Ho” of the Disney version. It would be interesting to take a closer look at all the resemblances of this film and the
Disney classic and to consult the archive documents about an eventual discussion concerning this curiosity. At this point
of our research, we cannot deliver further information on this fact.
38
After Schneewittchen (Snow-White) in 1961 and Die goldenbe Jurte (The Golden tent, 1961)
39
Simon's fairy tale films were always criticized in reviews and other publications on this genre in the GDR. Yet, even
in recently published articles, one can read the same critiques as thirty years ago. Dieter Wiedemann in his resuming
study about the East German children's film, reproaches Simon's films in that in neither Sechse kommen durch die Welt
(1971) nor in Wie heiratet man einen König (1968) could children follow the plot and participate in the pleasure of
decoding the intertextual and erotic allusions. cf. WIEDEMANN, Dieter, Der DEFA-Kinderfilm : Zwischen
Resteverwertung und Politikdiskursen – Überlegungen zum Umgang mit einem Kulturerbe. In: Kindheit und Film.
Geschichte, Themen und Perspektiven des Kinderfilms in Deutschland. Ed. by Horst Schäfer and Claudia Wegener.
Konstanz: UVK, 2009, p. 123. Walter Beck agrees with this statement and adds that “the young spectator does not find
any connection to his own life”. f. BECK, Geschichte des DEFA-Märchenspielfilms für Kinder, p. 197. These statements
are partly to be taken with a pinch of salt, especially concerning Walter Beck for he is a contemporary witness of this
period: because the research about East German fairy tales was not very advanced at that time, we are dependent on his
and other testimonies. However, the content of his publications often remains imbued by a sensible and comprehendible
nostalgia for the DEFA's past. So, in spite of their value as a historical source, they cannot be taken for the absolute
truth and as such we should instead refer to archive documents.
12
DEFA. On the contrary, Wie heiratet man einen König and its director were attacked by the critics
who certainly did not appreciate the intertextual and especially the erotic allusions. So the argument
of an assumed incompatibility with children's cognition – because only children were supposed to
be the target group of a fairy tale film – was enough to disapprove of the entire film. Naturally, this
disapproval had a negative impact on the frequency of its transmission on the GDR's cinema and
television screens.40
But if Rainer Simon was not very lucky with his first fairy tale production, the director
Konrad Petzold (1930-1999) was even less so: His production Das Kleid (The Dress, 1961) was
even forbidden and could not be seen in any GDR cinema before 1991. In fact, Petzold's film was
not expressively produced for a child audience and should be considered a parody of the literary
tale by Hans Christian Andersen Des Kaisers neue Kleider (The Emperor's New clothes) with
strong references to the actual situation in the GDR at the time of shooting the film. Alas,
unintentionally these references were strongly reinforced by the surprising political facts of August
of 1961. During the shooting of this film, the Berlin Wall was erected which added an explosive
touch to a plot that could possibly have passed the censors some months before. As a matter of fact,
the most critical aspect of the plot lies in the setting of the film. While the place in which the plot
unfolds is first presented as a land of milk and honey, it rapidly becomes evident that in practice it is
nothing more than a state of spies and policemen. This land is enclosed by a large wall – a detail
which gets particularly delicate in August 1961 – and governed by an incompetent emperor who is
furthermore extremely manipulated by his camarilla. The association of these pictures in a film shot
in 1961 naturally contains more than a bit of explosive potential and even seems to illustrate in
detail the GDR's actual political situation. In 1961, the East German Republic was governed by
Walter Ulbricht who combined in his own person a wide range of power (President of the SED,
President of the National Defence Council, President of the State Council, etc.). Beyond that, he
ordered the construction of the Berlin Wall which cemented the Cold War by literally separating not
only the former German capital but the entire country for forty years. In this context, the fate of The
Dress by Konrad Petzold is not surprising : it did not pass the censors and remained forbidden until
the end of the GDR.41
40
WIEDEMANN Dieter, Der DEFA-Kinderfilm – zwischen pädagogischem Auftrag und künstlerischem Anliegen. In:
KÖNIG Ingelore, WIEDEMANN Dieter, WOLF Lothar (Ed.), Zwischen Marx und Muck. DEFA-Filme für Kinder,
Henschelverlag, 1995, p. 25
41
cf. BArch DR 117, 25729/2: In this archive file we found an expertise of the direction of the studio expressing a
certain discontentment with the unedited version of the film and demanding some changes before the film could be
integrated into the annual schedule (doc. 342). The same file contains a Erklärung (Explication, doc. 353)) of the
working group in charge of this film (Gruppe konkret) who disapproves of the majority of the criticisms of the
direction. A third document is a copy of the record taken during the official discussion about Das Kleid which registers
various deficits of this films, among others the “principal deficit: no clear conception” (doc. 351).
13
Despite these “bad” examples, the children's films and the fairy tale film were well esteemed and
continued to be appreciated by the official cultural policy. This high esteem was illustrated by the
foundation of the Nationales Festival für Kinderfilme der DDR (German Children's Film and TVfestival) in 1979, called Der Goldene Spatz (The Golden Sparrow)42. On the occasion of this
foundation, the official representatives reminded film makers and the audience that the ultimate
object of any children's production had to be to educate young socialists43. This purpose was to be
realized by showing films which mimic the world of young people just like it really was by setting
up real conflicts and proposing realistic solutions.
In den 70er Jahren setzte sich im Kinderfilm der DDR der Standpunkt durch, dass Kinder und
Erwachsene in einer gemeinsamen Welt leben, dass Konflikte und Widersprüche die einen wie die
anderen berühren und dass es deshalb nicht richtig ist, den Kindern das Bild einer
wohlbehaltenen Welt zu zeigen, die im Widerspruch zu ihren persönlichen Erfahrungen steht.“. 44
The films of this period abound in “positive heroes” who make their way in societies which often
resemble or insinuate socialistic or pre-socialistic societies. Therefore, the situation of the plot often
presents a conflict, which is presented as resolvable by the brave and intelligent intervention of the
fairy tale hero. A new aspect of these productions is that the plot often focusses on one single hero 45
So not only was the level of identification with this unique hero more important than in former
productions, but the child spectator also learns the importance of engagement for the society in
which he lives, in this case the socialistic society.46 This new tendency corresponds to the new
official policy which preached “consolidation of socialism” to complete the “construction of
socialism” which determined the nineteen-fifties.
It is not always easy to detect the anchorage of a fairy tale plot in the reality of the present time. The
prescription remains rather vague. Nevertheless, productions like Dornröschen by Walter Beck
which we mentioned herein above, or the beautiful co-production with the Czech Barrandov studios
Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel (Three chestnuts for Cinderella, 1973) are well-known examples
for the successful application of these directives; especially the latter. The cultic adaptation of the
Cinderella story, directed by Vàclav Vorliček (born in 1930), emerges among others thanks to the
great modernity of the characters accompanied by a marvellous setting and a well-worked plot
42
Founded in 1979, this national festival of children's film, presented the cinema and TV production of this genre. It
took place every two years in Gera. Any kind of film for children was shown at this festival: feature films as well as
short films and animated films as well as documentaries for a young audience. The “Golden Sparrow” still exists : see
on the Internet: http://www.goldenerspatz.de/index.php?id=23 (consulted: 13/02/2012, CN).
43
KÜBLER 1981, p. 236. Original quotation: : "allseitig und harmonisch entwickelte sozialistische Persönlichkeit“.
44
RICHTER-DE VROE Klaus, Thesen zum Thema Familienfilm. In: Joachim Giera (Ed.), „Der Kinderfilm – ein
ernsthaftes Gespräch über das Leben“ (Theorie und Praxis des Films), 1987, pp. 69-72, here p. 71
45
REIMANN, p. 54
46
REIMANN, p. 54
14
based on the fairy tale written by Božena Němcová.
In the beginning of the nineteen-seventies, it is once again a Rainer Simon film which shows
another rather critical approach to the fairy tale and the official policy. In Sechse kommen durch die
Welt (How six men got on in the world, 1971) he constructs a setting around six sympathetic
characters who all originate from the lower classes and are all in possession of a special talent. So
the six companions (who in fact are five men and a girl) join their talents to defy the king who
betrayed them. All together, one helping another, they get justice. Such a plot, one might think,
could only satisfy a socialistic censor. It seems even surprising to see Rainer Simon this obedient
and compliant. Yet on closer inspection, some subtly placed elements cast doubt on this political
conformity. To mention only two examples : The unrighteous and ungrateful king delivers his
speech, in which he addresses the soldiers, informing them that he did not intend to pay for their
service, in a falsetto which conspicuously resembles the voice of Walter Ulbricht47. Furthermore, the
down-to-earth ending of this fairy tale creates an atmosphere without any “socialistic perspective”
which was a strict criterion for so many other fairy tale films. By these means, Rainer Simon
succeeds in blurring the apparently plainly socialistic message. The censors seemingly did not
perceive the subliminal critique48 and thus the film got the official approval for shooting and
distribution without any major difficulty. Nevertheless, once again, the film did not please the
critics. And once again, they reproached him with too much “intellectualism”, with a failure to
attract and enchant the child audience. 49 Finally, the film was not very often shown: neither on the
GDR's television nor in cinemas.
Walter Beck shot one of his most shown but also his most “ideological” fairy tales Dornröschen at
the beginning of this decade. In this adaptation of 1971, the sleeping princess takes a back seat to
leave the magic battlefield to her father, an absolutist king without any consideration for his
people's work and suffering, and the thirteenth fairy. If the latter is a bad character in the literary
model of The sleeping beauty, in this film she turns out to be the character who facilitates the action
and benefit to the poor people abandoned by their king. To illustrate the blind foolishness of the
king, Beck shows him in a rather shocking scene: To save his child from the curse that she might
die by pricking her finger on a spindle, he orders the burning of all the spindles in his country which
means bitter hardships for his people who depend on the fruits of their handicraft. The picture of
hundreds of spindles burning on a immense stake obviously evokes the burning of books by the
Nazis from 1933 onwards. This audaciousness of the scenario worried neither East German critics
47
In May 1971, Walter Ulbricht officially resigned from his functions for health reasons. He was succeeded by Erich
Honecker who governed the GDR until October 1989.
48
See note 31
49
REIMANN, p. 54
15
nor official censors of the party. On the contrary, archive documents prove that this film did not
provoke serious criticism and was even awarded for its well-led accounting and the low budget
Beck spent on his production.50
Concerning the other fairy tale productions of this decade, we can mention Schneeweisschen und
Rosenrot (Snow-White and Rose-Red, 1978), directed by the above-named Siegfried Hartmann.
This film is another collaboration with the Barrandov studios which excels in a marvellous setting
and very beautiful landscape shots. The plot remains very classical without any aberration from the
original fairy tale logic. Hartmann did not take any risks which ensures that his film is still
appreciated by the child audience of this day and age.
Throughout the nineteen-eighties, the classical fairy tale film based on one literary source lost some
of its importance in the DEFA children's production to the benefit of a new genre : the modern fairy
tale (modernes Märchen) which bears resemblance to what is now known as the “fantasy film”.
This modern fairy tale was presented as feature film (Das Herz des Piraten, 1989, The Pirate's heart
directed by Jürgen Brauer) or as series (Spuk unterm Riesenrad, 1979, Spook Under the Ferris
Wheel ; Spuk im Hochhaus, 1982, Spook in the Apartment Building ; Spuk von draußen, 1987,
Spook from outside – all three directed by Günter Meyer).51 While these productions, with a plot
anchored in East German children's reality, enjoyed great popularity, the number of classical fairy
tale productions declined significantly during this period.
Those which were shot in the nineteen-eighties manifest less ideological elements and seem to be
characterized by a certain refusal or absence of any commitment concerning any socialist
engagement. This hesitation can partly be explained by the general incertitude in consideration of
the political development of the GDR in the nineteen-eighties which naturally affected the DEFA
staff in the first instance, inasmuch as they were in charge of delivering the pictures of the present
time. Between the promises of Gorbachev’s Perestroika and Glasnost and the deception about the
stubborn attitude of the GDR government to go on with their (anachronistic) way of living with
socialism, it was rather difficult to shoot films with a clear political or social statement for the time
being.
In any case, the fairy tale films of this period do not really show evident ideological messages but
50
In fact, the film was scheduled as a “speed” production, shot essentially in the DEFA studios and counting on very
few shooting days. The shooting crew even committed to reducing the required footage for the film. These objectives
could only be partially achieved due to some technical and logistical difficulties as a consequence of the hard winter in
1970 and the malfunction of some technical supports. These problems also prove that working conditions at the DEFA
as a state-owned enterprise but at the same time exposed to a great number of logistic and budget problems, were not
always easy. / cf. BArch, DR 1177 26042
51
REIMANN, p. 57; cf. MEYER Günter, Die Geister, die ich rief...; Von dem Vergnügen, Filme zu drehen.
Schriftenreihe DEFA-Stiftung, Berlin: DEFA-Stiftung, 2011
16
transfer their pedagogical intentions to more general moral content.
If nothing else, this new tendency became evident at the Golden Sparrow Festival where all new
national productions for the young audience were presented. From the beginning of the nineteeneighties, one could observe a change in the tone of the official documents concerning this event. So
the official record of the 1981 festival declares:
Auffällig war die Zurückhaltung in politischen und agitatorischen Parolen während des Festivals
sowie in den offiziellen und inoffiziellen Diskussionen und Gesprächen. Es festigte sich der
Eindruck, als wolle die DDR den Kinderfilm aus der früheren politischen Isolation herausführen in ein
offeneres fröhlicheres und pädagogisches Klima. Das zeigten auch die Inhalte der Filme aus der
Produktion der letzten beiden Jahre.52
And at the end of the decade (in 1989) Joachim Giera, then president of the selection committee of
the Festival states: “Der Spatz ist flügge geworden”53, the sparrow left the nest.
Among the few DEFA fairy tales based on classical sources of this period, there are nevertheless
some very interesting ones, as for instance Der Bärenhäuter (The Man in the Bear's skin, 1985),
and Froschkönig (Frog Prince, 1987), both directed by the above-named Walter Beck. The new
style and sound of these films becomes evident as soon as you look closer at the casting and the
décor for these films. In both productions, the young actor Jens-Uwe Bogadtke assumes the title
role of the film. By his appearance, Bogadtke resembles anything but a Prince Charming. With his
scruffy hair, his skinny figure and his pale complexion – the multicoloured glitter of the typical
fairy tale is rapidly fading to leave place to a panoply of grey. The same statement can be made
about the décor of these films: the “colour” grey is dominating. You will not find any motley fairy
tale castles, nor will you find any silken, embroidered or golden costume for the princess and her
valiant hero. The habitual romantic context is replaced with a glaucous realism. The setting uses a
quasi-theatrical aesthetic in which modern elements mingle with the fairy tale plot ; the marvellous
and the real are no longer mutually exclusive but mix and mingle freely.
In Froschkönig (The Frog Prince), director Walter Beck and his scenarists no longer remain
loyal to the literary source, an aspect which was, especially in the beginning of the DEFA fairy tale
production, one of the priorities for officially validating a scenario. In fact, the major part of this
DEFA fairy tale is an extrapolation of the Grimm's plot. The princess – whose name is Henriette
which is reminiscent of the prince's faithful servant Heinrich (Henry) who appears at the end of the
52
LINDNER Bernt, Nationales Festival « Goldener Spatz » für Kinderfilme der DDR im Kino und Fernsehen vom 6. –
13. Februar 1981 in Gera. In: „Kinder-Jugend-Filmkorrespondenz“, 1981, Heft 6, pp. 13-17, here p. 13: The author
observes an attitude of „low profile“ concerning any political statement about the presented films, in official as well as
unofficial discussions. He supposes that the children's film is going to find its way out of the political isolation into a
more open and more pedagocial atmosphere. The content of the films, so the author of this record states, con firms this
assumption.
53
GIERA Joachim, Der Spatz ist flügge geworden. In: „Fundevogel“, 1989, Heft 62, pp. 11-13, here p. 11
17
literary fairy tale – does not much in common with the clichés of a princess. Henriette is boyish and
tough, she knows what she wants and does not hesitate to give her opinion. Her clothes as well as
her manners are anything but aristocratically distinguished. Henriette seems to be a quite normal
girl, except for the fact that she is called a princess. And this ordinary princess finds the frog who
wants to share bed and board with her, more than disgusting and throws him against the wall. In the
Grimms' plot, the frog is transformed into a beautiful prince, marries the princess and “they lived
happily ever after”. Walter Beck's version just starts at this crucial moment: Instead of simply and
unjustly recompensing the vow-breaking princess with a charming husband, this tale sends her to
the end of the world to repair the injustice she committed and to deliver the Frog Prince. With the
prince who does not recognize her, she must keep the promise she once gave to the frog : share his
food, his wine and his bed. This second part of the film forms its major part and gives a whole new
interpretation to the initial fairy tale. Compared to Dornröschen, Froschkönig is organized around a
message which is moral but not exclusively in a socialistic way : Henriette must learn to respect
other people (and creatures) and their conditions and to keep her promises. This ethical message to
give to a child by means of a film is as valid for a socialist society as for any other.
However, the opinions of East German critics were divided concerning Beck's approach
between tradition and modernity. Either they eulogize “the clear intellectual aiming at the humanist
demands to prove their value”54, or they criticize “the complicated and artificial language” » of this
film in which “anaemic characters in bad-style doll house interiors” 55 converse. Joachim Giera
raised the following allegations against Beck's Froschkönig :
Mit « Froschkönig » legte Regisseur Walter Beck abermals ein adaptiertes Märchen der Brüder
Grimm vor, das den Kunstcharakter – und dies meint vor allem den künstlichen – besonders
betont. Das ist Konzeption, so scheint es jedenfalls. Ihre Nachteil, obschon das originale
Märchen auf der Leinwand etliche Zusätze erfährt und Weiterungen, liegt darin begründet, dass die
Belehrung vor dem Phantastischen steht. Sachlichkeit verdrängt das Wunder, das aber gerade lockt
den Zuschauer.56
And still, even in the harshest reviews the tone has changed. There are no longer many references to
socialistic values which DEFA fairy tales were once supposed to transmit to their young audience.
The critics limit themselves to evoking traditional elements of fairy tale interpretation, most
importantly the fidelity to the source and the place of the marvellous within the film-tale. In the
54
HOFFMANN Heinz, Wunderbare Wandlung durch Liebeskraft. Das Märchen vom Froschkönig neu erzählt. In:
„Nationalzeitung Berlin“, 5.07.1988. Original quotation: “klare geistige Orientierung auf den zutiefst humanistischen
Anspruch menschlicher Bewährung“.
55
ANONYM, Gebrüder Grimm, brav und bieder – Der Froschkönig – neuer DEFA-Märchenfilm im Kino. In:
„Mitteldeutsche Neueste Nachrichten“ (Leipzig), 2.07.1988. Original quotation: “In einer gedrechselten Kunstsprache
konversieren blutleere Gestalten in stillosen Puppenstuben-Interieurs“.
56
GIERA, 1989, p. 11: Giera reproaches especially the pedagogical and artificial aspects of Beck's productions and
regrets that there is not much place for the marvellous and the miraculous, criteria which are particularly attractive to
the young spectator.
18
reviews of Froschkönig, they often criticize that the moral message displaces the magic to the
background, and magic is often evoked as the “essence of the fairy tale”. Suffice is to compare
these reviews to those of Das tapfere Schneiderlein at the end of the ninety-fifties to measure the
degree of change.
Thanks to this panorama of the history of DEFA fairy tale films, it became evident that the
films of this genre can serve as a mirror, as a reflection of the cultural life and the cultural policy of
the GDR. If this is the case for any cultural production of any country, the small number of DEFA
fairy tales enables us to use this genre as a limited but complete corpus of one special cultural
domain. By analysing this cinematographic genre, we can discover some very beautiful films which
are barely known beyond the German border. Due to the fact that these adaptations are anchored
and extremely dependent on the political situation at the moment of their production and the
conditions of their shooting, they also help us to retrace the ups and downs of recent East German
history from the Soviet occupation until the Fall of the Wall. We have seen that the Soviet influence
on the fairy tale productions remains theoretically intact, but extinguishes more and more in
practice over the years. Nearly forty years of the GDR's existence corresponds to forty years of
DEFA fairy tale films. So in a way, the beginning of the story of the GDR can be told by Little
Muck, humpy and crooked, who tried to pass over his own story as a kind of common history. It
approaches its end with princess Henriette who realizes and accepts to repairing her faults to finally
find merited felicity. She had left behind her the adventures of a socialist tailor, a king who locked
up his people and a fairy who praises the merits of people's handicraft. All these tales, innocent and
inoffensive at first sight, illustrate in a marvellous way one of the most interesting parts of the
history of the German Democratic Republic and the image that she would have liked and the one
she really did give of herself.
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