Coming Out is a 1989

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

film directed by

Heiner Carow Heiner Carow (19 September 1929 – 1 February 1997) was a German film director and screenwriter. His 1986 film '' So Many Dreams'' was entered into the 37th Berlin International Film Festival. The following year, he was a member of the jury at ...

and written by Wolfram Witt which deals with the lead character, a high school teacher, "

coming out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

" and accepting himself as gay. It was the last East German film released to the public prior to the

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

and one of the last films made by

DEFA DEFA (''Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft'') was the state-owned film studio of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) throughout the country's existence. Since 2019, DEFA's film heritage has been made accessible and licensable on the PRO ...

, the East German state film studio, and the only gay-themed feature film that it made. The film premiered at the

Kino International The Kino International is a film theater in Berlin, built from 1961 to 1963. It is located on Karl-Marx-Allee in former East Berlin. It hosted premieres of the DEFA film studios until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Today it is a protec ...

in Berlin on 9 November 1989, the night that the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...

was opened. It won a number of awards including a

Silver Bear The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...

and

Teddy Award The Teddy Award is an international film award for films with LGBT topics, presented by an independent jury as an official award of the Berlin International Film Festival (the Berlinale). In the most part, the jury consists of organisers of gay a ...

40th Berlin International Film Festival The 40th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 9 to 20 February 1990. The festival opened with ''Steel Magnolias'' by Herbert Ross, which was shown out of competition. The Golden Bear was awarded ''ex aequo'' to the American fi ...

, and awards at the National Feature Film Festival of the GDR. The lead actors are Matthias Freihof,

Dagmar Manzel Dagmar Manzel (born 1 September 1958) is a German actress. She has appeared in more than 80 films and television shows since 1979. She starred in the 1986 film '' So Many Dreams'', which was entered into the 37th Berlin International Film Festiv ...

, and

Dirk Kummer Dirk Kummer (born 29 September 1966 in Hennigsdorf) is a German actor, director, and screenwriter. He is best known for directing movies ''Sugar Sand'' (2017), ''Wohin mit den Witwen'' (1999) and ''Rosenzweig's Freedom'' (1998). Early life Kum ...

. The film was shot on location in

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...

and includes scenes shot with amateurs in some of the gay venues of the time.Wagner, Brigitte B. (ed.) (2014) ''DEFA after East Germany'', pp. 229-232. London: Camden House. The East German transgender activist Charlotte von Mahlsdorf played a cameo role as a barmaid.

Plot

The story revolves around a young high-school teacher, Philipp Klarmann, who during his first day at work collides with a fellow teacher, Tanja, in a school corridor. Philipp ensures Tanja is okay and later takes her out for a drink. A romance quickly develops and they become engaged to be married. It later becomes clear that Philipp is conflicted about his sexuality. He demonstrates empathy with a discriminated minority by defending a black man who is being bullied on a train. Jakob, an out gay friend of Tanja's, comes to visit. Unknown to her, he and Philipp have had a previous relationship that didn't end well. Philipp later visits a gay bar, where a party is taking place. Most patrons are in costume and many are in drag. Philipp is cautious, but allows himself to be lead to a seat near an older male character. The bartender senses his hesitation in this setting and says, "There's no need to be scared. Everyone started this way. Be brave." A young man, Matthias, watches Philipp from a distance. They later meet up, have an evening out together and have sex and fall in love. Philipp's relationship with Tanja deteriorates and he struggles with his identity. His mother indicates that she realises he is gay and that she disapproves. Philipp is eventually forced to come out to Tanja, after she inadvertently meets Mathias during intermission at a concert by the famous conductor

Daniel Barenboim Daniel Barenboim (; in he, דניאל בארנבוים, born 15 November 1942) is an Argentine-born classical pianist and conductor based in Berlin. He has been since 1992 General Music Director of the Berlin State Opera and "Staatskapellmeist ...

that all three are attending. Matthias is distraught when he learns that Philipp has a fiancée and runs out of the concert hall in distress. Over the next few weeks, Philipp searches for Matthias and also goes

cruising for sex Cruising for sex, or cruising, is walking or driving about a locality, called a cruising ground, in search of a sex partner, usually of the anonymous, casual, one-time variety. Published: 11-14-2007 Published: 9-21-2005 Article from NYT about ...

; he meets up with a man and has casual sex, an experience which he enjoys but it perplexes him when the man casually leaves afterwards. He eventually finds Mathias at a bar with another young man, who is one of the pupils Phillipp teaches. Matthias rejects Philipp and Philipp goes away upset and returns to the gay bar where the two originally met. The old man Philipp first met in the bar is there again and he tells him the story of how he was forced to separate from his lover during the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

period. He concludes his story by saying "everyone is alone ... everyone is afraid." The film ends with a classroom scene, in which the head teacher, who has apparently discovered Philipp's sexual orientation, comes to do a sham classroom observation, theoretically to see if he is suitable to teach. Philipp sits on his desk saying and doing nothing, prompting the head teacher to yell 'Kollege Klarmann!' to which Philipp simply replies 'Ja', signifying his acceptance of his sexual orientation.

Cast

* Matthias Freihof as Philipp Klarmann *

as Tanja *

as Matthias * Michael Gwisdek as Achim *

Werner Dissel Werner Friedrich Dissel (26 August 1912 – 22 January 2003) was a Germans, German actor, director, and German resistance to Nazism, resistance fighter against the Nazi regime. Biography Dissel's began working as a newspaper photographer in the ...

as Older homosexual man *

Gudrun Ritter Gudrun Ritter (born 16 November 1936) is a German actress. She appeared in more than one hundred films since 1959. Selected filmography References External links * * 1936 births Living people German film actresses {{Germ ...

as Frau Moellemann, Waitress *

Walfriede Schmitt Walfriede Schmitt (March 26, 1943 in Berlin;) is a German actress. She is the daughter of the actress Elfriede Florin. Schmitt is best known in Germany for starring in the television series Für alle Fälle Stefanie. She played 'Philipp's mothe ...

as Philipp's mother * Axel Wandtke as Jakob * Charlotte von Mahlsdorf as the Barmaid * Pierre Bliss as Araber * René Schmidt as Young man in the park *

Thomas Gumpert Thomas Gumpert (11 December 1952 – 7 January 2021) was a German actor who was best known for his role of Johannes von Lahnstein in the daily soap ''Verbotene Liebe''. Life Gumpert was born in 1952 in the East German city of Lauchhammer, in Be ...

as Larry * Ursula Staack as Wanton * Robert Hummel as Lutz * Horst Ziethen as Lanky boy

Production

The opening scene follows an ambulance through well-known areas and boroughs such as

Prenzlauer Berg Prenzlauer Berg () is a locality of Berlin, forming the southerly and most urban district of the borough of Pankow. From its founding in 1920 until 2001, Prenzlauer Berg was a district of Berlin in its own right. However, that year it was incorp ...

Berlin-Mitte Mitte () (German for "middle" or "center") is a central locality () of Berlin in the eponymous district () of Mitte. Until 2001, it was itself an autonomous district. Mitte proper comprises the historic center of Alt-Berlin centered on the chu ...

(

Alexander Platz () ( en, Alexander Square) is a large public square and transport hub in the central Mitte district of Berlin. The square is named after the Russian Tsar Alexander I, which also denotes the larger neighbourhood stretching from in the north ...

) and

Friedrichshain Friedrichshain () is a quarter (''Ortsteil'') of the borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg in Berlin, Germany. From its creation in 1920 until 2001, it was a freestanding city borough. Formerly part of East Berlin, it is adjacent to Mitte, Prenz ...

on a night that the audience could assume is New Year's Eve, due to the fireworks in the background. Other scenes in the movie are filmed on locations that were common meeting points for homosexuals in East Germany such as the Fairytale Fountain (Märchenbrunnen) in

Volkspark Friedrichshain Volkspark Friedrichshain () is a large urban park on the border of the Berlin neighborhoods of Friedrichshain and Prenzlauer Berg. The oldest public park in Berlin, at 52 hectares, it is also the fourth-largest, after Tempelhofer Park (>300 hect ...

and bars such as ''Schoppenstube'' in Prenzlauer Berg and ''Zum Burgfrieden'' which was located at Wichertstraße 69, though it was closed in January 2000. Scenes filmed in the school where Philipp teaches were filmed in the Carl-von-Ossietzky-Gymnasium, a historical building and school in

Pankow Pankow () is the most populous and the second-largest borough by area of Berlin. In Berlin's 2001 administrative reform, it was merged with the former boroughs of Prenzlauer Berg and Weißensee; the resulting borough retained the name Pankow. P ...

and some halls were used in a few scenes. The family of

Lothar Bisky Lothar Bisky (17 August 1941 13 August 2013) was a German politician. He was the chairman of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), the successor of East Germany's Socialist Unity Party (SED). In June 2007 he became co-chairman of The Left ...

allowed scenes which took place in Tanja's apartment to be filmed in their Berlin home. Bisky was the director of the University of Film and Television (Potsdam-Babelsberg) from 1986 to 1990 and later, in the reunified Germany, he became a left wing politician. Two of his three sons are gay, one of whom is Berlin-based painter

Norbert Bisky Norbert Bisky (born 1970) is a German artist based in Berlin. He is one of the most important representatives of a new figurative painting in the 21st century. Life Norbert Bisky was born in Leipzig and grew up in the former German Democrati ...

Awards

The film has been shown at film festivals around the world and has won a number of awards, including: * 1990

(Berlinale) -

for 'outstanding artistic contribution',. Retrieved 3 December 2016 for its 'expression of respect for human rights, humanity, and tolerance'.

, an award for the best LGBT films at the Berlinale. * 1990 ''Akademie der Künste Berlin'' (

Academy of Arts, Berlin The Academy of Arts (german: Akademie der Künste) is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany. The Academy's predecessor organization was fo ...

) -

Konrad Wolf Prize The Konrad Wolf Prize (german: Konrad-Wolf-Preis) is a German performing arts, new media art and film award given since 1986 by the Academy of Arts, Berlin (formerly the East German Academy of Arts). It is named after the East German film director a ...

for director Heiner Carow and author Wolfram Witt.Konrad Wolf Prize. Academy of Arts, Berlin
Retrieved 3 December 2016 * 1990 (National Feature Film Festival of the GDR) - Best Director (Heiner Carow); Best Young Male Actor (Matthias Freihof).

References

External links

''Coming out''
(9 June 2011) i
East German Cinema Blog
Retrieved 4 August 2017 {{DEFAULTSORT:Coming Out (1989 Film) 1989 films 1989 LGBT-related films LGBT-related coming-of-age films Silver Bear for outstanding artistic contribution East German films German LGBT-related films 1980s German-language films Films directed by Heiner Carow Films set in Berlin Films shot in Berlin Gay-related films 1980s German films