10 - “What a Satisfying Task for a Composer!”: Paul Dessau’s Music for The German Story (. . .Du und mancher Kamerad)

Summary

“What We Experience Is History”

FROM CONCEPTION AND PRODUCTION, through to its reception, the compilation film …Du und mancher Kamerad (The German Story, 1956) by Andrew and Annelie Thorndike (1909–79, 1925–2012), with a score by Paul Dessau (1894–1979), was accompanied by superlatives. In its opening credits, this monumental documentary survey of German history from 1893 to 1956 proclaims itself to be the product of a massive collaborative effort: “Drei Generationen von Filmschaffenden machten die Kamera zum Augenzeugen… . Vieles hielt man vor dem Volk verborgen. In zweijähriger Arbeit wurde es aufgespürt und zu diesem Film zusammengestellt. Jede Aufnahme ist ein historisch nachprüfbares Dokument.” (Three generations of filmmakers turned the camera into a witness… . Much was kept hidden from the people. Over a period of two years it was tracked down and compiled into this film. Every shot is an historically verifiable document.)

In an essay accompanying the release of the film, Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler (1918–2001), the film's coauthor, claims that its authenticity and truthfulness are guaranteed by the collective effort put into researching and compiling it: a team of about fifty working for a year and a half; six million meters of film material, of which 1.5 million were archived and 3,000 used; images taken from over 700 newsreels, documentaries, and feature films. Hermann Herlinghaus retrospectively summarized the reception of …Du und mancher Kamerad with comparably awe-inspiring facts and figures: “Es hat in der Geschichte des DEFA-Dokumentarfilms keinen Film gegeben, der so nachhaltig beim deutschen Zuschauer wirkte. In kaum einem halben Jahr sahen ihn vier Millionen Menschen… . Der Film wurde in 44 Länder verkauft.” (There was no other film in the entire history of DEFA documentaries that had such a lasting effect on audiences. In barely six months four million people saw it… . The film was sold to 44 countries.) Shortly after its release the GDR state newspaper Neues Deutschland reported that it had been rapturously received in London, resulting in a special screening organized for politicians in Westminster.