When the German History Museum (DHM), which had already been founded but was still without a home, moved into the Zeughaus on the boulevard Unter den Linden and found a fully equipped cinema in the Museum of German History, it was clear that not only films would be shown here, but also collected. Over the course of more than 30 years, an archive has been created which, with around 900 analog 35mm and 16mm film prints, is one of the…

Lusatia, south of Berlin, is home to one of four recognized indigenous national minorities in the Federal Republic of Germany: the Sorbs, also known as Wends. They are the smallest Slavic people and have their own language and culture. Despite centuries of Germanization, the Sorbian people represented the majority of the population in Lusatia until well into the 20th century, but the destruction of their villages by open-cast lignite mining has greatly reduced their living space. The number of Sorbian…

Several cinematheques and film museums are responsible for preserving and maintaining film heritage in Germany, but there are also numerous small archives and collections. They are often owned by private individuals, associations or communities and pursue their own specialized collection interests. Where the large public archives reach their limits, the small archives and collections step in and ensure a more diverse preservation of film heritage. What gaps do the small archives fill? What is collected there, by whom and for…

In the 1920s and 1930s, Ludwig Manfred Lommel (1891-1962) was considered the biggest act on German radio, but today? His son, the director, actor and Fassbinder intimate Ulli Lommel, called him the "man of a thousand voices", because in his radio sketches, which often revolved around the characters Paul and Pauline Neugebauer from the imaginary Runxendorf in Silesia, he always spoke all the characters himself. "The other broadcasters in the world / need a dozen expensive actors for every scene…

"Just imagine ..." - This is certainly how many of Wolfgang Menge's screenplay projects began. Imagine if the German-German border had been moved a few meters to the east overnight. What would happen to the people on both sides of the barbed wire? Or imagine if there was a game show in which people were hounded to death. Or the Ruhr area would literally run out of air to breathe? Or ... or ... or?

Mayor, lawyer, doctor, student councilor. In addition to her roles as the Queen of Prussia and Empress of Austria, Ruth Leuwerik, who was born in Essen on April 23, 1924, mainly portrayed working women and academics in West German entertainment cinema: Protagonists whom the extremely popular actress profiled as self-confident and assertive women. Leuwerik thus occupies an outstanding position among the female stars of Adenauer-era cinema. Not a girl, not a mother, not a "little soul" or a "decorative accessory"…

"The Other America" was a common formula in the film industry of the GDR, referring to American films or personalities who were considered "progressive" because they showed internationalist commitment or were considered dissidents in the USA. But the formula also reflects an ambivalence found in numerous DEFA films: while America usually stood for the big Other and the powerful enemy, the anti-American discourse often also contained a longing for a different, better America as a stubborn utopia. Anti-Americanism was thus…

Sleep in? Go out to the sea or the lake? To the funfair, the soccer stadium or the club? Let yourself drift and have a drink in the evening? It's questions like these that young people in particular ask themselves at the end of their working week. At the weekend, they can pursue their passions.