German Studies 315f (01) Topics in German Studies

Love and Death or Sex and Crime: The Representation of East Germany in Film after the Fall of the Berlin Wall
H. Teschke M 7:00 – 10:00 pm

Notes

  • This is a one-time only course.
  • This course is a Five-College German Studies Course open to advanced undergraduate and first-year graduate students in the five colleges with advanced German knowledge or by permission of I.
  • This course is taught in German and includes weekly screenings tba.

Speaking-and writing-intensive course
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, we will discuss the most important films about East Germany produced after 1990. Films such as Good-bye Lenin, Stilles Land, Das Leben der Anderen, Halbe Treppe, and others form the basis of discussion and analysis of political, economic and cultural discourses in unified Germany between 1990-2008. We compare these films with classics of East German film, such as Spur der Steine, Der Dritte, Die Legende von Paul & Paula, and Solo Sunny. In addition to writing assignments based on film analysis and criticism, we also practice the basics of scriptwriting and film directing.

Holger Teschke, born in 1958 in Bergen on the Island of Rügen in the former East Germany, sailed from 1978 to 1979 as a ship~Rs machinist. From 1988 to 1999, he worked as as dramaturg, director and author at the Berliner Ensemble in East Berlin, Bertolt Brecht~Rs old theater. Since 2000, he has been a visiting artist and director in North and South America, South East Asia, and Europe. Teschke also writes plays and radio plays and has published prose, essays and poetry. He has taught  and directed productions at Mount Holyoke College for over a decade and was a Copeland Fellow at Amherst College in 1993. As a former citizen of East Germany and participant in the cultural sphere who experienced the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Teschke brings first-hand knowledge to the Five-College course on film and the fall of the Berlin Wall (German Studies 315) at MHC.