DEFA (''Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft'') was the state-owned film studio of the

German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **G ...

(East Germany) throughout the country's existence. Since 2019, DEFA's film heritage has been made accessible and licensable on the

PROGRESS Progress is the movement towards a refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. In the context of progressivism, it refers to the proposition that advancements in technology, science, and social organization have resulted, and by extension w ...

archive platform.

History

DEFA was founded in Spring 1946 in the

Soviet Occupied Zone The Soviet Occupation Zone ( or german: Ostzone, label=none, "East Zone"; , ''Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii'', "Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany") was an area of Germany in Central Europe that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a c ...

in eastern Germany; it was the first film

production company A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and v ...

in post-World War II Germany. While the other

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

, in their zones of occupation, viewed a rapid revival of a German film industry with suspicion, the Soviets valued the medium as a primary means of re-educating the German populace as it emerged from twelve years of

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 ...

rule. Headquartered in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

, the company was formally authorized by the Soviet Military Administration to produce films on 13 May 1946, although

Wolfgang Staudte Wolfgang Staudte (9 October 1906 – 19 January 1984), born Georg Friedrich Staudte, was a German film director, script writer and acting, actor. He was born in Saarbrücken. After 1945, Staudte also looked at German guilt in the cinema. Alon ...

had already begun work on DEFA's first film, '' Die Mörder sind unter uns'' (''The Murderers Are Among Us'') nine days earlier. The original board of directors consisted of Alfred Lindemann, Karl Hans Bergmann, and Herbert Volkmann, with

Hans Klering Hans Klering (8 November 1906 – 30 October 1988) was a German actor, director, voice actor, graphic designer and author. He joined the Communist Party and went into exile in the Soviet Union in 1931, returning to Germany in 1945. In 1946, he beca ...

as administrative Secretary. Klering, a former graphic designer, also designed DEFA's logo.Thomas Phelps
"Links wo das Herz ist"
Justus Liebig University Giessen (October 27–28, 1997). Retrieved 29 November 2011 On 13 August 1946, the company was officially registered as a

joint-stock company A joint-stock company is a business entity in which shares of the company's stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their shares (certificates of ownership). Shareholders a ...

(german: Aktiengesellschaft). By the end of the year, in addition to the Staudte film, it had completed two other

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

s using the former Tobis studio facilities in Berlin and the

Althoff Studios The Althoff Studios (german: Althoff-Atelier) were film studios located in Potsdam outside the German capital Berlin. The studios were constructed in 1939 by the film producer Gustav Althoff who controlled the independent company Aco-Film. The o ...

Babelsberg Babelsberg () is the largest quarter ('' Stadtteil'') of Potsdam, the capital city of the German state of Brandenburg. The affluent neighbourhood named after a small hill on the Havel river is famous for Babelsberg Palace and Park, part of the Pala ...

. Subsequently, its principal studio was the

Babelsberg Studio Babelsberg Film Studio (german: Filmstudio Babelsberg), located in Potsdam-Babelsberg outside Berlin, Germany, is the second oldest large-scale film studio in the world only preceded by the Danish Nordisk Film (est. 1906), producing films since ...

built by

Ufa Ufa ( ba, Өфө , Öfö; russian: Уфа́, r=Ufá, p=ʊˈfa) is the largest city and capital city, capital of Bashkortostan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Belaya River (Kama), Belaya and Ufa River, Ufa rivers, in the centre-n ...

in the 1920s. On 14 July 1947, the company officially moved its headquarters to the Bablesberg Studio, and on 13 November 1947, the company's "stock" was taken over by the Socialist Unity Party or SED, which had originally capitalized DEFA, and pro-Soviet German individuals. Soviets Ilya Trauberg and Aleksandr Wolkenstein joined Lindemann, Bergmann and Volkmann on the board of directors, and a committee was established under the auspices of the Socialist Unity Party to review projects and screen rushes. In July 1948, Lindemann was dismissed from the board of directors because of alleged "financial irregularities" and replaced briefly by Walter Janka. In October 1948, the SED was instrumental in replacing Janka, Volkmann and Bergmann as corporate directors with official party members Wilhelm Meissner, and Grete Keilson. In December, the death of Trauberg and the resignation of Wolkenstein resulted in two more Soviets in their stead, Aleksandr Andriyevsky and Leonid Antonov. In 1948, the division of Germany into zones controlled by the Soviet Union and by the Western Allies came into effect. The SED eventually became openly

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

, with a strong

Stalinist Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...

orientation. On 23 May 1949, the Allies' Germany officially became the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...

(commonly known as West Germany), and on 7 October 1949, the Soviet zone officially became the

(East Germany). All DEFA interests were incorporated into the new nation as its "people's" film

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

according to the strictures of Stalinist Communism and

socialist realism Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...

, and effectively an arm of the government. On 23 June 1950, , a hardline Communist, was appointed director-general of DEFA. As Soviet-Communist-Stalinist influences took hold at DEFA, the definition of desirable and acceptable themes for films became narrower. In June 1947, a film writer's conference held in Potsdam produced general agreement that the "new" German cinema would disavow both subjects and stylistic elements reminiscent of those seen on German screens during, and prior to, the Nazi era. By 1949, expectations for scripts were codified around a small number of topics, such as " e-istribution of land" or "the two-year plan". As in the Soviet Union, the excessive control placed by the state on authors of screenplays, as against other literary works, discouraged many competent writers from contributing to East German film. Screenwriters could find their efforts rejected for ideological reasons at any stage in script development, if not from the outset. As a result, between 1948 and 1953, when Stalin died, the entire film output for East Germany, excluding newsreels and non-theatrical educational films, amounted to fewer than 50 titles. In the 1960s, DEFA produced the popular Red Western '' The Sons of the Great Mother Bear'', directed by

Josef Mach Josef Mach (25 February 1909, in Prostějov – 7 July 1987, in Prague) was a Czech actor, screenwriter and film director. Josef Mach worked as a journalist and stage performer at the beginning of his career, then in 1938 was appointed assistant d ...

and starring Gojko Mitić as the

Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin (; Dakota: /otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations peoples in North America. The modern Sioux consist of two major divisions based on language divisions: the Dakota and ...

Tokei-itho. This spawned a number of sequels and was notable for inverting

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

clichés by portraying the native Americans as the "good guys", and the American army as the "baddies". In 1992, after German reunification, DEFA was officially dissolved and its combined studios sold to a French conglomerate,

Compagnie Générale des Eaux Vivendi SE is a French mass media holding company headquartered in Paris. Widely known as the owner of Gameloft, Groupe Canal+, Havas, Editis, Prisma Media, Vivendi Village and Dailymotion, the company has activities in television, film, video ...

, later

Vivendi Universal Vivendi SE is a French mass media holding company headquartered in Paris. Widely known as the owner of Gameloft, Groupe Canal+, Havas, Editis, Prisma Media, Vivendi Village and Dailymotion, the company has activities in television, film, video ...

. In 2004, a private consortium acquired the studios. The films produced at the DEFA studios after World War II included approximately 950 feature films, 820 animated films, more than 5,800 documentaries and newsreels, and 4,000 foreign language movies dubbed into German, which were acquired by the privatized version of the former East German film distribution monopoly,

. In October 2005, the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...

in New York City hosted a two-week DEFA festival.

Das Stacheltier

''Das Stacheltier'' is a satirical series of short films that was produced in

East Germany 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 German reunification, its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In t ...

by the DEFA Film Studios from 1953 to 1964. The short films were meant to be shown in film theatres preceding the

newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a cinema, newsreels were a source of current affairs, inform ...

and the main feature. The only feature film in the series was the silent film ''Der junge Engländer'' directed by Gottfried Kolditz in 1958. Many well-known East German directors and actors contributed to the film series, including Frank Beyer,

Erwin Geschonneck Erwin Geschonneck (27 December 1906 – 12 March 2008) was a German actor. His biggest success occurred in the German Democratic Republic, where he was considered one of the most famous actors of the time. Early life Geschonneck was born in Bart ...

, Gisela May, Rudolf Wessely,

Otto Tausig Otto Tausig (13 February 1922 – 10 October 2011) was an Austrian writer, director and actor. Although he usually appeared in German language films, he also played in English language films such as '' Love Comes Lately'', and in French language fi ...

Peter Sturm Josef Michel Dischel (24 August 1909 – 11 May 1984), known by his adopted stage name Peter Sturm, was an Austrian and an East German actor. Biography Early life Dischel was born into a religious Jewish family in Vienna. His father was a tailor, ...

Rolf Herricht Rolf Oskar Ewald Günter Herricht (October 5, 1927 – August 23, 1981) was an East German comedian. Biography Early life Herricht graduated from school in 1943 after passing a ' War Abitur', a form of an Abitur designated to free school pu ...

and Heinz Schubert. In 2019, Progress was acquired by LOOKSfilm. Since April 1, 2019, the entire film heritage of the GDR has been made internationally accessible and licensable on the Progress Film archive platform.

DEFA Film studios

*DEFA-Studio für Spielfilme in

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of ...

-Babelsberg (studio for feature films) *DEFA-Studio für Trickfilme in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

(studio for animated films) *DEFA-Studio für populärwissenschaftliche Filme in Potsdam, Alt-Nowawes (studio for educational films) *DEFA-Studio für Wochenschau und Dokumentarfilme in

(studio for news reels and documentation films) *DEFA-Studio für Synchronisation in Berlin-Johannisthal (studio for dubbing) *DEFA-Kopierwerke in Berlin-Köpenick and Berlin-Johannisthal (factory for movie copying) *DEFA-Außenhandel in Berlin (foreign trade) Today PROGRESS is the distributor for all DEFA-Movies for Television and Cinema. Icestorm Entertainment is the exclusive distributor for release for video and DVD. DEFA films can be rented or purchased from the DEFA Film Library at the University of Massachusetts and many titles in NTSC format are now available on DVD from US distributor First Run Features (see links below).

Bibliography

* Allan, Sean; Sandford, John, (eds.) ''DEFA: East German Cinema, 1946–1992''. New York and Oxford, Berghahn Books, 1999 * Allan, Sean; Heiduschke, Sebastian (eds.) ''Re-Imagining DEFA: East German Cinema in its National and Transnational Contexts''. Berghahn Books, 2016 * Bergfelder, Tim; Carter, Erica & Goektuerk, Deniz, (eds.) ''The German Cinema Book''. Berkeley: BFI/University of California Press. 2003. * Berghahn, Daniela. ''Hollywood behind the Wall: the Cinema of East Germany''. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005 * Beyer, Frank. ''Wenn der Wind sich dreht: Meine Filme, mein Leben''. Econ. 2001. * Elsaesser, Thomas & Wedel, Michael. ''The BFI Companion to German Cinema''. London: British Film Institute, 1999. * Habel, F.-B. ''Das grosse Lexikon der DEFA-Spielfilme'', Berlin: Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, 2000 * Heiduschke, Sebastian. ''East German Cinema: DEFA and Film History''. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. * Naughton, Leonie. ''That Was the Wild East: Film Culture, Unification, and the `New´ Germany''. Ann Arbor, 2002. * Preuss, Evelyn. "'You Say You Want a Revolution': East German Film at the Crossroads between the Cinemas." In ''Celluloid Revolt: German Screen Cultures and the Long 1968,'' edited by Christina Gerhardt and Marco Abel, 218-236. Rochester, NY: Boydell, 2019. * Schenk, Ralf; Richter, Erika (eds.) ''apropos: Film 2001 Das Jahrbuch der DEFA-Stiftung''. Das Neue Berlin, 2001. * Schittly, Dagmar. ''Zwischen Regie und Regime: die Filmpolitik der SED im Spiegel der DEFA-Produktionen''. Berlin, 2002. * Silberman, Marc; Wrage, Henning (eds.) ''DEFA at the Crossroads of East German and International Film Culture. A Companion''. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2014. * Wagner, Brigitta B. (ed.) ''DEFA after East Germany''. Rochester: Camden House, 2014.

Film

* '' East Side Story'', a documentary that discusses DEFA's musicals

References

External links

DEFA Film Library and Online ShopDEFA FoundationPROGRESS
the distributor of the complete DEFA film heritage
Studio Babelsberg
{{Authority control State-owned film companies Film production companies of Germany German film studios Companies of East Germany Mass media companies established in 1946 1946 establishments in Germany Mass media companies disestablished in 1992 German companies disestablished in 1992 German companies established in 1946