Von Pionieren und Piraten. Der DEFA-Kinderfilm in seinen kulturhistorischen, filmästhetischen und ideologischen Dimensionen. [Of Pioneers and Pirates. The DEFA Children’s Film in Its Cultural-Historical, Cinematic-Aesthetic and Ideological Dimensions.] ed. by Steffi Ebert, Bettina Kümmerling-Meibaue

Abstract

61.1 – 2023 | 73 VON PIONIEREN UND PIRATEN. Der DEFA-Kinderfilm in seinen kulturhistorischen, filmästhetischen und ideologischen Dimensionen. [OF PIONEERS AND PIRATES. The DEFA Children’s Film in Its Cultural-Historical, Cinematic-Aesthetic and Ideological Dimensions.] Edited by Steffi Ebert and Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer. Series: Studien zur europäischen Kinderund Jugendliteratur [Studies in European Children’s and Youth Literature]; 10. Winter, 2021, 302 pages. ISBN: 978-3-8253-4837-3 The anthology Von Pionieren und Piraten (Of Pioneers and Pirates) emerged from a conference of the same name at the University of Halle (2019). The editors, Steffi Ebert and Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer, aim to shed light on open research questions concerning the DEFA children’s film from the perspectives of film art history, cultural history, media history, and more. The contributions of the volume deal with original films as well as literary adaptations of the DEFA in terms of film genres (such as contemporary children’s film, puppet film, animation film), images of childhood in the GDR, production and creation processes, adaptation practice under the principles/doctrine of socialist realism, the context of GDR television for children, film aesthetics (cinematographic strategies of directors), canonization processes (such as the allocation of cinema licenses and film criticism on behalf of the party as well as structural censorship), and comparative studies. They illustrate “the extent to which political, social, and cultural change in the GDR is reflected in corresponding children’s films. Special attention is paid to the recurrent, often subtly hidden criticism of social circumstances” (20). The volume is divided into four thematic sections: (1) “Childhood in Transition: The DEFA Children’s Film of the 1940s and 1950s,” (2) Political Frameworks: Between Cultural Education and Ideology Critique,” (3) “Media Transformations: From Literary Adaptation to Media Composite,” and (4) “Media Reception: CulturalSociological and Film Didactic Perspectives.” In the first part, the films Irgendwo in Berlin (Somewhere in Berlin; directed by Gerhard Lamprecht, 1946), Sheriff Teddy (directed by Heiner Carow, 1957), and Die Störenfriede (The Troublemakers; directed by Wolfgang Schleif, 1953) are analyzed against the background of the founding history of the GDR and DEFA. Themes such as the children’s collective or the conversion of a boy from his capitalist infiltration to a pioneer are elaborated. In the second part, the analysis of the films Die dicke Tilla (Fat Tilla; directed by Werner Bergmann, 1981) and Moritz in der Litfaßsäule (Moritz in the Advertising Column; directed by Rolf Losansky, 1983) shows how they individually and openly question “the ideological constructs of GDR family policy and the official GDR image of children” (95). Fantasy is described in different ways as an escape from BOOKS ON BOOKS