Der Palast als Filmsujet – drei dokumentarische Filme aus den Jahren 1989, 1991 und 2005

In the organizer's words:

On the theme weekend "Transform yourselves! Talking about ruptures", the Humboldt Forum will be showing a total of six documentary films over two days that take a closer look at the social upheaval of 1989/90. The two days will focus on different topics.

Saturday is dedicated to the Palast der Republik as a place of remembrance. Based on this, three different points in the history of the Palace will be presented on film. Firstly, as the venue for the 40th anniversary celebrations, the building will become an important station in the Peaceful Revolution. Secondly, you can encounter the building in 1991, when it stood like a time capsule in the center of Berlin, which the new government did not quite know what to do with. Thirdly, you can get to know the building after the asbestos was removed, when it was used by artists and revisited by many old acquaintances. All three moments mark a break in the relatively short but extremely eventful history of the building.

On Sunday, 6 October, the film program will focus on the political transformation of the GDR and the preparation and implementation of reunification. Many of the decisions that influenced the lives of the then 16 million inhabitants of the GDR were made in the Volkskammersaal of the Palace of the Republic. The documentaries aim to shed light on the decisions and compromises that were made in favor of rapid accession to the FRG and how these affected the lives of the former GDR population. On three levels, the documentaries show examples of how reunification took shape - politically, economically and also privately.

Curated and moderated by Dominique Falentin

Film program Saturday

11:00-11:30 a.m. Makulatur 7/10/89 (1989, 22:45 min.)

The film Makulatur 7/10/89 deals with the 40th anniversary of the Republic on October 7, 1989, which was a decisive turning point in the Peaceful Revolution and in which the Palast played a special role as the location of the ceremony. Kerstin Süske, a 23-year-old employee of the Defa documentary film studio at the time, set off with some friends from the film school without a filming permit. The result was film material that captured the tensions between the celebrations and the rebellion of the people in a subtle and authentic way. The film group thus succeeded in capturing the ambivalence of a society in upheaval - compressed into just one day.

Director: Kerstin Süske

Camera: Uwe Mann, Aicke Fricke

Editing: Götz Filenius

Consulting: Günter Jordan

Production: Defa-Studio für Dokumentarfilme (Babelsberg), Film and Television Academy of the GDR

11:30-12:15 Der Hausmeister und sein Palast (1991, 44:47 min.)

The documentary film Der Hausmeister und sein Palast is a melancholy but also tongue-in-cheek look at the Palast der Republik and one of its last employees still working in 1991, the janitor Fred Bartz, who is busy mucking out and maintaining the building, which had been closed a year earlier and from today's perspective was pointless. He has worked there since the Palace of the Republic was built, for a total of 17 years. And he talks with pride about his work there and about the good days of the building. At the same time, he is full of doubts and fears - about his own future and that of his palace. Because with each new day, it becomes more questionable whether the former splendor of the GDR will have a chance of survival in a reunified Germany.

Directed by Árpád Bondy and Margit Knapp, produced on behalf of Süddeutscher Rundfunk Stuttgart.

12:15-12:30 Post-screening discussion with the directors Árpád Bondy and Margit Knapp

12:30-13:20 Goldstaub (2005/2019, 51:07 min.)

Gesine Danckwart and Sven Düfer developed a multi-part video installation called Goldstaub for the Volkspalast 2005, which was viewed by countless visitors over a period of months. The conversations with contemporary witnesses against the backdrop of the gigantic ruins that have been scraped bare have become even more explosive today - as the ruins of the palace are no longer there as a bridge of remembrance. We spoke to employees, artists, politicians and visitors. Many of them were committed to the modified preservation of the building. This remontage of the video installation is thus a multi-layered portrait of the Palast and its protagonists, a reflection on responsibilities and the GDR, and a film about what it takes to remember.

Installation 2005: Gesine Danckwart / Sven Düfer

Remontage 2019: Gesine Danckwart

Editing: Deborah Uhde

13:20-13:45 Post-screening talk Goldstaub with the director Gesine Danckwart

Curator: Dominique Falentin has been working at the Humboldt Forum Foundation in the Berlin Palace since mid-2022. She is part of the curatorial exhibition team Hin und weg. The Palace of the Republic is Present and the associated program team. She is an art historian and has been in Berlin since 2012. She completed her studies at Freie Universität, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Technische Universität Berlin. In 2019, she wrote her master's thesis on the Palace of the Republic in the culture of remembrance and analyzed the topic on the basis of exhibitions in 2019.

- free of charge

- Language: German

- Location: Room 2, ground floor

- Belongs to: Transform yourselves!, There and gone. The Palace of the Republic is the present