Konrad Wolf: Ways to Enlightenment
Streaming | Celebrating the East German director’s 100th birthday
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Online Online
- Language German with English subtitles
- Price Free
- Part of series: AMONG FRIENDS, Among Friends: On Air
To celebrate the 100th birthday of East German filmmaker Konrad Wolf on October 20, this streaming series offers a selection of his pioneering, politically daring, and thought-provoking work. A committed anti-fascist of Jewish descent, Wolf vividly and pointedly depicted a generation questioning its role in Third Reich’s horrors, inviting his viewers—then and today—to consider their own relationship to the historical movements of their time. Stream for free until November 30!
Stars (1959)
Professor Mamlock (1961)
Divided Heaven (1964)
I Was Nineteen (1968)
Goya or the Hard Way to Enlightenment (1971)
Solo Sunny (1980)
Read more about the films on Goethe on Demand, the Goethe-Institut’s streaming platform.
Presented as part of AMONG FRIENDS – UNTER FREUNDEN, a campaign of the Goethe-Institut USA to celebrate and strengthen transatlantic friendship.
Texts by Angelos Koutsourakis, Professor of Film and Cultural Studies at the Centre for World Cinemas and Digital Cultures, University of Leeds, originally published in Issue 114 (July 2025) of Senses of Cinema.
In the 1950s, Wolf decided to settle in the GDR. His antifascist background gave him an artistic freedom not enjoyed by many other filmmakers or artists. He became chair of the Artists Union and a member of the central committee of the SED (Socialist Unity Party), and was president of the Academy of Arts from 1965 until his death in 1982. The recognition of his work at film festivals across the world made him into a significant cultural ambassador for the GDR. This granted him a privileged position, but one that did not prevent him from making films that addressed complex and uncomfortable questions. His films explore memories of the Nazi past and Jewish persecutions, the role of artists in society and their obligation to speak out against authoritarianism, the everyday challenges of life in the GDR, the missed opportunities for a democratic socialism, and the consequences of one’s individual choices in periods of historical, social, and political turmoil.
What stands out in Wolf’s oeuvre is his brilliant capacity to merge modernist and realist cinematic traditions, especially in his anti-fascist, artist, and everyday life films. Even though official East German cultural policy pushed a doctrine of Socialist Realism, Wolf’s films departed from this rigid tradition to bring together diverse influences from the Soviet avant-garde, Italian neorealism, and the French New Wave. Traveling to film festivals across the globe, Wolf familiarized himself with new post-war European cinemas, their anti-heroic portrayal of history, and their emphasis on the banal aspects of everyday life. While Wolf enjoyed popularity in Europe from the 1950s to the 1970s, his work (unjustly) does not currently occupy such an important place in film history. His films deserve to be rediscovered. They capture the losses and failures of a generation who truly believed in socialism as an alternative to capitalist modernity. His best films invite us to reflect on our social responsibility and our actions as citizens, the need to use memories of the traumatic past to transform the future, and the compatibility of artistic autonomy with the social function of art.
Film selection:
Lissy (1957)Stars (1959)
Professor Mamlock (1961)
Divided Heaven (1964)
I Was Nineteen (1968)
Goya or the Hard Way to Enlightenment (1971)
Solo Sunny (1980)
Read more about the films on Goethe on Demand, the Goethe-Institut’s streaming platform.
Presented as part of AMONG FRIENDS – UNTER FREUNDEN, a campaign of the Goethe-Institut USA to celebrate and strengthen transatlantic friendship.
Texts by Angelos Koutsourakis, Professor of Film and Cultural Studies at the Centre for World Cinemas and Digital Cultures, University of Leeds, originally published in Issue 114 (July 2025) of Senses of Cinema.
Konrad Wolf (1925-1982)
The son of the acclaimed playwright Friedrich Wolf, Konrad Wolf was born in Hechingen on October 20, 1925. Due to their Jewish and Communist background, his family fled to the Soviet Union to avoid persecution after the Nazis came to power. A committed anti-fascist, Wolf joined the Red Army at the age of 17 and was amongst the Soviet soldiers who entered Berlin following Hitler’s defeat in 1945. After the war, he studied filmmaking at the famous VGIK (Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, previously known as the Moscow Film School) which trained filmmakers from almost every continent on the globe.In the 1950s, Wolf decided to settle in the GDR. His antifascist background gave him an artistic freedom not enjoyed by many other filmmakers or artists. He became chair of the Artists Union and a member of the central committee of the SED (Socialist Unity Party), and was president of the Academy of Arts from 1965 until his death in 1982. The recognition of his work at film festivals across the world made him into a significant cultural ambassador for the GDR. This granted him a privileged position, but one that did not prevent him from making films that addressed complex and uncomfortable questions. His films explore memories of the Nazi past and Jewish persecutions, the role of artists in society and their obligation to speak out against authoritarianism, the everyday challenges of life in the GDR, the missed opportunities for a democratic socialism, and the consequences of one’s individual choices in periods of historical, social, and political turmoil.
What stands out in Wolf’s oeuvre is his brilliant capacity to merge modernist and realist cinematic traditions, especially in his anti-fascist, artist, and everyday life films. Even though official East German cultural policy pushed a doctrine of Socialist Realism, Wolf’s films departed from this rigid tradition to bring together diverse influences from the Soviet avant-garde, Italian neorealism, and the French New Wave. Traveling to film festivals across the globe, Wolf familiarized himself with new post-war European cinemas, their anti-heroic portrayal of history, and their emphasis on the banal aspects of everyday life. While Wolf enjoyed popularity in Europe from the 1950s to the 1970s, his work (unjustly) does not currently occupy such an important place in film history. His films deserve to be rediscovered. They capture the losses and failures of a generation who truly believed in socialism as an alternative to capitalist modernity. His best films invite us to reflect on our social responsibility and our actions as citizens, the need to use memories of the traumatic past to transform the future, and the compatibility of artistic autonomy with the social function of art.
