Berlin – Ecke Schönhauser… | |
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Directed by | Gerhard Klein |
Produced by | Erich Albrecht |
Written by | Gerhard Klein |
Starring | Ekkehard Schall |
Music by | Günter Klück |
Cinematography | Wolf Göthe |
Editing by | Evelyn Carow |
Studio | DEFA |
Distributed by | PROGRESS-Film Verleih |
Release date(s) | 30 August 1957 |
Running time | 81 minutes |
Country | East Germany |
Language | German |
Berlin, Schoenhauser Corner (German: Berlin – Ecke Schönhauser…)[1] is an East German crime film directed by Gerhard Klein. It was released in 1957.
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Dieter, Angela, Kohle and Karl-Heinz are a group of delinquent youths who prowl Schönhauser Allee, in Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg. The four, each with his troubled life, are often in trouble with the police. Karl-Heinz steals an identity document and uses it to enter West Berlin, where he murders a man while committing armed robbery. The police suspects that his friends assisted him. When he returns, Kohle and Dieter try to find out what he had done; He threatens them both with a pistol, and Kohle knocks him unconscious. Dieter and he believe they have killed Karl-Heinz, and flee to West Berlin, from where they plan to get to the Federal Republic of Germany. Dieter regrets their escape. He pretends to be sick, so Kohle would leave without him. He drinks a solution of coffee and tobacco to feign illness. On the next day, he discovers "Kohle" dead, after he consumed the remains of the beverage. Dieter returns home, where Angela awaits his child, and explains the situation to the police. He is released, while Karl-Heinz is imprisoned.
The screenplay of Berlin – Ecke Schönhauser… was written in summer 1956 - during the early months of the Khruschev Thaw - and severely criticized by officials in the Ministry of Culture's Cinema Directorate upon its completion. It was seen by the authorities as portraying only the negative side of the life in the country. Director Klein did not receive an approval to begin filming, but did so anyhow, starting at October. When Klein held a screening of Ecke Schönhauser in the Ministry of Culture, the officials present strongly disapproved of it, and intended to ban it. But when it was presented to the Central Committee of the Free German Youth, Hans Modrow praised Klein's work and declared that it would be beneficial for the populace. The film was approved for release.[2]
The film was viewed by 1.5 million watchers in the first twelve weeks after its premiere.[3]
Mira and Antonin Liehm wrote that, while still attacking "West Berlin with the same propagandistic undertone of all DEFA films", it also "took into account the shady aspects of life in the East".[4] Dagmar Schittly noted that the film acknowledged the East German youth's wish to emulate the life in the West, at least partially: on one occasion, Angela states that her model of the ideal man figure is Marlon Brando.[5]
At 1995, Berlin – Ecke Schönhauser… was selected as one of the 100 most important German films in history.[6]
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