The 75th anniversary of the founding of the East German film studio DEFA

Elizabeth Ward

On 17 May 1946, the Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft (DEFA) was officially founded. Over the course of the following four decades, the studio produced nearly 700 feature films, as well as hundred of animation and documentary films. By the time it was finally privatised and sold following German reunification, DEFA was one of Europe’s largest film studios.

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COMMEMORATING 70 YEARS SINCE THE FORMATION OF EAST AND WEST GERMANY

On October 7th, 1949, the Democratic Republic of Germany was proclaimed, dividing Germany between East and West.

Seventy years later, we find ourselves in the days leading up to the German Studies Association’s annual meeting. A great deal has happened between 1949 and now, and we are delighted to present titles that provide comprehensive histories of this time period.

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A Divided Germany

This week marks the fifty-eighth anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall. The Iron Curtain was assembled in the middle of Berlin in August 1961 and expanded over the following months to ultimately divide West Berlin from the surrounding East Germany, prohibiting East Germans to pass into West Germany for decades. Browse our relevant titles on the history and ramifications of a divided Germany.

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The Berlin Wall Is Built

On August 13, 1961, Berlin woke up to a shock: the East German Army had begun construction on the infamous Berlin Wall. The Wall was initially constructed in the middle of Berlin, and expanded over the following months. It entirely cut off West Berlin from the surrounding East Germany, prohibiting East Germans to pass into West Germany.

The Eastern Bloc claimed that the wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the “will of the people” in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that marked East Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period. The Berlin Wall came to symbolize the “Iron Curtain” that separated Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War.


Browse Berghahn relevant titles on History of divided Germany:

Memorializing the GDR: Monuments and Memory after 1989MEMORIALIZING THE GDR
Monuments and Memory after 1989
Anna Saunders

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Why monuments still have a future

Memorializing the GDRby Anna Saunders, author of Memorializing the GDR: Monuments and Memory after 1989.
 

Recent years have witnessed fierce debates about the existence of controversial monuments around the world – most notably Confederate monuments and memorials, but also numerous structures built in honour of wealthy benefactors with murky pasts. The outcomes of such debacles have been varied. In the UK, Oriel College, Oxford, has recently stated its intention to keep its statue of Cecil Rhodes, whereas Bristol’s Colston Hall – named after the slave trader Edward Colston – will be renamed when it reopens in 2020. It seems that the future of monuments may be limited. Yet this depends on our understanding of the role of such structures. In this context, it is worth casting an eye towards Germany, a country whose twentieth century history has prompted the destruction – and construction – of monuments and memorials at a pace rivalled by few others. Continue reading “Why monuments still have a future”