Buchenwald

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Buchenwald

Buchenwald
Günter Weschke
Retrospective 2021
Documentary Film
GDR
1961
26 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
None

The inauguration of the “National Buchenwald Memorial”, the first national memorial of the GDR, took place in 1958. The monumental site was also meant to demonstrate the state-supporting importance of a selective culture of remembrance, commemorating the communist resistance fighters – and omitting the fact that the graves were mainly filled with Jewish victims. In 1961, DEFA completed this “introductory film”, commissioned by the Buchenwald committee, which talks about Goethe, Schiller, Thälmann, but only very marginally about Jews. Every visitor’s memorial tour started with this until 1975. Its scriptwriter and production manager was the playwright Heiner Müller, a fact that was not known until 2004.

Sylvia Görke

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Günter Weschke
Script
Günter Weschke, Heiner Müller
Cinematographer
Günter Weschke
Producer
DEFA-Studio für Wochenschau und Dokumentarfilme
Sound
Heinz Reusch, Kurt Wolfram
Narrator
Sergio Günther, Ekkehard Schall, Wolfgang Heinz