Walter Niklaus

Der Staatsanwalt hat das Wort

Der Staatsanwalt hat das Wort was an East German television series.

The Invisible Visor

The Invisible Visor (Das unsichtbare Visier) was an East German television series, broadcast with long intervals between 1973 and 1979. In its first and longest season it starred Armin Mueller-Stahl in the role of Werner Bredebusch, a Stasi agent active abroad under the alias Achim Detjen.

Bahnwärter Thiel

The film tells the tragic fate of railroad guard Thiel at the end of the 19th century. Thiel, who spends his days in the dull, monotonous fulfillment of his duties, has lost his gentle, quiet wife Minna. He remarries out of concern for his young son Tobias. His second wife Lene, with whom he also has a child, is superior to him in vitality and has a rough passion. He discovers that his child from his first marriage is being discriminated against and tormented by her - Thiel withdraws more and more into himself and becomes lonely. When Tobias is killed in an accident, he blames Lene, and disaster is inevitable...

Fog

At the beginning of the 1960s, a German turns up on behalf of the NATO in the British village of Rocksmouth. NATO wants to establish a naval base in Rocksmouth, but first, the German envoy has to salvage an old ship wreck. In 1942, the "Princess of India" was supposed to bring children to safety in Canada but was sunk by a German submarine at departure. 58 people were killed, most of them children.

Abschied vom Frieden

Prague 1913: The family of newspaper publisher Alexander Reither, traditionally reunited for a New Year’s dinner, moves along convoluted and secretive paths in everyday life. Granddaughter Wally is impressed by the opaque businessman Marko Gelusich. Her cousin Adrienne meets the young socialist Joseph Prokop at an illegal anarchist meeting. On a business trip to Vienna, Alexander Reither falls in love with Irene v. Claudi. Adrienne wants to move completely into Joseph Prokop’s proletarian world, but her mother Kalivoda makes her a painful announcement. Joseph already has a girl. Alexander finds Irene v. Claudi in Budapest. They spend happy days in Vienna. In Prague, the printing workers go on strike. Adrienne fights alongside the workers and Robert Kalivoda. She experiences class struggle with her cousin Guido Frank. Alexander tries to introduce Irene to the family.

Everyone Dies Alone

A German couple start a silent campaign against Hitler's dictatorial reign after the loss of their only son at the front.

The Russian Miracle

A two-part East German documentary tracing Russia’s transformation from the Tsarist Empire to the Soviet Union, from the 1917 October Revolution to the achievements of the space program. Directed by Andrew Thorndike and Annelie Thorndike, the film assembles extensive archival footage to chart political upheaval, ideological consolidation, and technological ambition in twentieth-century Russia. Produced by DEFA and first broadcast on East German television in 1963.

Der springende Punkt

Archive footage of bomb detonations during the Second World War combined with abstract graphic elements which show the destructive potential of modern nuclear missiles. Together the images are a silent warning of armament and war.

The Third Skin

A flat as a human basic right and need; that is what Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Secretary General of the United Nations spoke of in 1987. The trilogy “The Third Skin” is about the persons concerned on five continents: people searching for flats, architects, politicians, estate agents, homeless, UNO experts, construction workers, sociologists and social workers, street kids, pastors, philosophers and jurists. The reason for working on the documentary for two and a half years was the International UNO Year 1987 of Shelter for the Homeless

Mein Bruder, der Clown

In the Land of Eagles and Crosses

In this documentary, Joachim Hellwig uses partly unpublished footage to shed light on a dark chapter of German history and shows the entanglements between the politicians' claims to power and the interests of industry and business in Germany from the beginning of the First World War to the end of the Second World War (1914 to 1945). The Nuremberg War Crimes and Industrial Trials served as the basis for this documentary.

Censored: Kuhle Wampe

A detailed reconstruction of the censorship case against the landmark Weimar-era communist film, Kuhle Wampe, or Who Owns the World? (1932). Directed by Slatan Dudow, the crew and cast included left-wing luminaries, such as playwright Bertolt Brecht, composer Hanns Eisler and balladeer Ernst Busch. The film was the subject of vehement disputes and was banned twice for revolutionary and communist tendencies that were perceived to threaten the state. About 230 meters of the original film fell victim to the censor’s shears. This historic censorship case was argued over the course of three sessions. Censored: Kuhle Wampe re-enacts the censorship hearings, based on original minutes and documents, as well as personal records of the case. In addition to footage from the original film, this docudrama includes original clips of Berlin in the 1920s and '30s and short testimonies, filmed in the 1970s, with some of the actors involved in the original Kuhle Wampe film production.

The Black Galley

Antwerp at the end of the 16th century. For the second time, the city falls into the hands of the plundering and murdering Spaniards. Jan and Myga are just ten years old. While Myga's father tries to come to terms with the Spaniards, Jan leaves the occupied country with his father. When Jan has grown into a young man, he joins the Geusen and is entrusted with the best ship as helmsman, the "Black Galley". He survives numerous battles and dangers, but one day he is captured by the Spanish. He frees not only himself but also his beloved Myga from the hands of the enemy. In 1609, the Spaniards are forced to finally recognize the independence of the northern provinces.

Der Fall Bernd K.

Documentary on Bernd Köhlert, a West German mercenary whose death in the Congo caused a sensation

Nachspiel eines Verhörs