Update March 13, 2020
From Saturday, 14 March 2020 onwards, the Willy-Brandt-Haus will be closed until further notice. This measure is intended to minimise the spread of the coronavirus. We ask our visitors for their understanding.
PiB will keep you informed here about further updates.

In the meantime, enjoy the virtual tour here on PiB:

German film history is characterized by new beginnings and upheavals. And it started in Berlin. On November 1, 1895, the Skladanowsky brothers showed their first films in the Winter Garden Palace on Friedrichstrasse. As a result, significant and unique film classics were produced in Germany. In the twenties and thirties, many of the best German and most innovative directors and film technicians left for Hollywood for political reasons or because of the call for unlimited possibilities. In the early 1930s, the National Socialists took power and the film was used for propaganda purposes. A radical change.

Many of the 56 protagonists portrayed and interviewed by Swiss photographer Beat Presser, who can be seen in the Willy Brandt Haus from February 14, 2020, were born into the period of the Second World War. They experienced the horrors of war as children and the experiences burned into their memories. The post-war films that she saw with her parents in the cinema were the so-called home films, characterized by a longing for an ideal world with romantic love stories, untouched landscapes and the like. Films that were not used to process the war trauma, but filled the box office and attracted millions to the cinemas.

The Oberhausen Manifesto in 1962 marked the beginning of a new beginning that led to a new beginning: 26 filmmakers proclaimed “The old film is dead, we believe in the new one”. This marked the beginning of the New German Film era. With critical awareness, flexible production methods and new actors, the young filmmakers set off on new shores, provoked different ways of thinking and revolutionized the common German film production.

Beat Presser has worked intensively on the topic for nine years and created a film and historical document. He not only portrayed and interviewed the directors and actors, he also lets cameramen, outfitters, set designers, costume designers, screenwriters, film critics, producers tell about their work and experiences. All those can be seen and have their say who played a key role in the creation of the New German Film.
An exhibition with photographs, short films, quotations, short biographies, film excerpts, film posters.

Books accompanying the exhibition:
Vor der Klappe ist Chaos, Beat Presser, Verlag Zweitausendeins, 2020, ISBN 9783963180545, 49,90 €
Aufbruch ins Jetzt – Der Neue Deutsche Film, edition achsensprung, 2019, ISBN 9783033073173, 25 € (Bestellung bei Vera Pechel: ).

Supported by: Die Deutsche Automatenwirtschaft
With thanks to: TRANSIT FILM // Bundesplatz Kino
Media partner: PiB – Photography in Berlin

(English translation by PiB, read the German original here)

Simultaneous exhibition at FkWBH:
»Erzähl mir, Augenblick« – Actor portraits by Michael Weidt and GDR film posters

Framework program

Thursday, Feb 13, 2020, 7.30 pm
Opening Reception
Admission free | Photo ID required (ID card, driver’s license or passport).

Greetings:
Gisela Kayser, Managing Director & Artistic Director Freundeskreis Willy-Brandt-Haus e.V.
Speakers:
Prof. Dr. Jutta Brückner, Drehbuchautorin, Regisseurin und Produzentin
Wolfgang Kohlhaase, Drehbuchautor und Regisseur
The photographers Beat Presser & Michael Weidt will be present.

Feb 14 — Mar 22, 2020
Opening Reception: Thursday, Feb 13, 2020, 7.30 pm,
Admission free | Photo ID required
Framework program: please see above

Freundeskreis Willy-Brandt-Haus e.V.

Stresemannstraße 28, 10963 Berlin
[District: Kreuzberg | Borough: Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg]

Opening hours: Tue – Sun 12 – 6 pm, last entry at 5.30 pm

Admission free | Photo ID required (ID card, driver’s license or passport)