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This is What Life was Like in Communist East Germany

Tim Flight December 18, 2019 25 min

Berlin Wall - Checkpoint Charlie — A man peers over the newly-built Berlin Wall in August 1961. The Guardian

14. East German cinema produced some classic anti-fascist films

Still from the 1975 Holocaust film, Jacob the Liar. Microsoft

As well as Red Westerns, the East German film industry also made other types of film. As you might expect, GDR movies tended to be political and had to be State-approved. Despite these restrictions, the GDR produced some famous anti-fascism films hailed as classics to this day. Jacob the Liar (1974), set in Nazi-occupied Poland, ends tragically with the Jewish protagonists marching to the death camps. Five Cartridges (1960), set in the Spanish Civil War, also carries a poignant anti-fascist message. The East German film industry was very prolific, and made movies spanning almost every genre.

Written by

Tim Flight

I am a freelance historical and literary writer based in West Yorkshire, UK. I read for a funded PhD in English at the University of Oxford (Magdalen College) and graduated in 2016. I am a former lecturer in Medieval English Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. My publications include peer-reviewed articles in academic publications, and pieces in mainstream magazines such as History Today and Fortean Times. For more information, please see www.drflight.co.uk