''Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder'' (''Mother Courage and Her Children'') is a

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 ...

film which documents the staging of Bertold Brecht's

play of the same name Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * Pla ...

from 1959 to 1961, which

Manfred Wekwerth Manfred Wekwerth (né Weckwerth; 3 December 1929 – 16 July 2014) was a German theatre and film director and writer. He was the director of the Berliner Ensemble theatre from 1977 to 1991. He was also an informant for East Germany's Stasi from ...

and

Peter Palitzsch Peter Palitzsch (11 September 1918 – 18 December 2004) was a German theatre director. He worked with Bertolt Brecht in his Berliner Ensemble from the beginning in 1949, and was in demand internationally as a representative of Brecht's ideas. He ...

directed with the

Berliner Ensemble The Berliner Ensemble () is a German theatre company established by actress Helene Weigel and her husband, playwright Bertolt Brecht, in January 1949 in East Berlin. In the time after Brecht's exile, the company first worked at Wolfgang Langhoff ...

, modelled after the original production by

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

and

Erich Engel Erich Gustav Otto Engel (14 February 1891 – 10 May 1966) was a German film and theatre director.He is often confused with another German film director called Erich Engels, who specialised in comedy, and crime films. Biography Engel was ...

from 1949, with

Helene Weigel Helene Weigel (; 12 May 19006 May 1971) was a German actress and artistic director. She was the second wife of Bertolt Brecht and was married to him from 1930 until his death in 1956. Together they had two children. Personal life Weigel was b ...

in the title role. The film, made in 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 **Ger ...

(GDR), received a prize at the

Locarno Film Festival The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, s ...

History

Bertold Brecht had directed his play '' Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder'' with the

, together with

, in 1949.

worked as his assistant for the production from 1951. After Brecht's death, the film ''Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder'' intended to be a faithful rendering of this model production on stage. It was taken in

black and white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

in 1960 and 1961, with Wekwerth and

directing. The film's first presentation was on 10 February 1961, in the presence of

Alexander Abusch Alexander Abusch (14 February 1902 27 January 1982) was a German journalist, non-fiction writer, and politician. According to one source he was born into a Jewish family in Kraków, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary. Accordin ...

, minister of culture, at the Berlin cinema Oranienburger Tor Lichtspiele. The film was shown simultaneously at 14 regional capitals of the GDR, marking the 63rd birthday of Brecht. The first presentation in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

was in October 1962 at the Internationale Filmwoche Mannheim. It began in other cinemas there on 12 March 1965, and was recommended in June 1965 by the as best film of the month. The film was first aired by the

Deutscher Fernsehfunk Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF; German for "German Television Broadcasting") was the state television broadcaster in the German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany) from 1952 to 1991. DFF produced free-to-air terrestrial television programming ...

, the GDR television, on 27 March 1973.

Reception

wrote in the daily paper ''

Neues Deutschland ''Neues Deutschland'' (''nd''; en, New Germany, sometimes stylized in lowercase letters) is a left-wing German daily newspaper, headquartered in Berlin. For 43 years it was the official party newspaper of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany ...

'' that the film was a faithful reproduction of the staging which was then performed already 400 times at the theatre of the

. Helmut Ullrich of ''

Die Neue Zeit ''Die Neue Zeit'' (German: "The New Times") was a German socialist theoretical journal of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) that was published from 1883 to 1923. Its headquarters was in Stuttgart, Germany. History and profile Founded ...

'' noted that facial expressions were dominant compared with a stage production of the same actors.''

'', 12 February 1961, p. 6

Cast

Award

* 1961: Jugendliteraturdiplom at the

Literature

* F.-B. Habel: ''Das große Lexikon der DEFA-Spielfilme'', Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, , pp. 424–425

References

External links

*
''Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder''
filmportal.de
''Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder''
Filmlexikon {{Authority control 1961 films East German films Films based on works by Bertolt Brecht German black-and-white films Films scored by Paul Dessau Filmed stage productions