Who is Heinz Stielke? Questions of Identity in Michael Kann’s "Stielke, Heinz, fünfzehn"

Ward, Elizabeth M.

Abstract

Michael Kann’s debut film, Stielke, Heinz, fünfzehn [Stielke, Heinz, Fifteen] (1987), was supposed to signal the thematic, artistic and popular renewal of one of the core interests of East German cinema, the antifascist film. Yet upon release, the film’s treatment of its subject matter was described as ‘superficial’ by film officials and as an ‘embarrassment’ by film critics. As a film made by a post-war director primarily for a post-war audience educated and socialized exclusively in the GDR, Stielke, Heinz, fünfzehn offers a fascinating case study of the generational reconfigurations of the ‘staple of GDR filmmaking’ as well as uncovering wider societal debates about the challenges of transmitting the ‘central founding myth’ of the GDR to the first generation of Germans born into the socialist system.

Citation

Ward, E. M. (2018). Who is Heinz Stielke? Questions of Identity in Michael Kann’s "Stielke, Heinz, fünfzehn". In S. Ehrig, M. Thomas, & D. Zell (Eds.), The GDR today: New interdisciplinary approaches to East German history, memory and culture (43-62). Peter Lang

• Publication Date: Aug 31, 2018
• Deposit Date: Jun 2, 2019
• Publisher: Peter Lang
• Pages: 43-62
• Series Title: Studies in Modern German and Austrian Literature
• Series Number: 6
• Series ISSN: 22353488
• Book Title: The GDR today: New interdisciplinary approaches to East German history, memory and culture
• Chapter Number: 2
• ISBN: 978-1-78707-072-1
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/1926638
• Publisher URL: https://www.peterlang.com/view/9781787071704/chapter02.xhtml