Grimms' Tales around the Globe: The Dynamics of Their International Reception

12. Marvelous Worlds: The Grimms’ Fairy Tales in GDR Children’s Films

239 12 Marvelous Worlds The Grimms’ Fairy Tales in GDR Children’s Films BETTINA KÜMMERLING-MEIBAUER After the Second World War there was a fierce debate about fairy tales in general and the Grimms’ tales in particular in Germany. In 1945 the occupation forces, especially the British, banned the publication of fairy tales, since they believed that the cruelty often shown in folktales was at least partially responsible for the brutalization of German youth during the Nazi era. This verdict also concerned the Grimms’ tales, which were regarded as prototypical German fairy tales. Although the ban was lifted in 1946, the discussion proceeded, since some pedagogues continued to connect the dreadful events depicted in some popular Grimm tales with Nazi ideology. The claim that preschool children find it difficult to distinguish between reality and fantasy also emerged in the postwar period, refuting the moral and cognitive use of fairy tales on the grounds that they transmit a false impression of everyday life (Zipes 341). After the separation of Germany into two states (the Federal Republic of Germany in the west and the German Democratic Republic, or GDR, in the east) in 1949, the appreciation of the Grimms’ tales was subordinated to different ideological viewpoints that also affected the film industry in both countries. However, the fairy-tale films in the Federal Republic of Germany mostly relied on the puppet animation technique established by the Brothers Ferdinand, Hermann, and Paul Diehl in the 1930s, thus demonstrating a rather traditional and old-fashioned attitude toward this genre (Schoemann ).1 The GDR fairy-tale films instead showed a surprisingly innovative approach that was supported by the cultural policy of DEFA. 240 Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer DEFA was short for the Deutsche Film Aktiengesellschaft (German Film Public Company) and was successor to the famous film studio UFA (Berlin). It was founded in November 1945 by the Soviet occupation force in cooperation with German cultural functionaries, film makers, authors, and other artists. The main purpose of this film company was to build up an antifascist cultural climate (Bock 28ff; Byg and Moore). According to the cultural program formulated by Vladimir Lenin in the 1920s, film production was socialized . Newly created films should communicate the ideas of Social Realism, support political elucidation and topical knowledge about technique and the natural sciences, and expose social and economic disadvantage. After the foundation of the GDR in 1949, the Soviet occupation force assigned DEFA to the new state. The DEFA studio, as volkseigener Betrieb (a company owned by the people), was established in 1953 with its head office in Potsdam. While live action films were produced at Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam, animated films were created at the DEFA animation studio in Dresden from 1955 onward. Moreover, the DEFA studios had their own department responsible for the production of children’s films. The executive committee requested that the best directors, authors, and actors be engaged to improve the narrative and aesthetic quality of children’s films. Therefore, renowned artists and authors, such as Gerhard Holtz-Baumert, Christa Kožik, Ulrich Plenzdorf, Benno Pludra, Fred Rodrian, and Erwin Strittmatter, contributed to the success of GDR children’s films at home and even abroad (Jungnickel 85ff). The first film projects were realized in 1946, but the production of children ’s films started later, in 1953.2 Although many early children’s films are based on film scripts that describe the everyday life of children in East Germany , the huge success of the Russian fairy-tale film Kamennyi svetok (1946, The Stone Flower, directed by Alexander Ptushko) that was shown in East German cinemas in 1947 called the attention of producers to fairy tales as another possible subject for children’s films. The first DEFA fairy-tale film was an adaptation of Wilhelm Hauff’s Das kalte Herz (The Cold Heart), directed by Paul Verhoeven in 1950. However, this film was advertised not as a children’s film but as a film for children and adults alike, stressing the crossover appeal of fairy tales. More than thirty fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm were adapted for the screen by the DEFA studios, starting with Das tapfere Schneiderlein3 (The Cunning Little Tailor) in 1956 and ending with Die Geschichte von der The Grimms’ Fairy Tales in GDR Children’s Films 241 Gänseprinzessin und ihrem treuen Pferd Fallada (The Goose Girl) in 1989. Some of these fairy tales were adapted twice...