In 1947, the Soviets began their mining operations in the Schlema Valley in the southeastern region of Saxony. They called their mining company “Wismut,” the German word for bismuth, because they didn’t want the U.S. to know they were really mining uranium. After what happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Russians wanted to make sure …
Category: post-war years
The Axe of Wandsbeck
When reviewing the post-war films of East Germany (or West Germany, for that matter), there is a tendency to temper one’s reviews by limiting any comparisons to the other German films of the same era. That is to say, you can write lots of nice things about these films, but just don’t compare them to …
Carbide and Sorrel
By the early 1960s, the Cold War was hotter than ever. The Cuban revolution in 1959, the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961, and the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 led to a situation where people on both sides of the Iron Curtain were expecting World War III to start at any minute. So …
The Murderers Are Among Us
The Murderers Are Among Us (Die Mörder sind unter uns), still stands as one of the greatest films to come out of East Germany.
East German Cinema Blog 