Metadata
- TitleResurrection
- SummaryThis black-and-white documentary film reports with impressive photo insertions and historical film sequences about the "Florence on the Elbe" of the 1930s and 1940s and covers a wide range from the destroyed Dresden to the colour photographs of the rebuilt Dresden of 1985. Beauty and decline, destruction and a new beginning, all this becomes visible in this film and never reminds one to forget the peace that has now been won. The documentary Annelies Thorndikes is accompanied by quotations from famous authors. The chosen music is used as a stylish element and gives the photos and film clips expressiveness and testifies to the unbroken will to live of the citizens of Dresden.
- Shotlist0:00:00 Black and white shots: View over the river Elbe to the city Dresden (half total). Handwritten fade-in "In love - for the people of 1945 who began with their bare hands - have rebuilt large cities and entire regions. Annelie Thorndike" (near). Dimming. Title "AUFBRUCH" appears on the screen. Cut over to a photo of a war returnee in front of a tree with small information notes (near). Narrator: "A man comes home, he was long gone, very long, much too long, and he comes back quite differently when he left. He's looking for his house... (photo flash of destroyed house)... his house is gone. He's looking for his kid, they buried him. He's looking for the woman. He stands in nothingness...(Panning over a photo of the destroyed Dresden)...this is what the hometown looks like now". recut 0:2:00 Aerial photos of the city of Dresden before World War II (near). Redesign to historical film footage from the 30s and 40s from the city centre of Dresden (half total). Swing over the flower market (half total). Narrator: "From here they went out to win. Dresden, you beauty, see you soon". Driving photo over an Elbe bridge with a view of the city of Dresden (half total). Circumcision. Historical film footage of injured German prisoners of war in Russia (half total). Narrator: "Mutilated, embittered, broken, dishonoured. There, golden dreams of the youth...(Injured German soldiers walk through destroyed terrain)...The guilt of war on the tired shoulders...(Zoom on a camp photo with German prisoners of war)...I hurt myself miserable man, what else will I experience". recut 0:03:25 Swing over the destroyed houses of Dresden (half total). Narrator: "I will walk through extinct cities, no more stone on the other stone, and even where the old stones still stand, they are no longer the old familiar lanes...". Photo of the destroyed Webergasse (near). Photo of the destroyed stable yard (near). Photo of the destroyed Pirna Square (near). Photo of the destroyed restaurant "Narrenhäusel" (near). Photo of the destroyed Carola bridge (near). Photo of the destruction on the Altmarkt (near). Photo of the destroyed staircase of the Albertinum (near). Photo of the destroyed Semper Opera House (near). Photo of the destroyed saloon steamer "Dresden" (near). Photo on the rubble of the Technical University (near). Photo of the burnt out "Clara-Schumann-School" (near). Photo of the destroyed kennel (near). Photo of the destroyed interiors of the town hall (near). Narrator: "Probably about 650,000 people lived here". recut 0:05:35 Historical film footage of refugees arriving on the Elbe (half total). Refugees and bombed-out people with wooden carts and prams pass their belongings by the destroyed kennel (half total). Photo of refugees on a wooden cart (near). Narrator: "We live, fate has graciously forgiven us". Photo of a happy mother with son (near). Photo of refugees with carts on the Brühlsche Terrasse (near). Photos of bombed out and refugees in the cityscape of Dresden (near). Photo of a filled station full of waiting refugees (near). Filming of returning war veterans on a horse-drawn carriage with attached gun (half total). Swing over returning soldiers and refugees on horse and cart on the street in front of the Dresden railway station (half total). Russian soldiers accompany the refugees and returnees in the streets of Dresden with their military vehicles (half total). Narrator: "At that time Hitler had capitulated Germany unconditionally, so they were unconditionally defeated. They came across the mountains without singing. When they now reached Dresden after terrible battles, they fell silent, they wrote May 8, 1945, the "last day of the war". recut 0:07:30 Historical film footage: Russian soldiers guard the arriving food on railway wagons and barges (half total). Men and women fill bags with potatoes (semi-near). Filled bags are loaded onto trucks (half total). Photos of the food needs of the population (near). Narrator: "The winner has allies...(Photo inserts)..., the German anti-fascists. They had 12 murderous years behind them, so they were just a bunch of...(photo inserts)...former traitors to high and low countries. Twelve years of unconditional persecution...". Photo insertions of persecuted anti-fascists (near). Narrator: "The maltreated, who had been considered traitors to the country, took their defeated brothers by the hand...". 0:09:30 Narrator: "Now I'll start with my bare hands... (Photo inserts of rubble women)... Let's not see ourselves as victims...but as those who were in hell with us and are wonderfully saved". Photo of a railway of debris between destroyed houses (near). Photo of filling the debris lane with rubble (near). Photos of destroyed houses and ruins (near). Photos of paving and track works in the city (near). Photos of trams in Dresden again (near). Photos of a destroyed Elbe bridge and a temporary bridge (near). Historical film footage of the construction of destroyed factories (semi-total). Swing over the women and men in the destroyed factory site (half total). Photos of burnt out houses, nail search and renovated houses (near). Photos of a sick child and a destroyed children's hospital (near). recut 0:12:00 Historical film recording: Returners of war in front of a camp receive mail (half near). Prisoners of war march into a camp under Russian leadership (half total). A freight train full of war returnees passes by (half total). Photos from primary school classrooms (near). View of a schoolbag with slate board and sponge (semi-near). Photos from the school lunch and from plowing farmers (near). Photos of allotments in the city centre of Dresden (near). Photo of a reading woman on rubble at a tram stop (near). Photos of playing children (near). Narrator: "Children want to laugh. The first atomic bomb went off in Hiroshima. Autumn 1945 is coming". Photos of a potato harvest and flowering sunflowers (near). Photos of the preparation of small meals in intact kitchens and the common lunch at the table (near). Narrator: "Home-grown mushrooms and fallow potatoes are a princely meal. Families are lucky enough to be able to eat together. 0:14:25 Photo from the 1st concert of the Dresdner Philharmonie (near). Photo of a street banner "Interim Theater-Dresdner Bühnen" (near). Group photo of the artists at Figaro's wedding in the Kurhaus Bühlau (near). Photo of a provisional ticket counter in a destroyed station concourse (near). Photos of wedding couples and newborns (near). Group photo of the Golden Wedding of the Rose couple (near). Narrator: "A bread is presented as a wedding present...(photo fade in)...In the Körnergasse there is an easel...(photo fade in of the painter in ruins)...there are 25 grams of soap...(photo)...a box of matches, 125 grams of coffee substitute...". Photo of children on their way to the Kinderfest (nah). Photo of a filled truck with chairs, cupboards and tables with inscription "Volkssolidarität ist Liebe die nach Dresden geht" (near). Photo of painting girls between house rubble (near). Photo of women in ruins in front of a destroyed church (near). Photo of a policewoman at the traffic control in the Neustadt (near). Photos of pensioners playing cards and a sleeping man next to a broken off putto head (near). recut 0:17:00 Historical film footage of a football match during the "Saxon Sports Days 1946" (half total). Different settings of the soccer game and the spectators (half total). Spectators run onto the pitch and let their players live high (half total). Cut over to an illuminated sign "Ruhe Sendung" (semi-close). View through the studio window onto the playing orchestra in the Rundfunkhaus Dresden (half total). Sound engineer at the mixing console (half near). Narrator: "The Dresden station has resumed its activities". Panning from the mixing console to the production of a sound carrier in the studio (semi-near). Circumcision. Photo of a school class visiting the painting exhibition in Pillnitz Castle (near). Photos of the dancing Gret Palucca (near). Photo of the land reform in Saxony (near). Photo of the demolished New Town Hall of Dresden (near). Photo of Russian slogans on a wall (near). Narrator: "The museum is checked, no mines". Circumcision. Historical film footage: Swing over the scaffolded facade of the kennel (half total). Photo of the Semper Opera with sign "Wird neu erstehen" (near). 0:18:50 Group photo of children from the district "Wilder Mann" from November 1945 (near). Photos from the 1st Peace-Christmas-Festival in 1945 (near). Photo of a laughing girl with sign "Volksweihnacht 1945" (near). Photo of the inviting Russian military commander to the children's Christmas party (near). Photos of the Crucian choirboys from Dresden (near). Narrator: "The Crucians are at the Christmas party, now they are in their new home... their school was totally destroyed. Eleven pupils of the Kreuzschule were killed". Photo of cross students on a sleigh, e.g. Peter Schreier (nah). Historical film footage of the nightly bombing of Dresden (half total). Aerial view of the burning city and the bombings (half total). Narrator: "Ten months have passed since that terrible night when Dresden was close to death". Aerial photos with pans over the burning city (half total). recut 0:21:00 Narrator: "213 days now without war". Photo of a burnt out house (near). Panning over a photo with a pram and a small child spearing on the street floor (near). Photo of sleeping children on a platform in a children's home (near). Photo of a family in a refugee camp (near). View of a converted bomb, which now serves as an oven (half total). Photos from a big rally on the Theaterplatz (near). Photo of participants of the rally next to the Hofkirche (near). Zoom in on the people in the photo of the rally (close). Narrator: "Children and grandchildren, pass on. Believe us, by the time we went to war, we were already defeated. Our fathers had accepted the lie and refused the truth. A lot of time will pass before they can speak like this". recut 0:22:30 Colour photos from 1985: View over the Elbe river to the Hofkirche (half total). View over the Brühlsche Terrasse to the Hofkirche and the Semperoper (half total). View of the Augustus bridge (half total). Ruins and memorial stone of the Frauenkirche (half total). "The stranger gazes in wonder at the city, cautiously walks across the balcony of Europe. He looks for the stones... and deciphers them". Reading woman on a wall in the courtyard of the kennel at the crown gate (half total). Cut around to the Prager Straße with its fountains and fountains (half total). Cut to the Semperoper (semi-total). View (from above) of the Elbe with Augustus bridge and Brühlscher Terrasse (half total). Narrator: "When the stranger leaves the city, he knows in his heart that those who resurrected it have acquired peace to possess it. 0:24:20 Cut over to the rod specifications: In respect to the Dresden photographers Richard Peter sen. and Erich Höhne. Research Rosemarie Funk and Irene Desert. Mixed tone Heinz Kaiser. Music by Reiner Bredemeyer. Cut Jutta Nikolova. Cinematography Hans Moser; Thomas Rosié; Rainer Schulz. Production Herbert Kruschke. Written and directed by Annelie Thorndike. Trumpet Ludwig Güttler. Drums Thomas Käppler. Quotations were used by Wolfgang Borchert; Erich Kästner; Ricarda Huch and Carl Zuckmayer. A film by the DEFA Studios for Documentary Films Berlin, production group Defa kinobox. GDR 1985 0:24:53 END
- TagsGerman Democratic Republic (GDR); Dresden; Elbe; prisoner of war; refugee; refugee; World War; Russia; Florence on the Elbe; bombed out; air raid; soldiers; capitulation; history; retrospect; hunger; misery; anti-fascism; woman in ruins; reconstruction; photo document; education; culture; marriage; solidarity; sport; radio; Pillnitz; land reform; kennel; Christmas; cross choir; bombing; peace;
- Decade1980
- Production Year1985
- Release date20 Sep 1985
- GenreDocumentary
- Country of Production
- Actors
- Personalities
- DirectorAnnelie Thorndike
- Producer
- CameraHans Moser, Rainer Schulz, Thomas Rosié
- Original Clip IdentifierQ6UJ9A005AEP