Max Hölz – Der rote Rebell

During a salesmen meeting, the General Manager of the company asks his staff to share erotic and funny incidents during their door-to-door sales promotions.

The compilation film looks back on four decades of East German film production to mark the 40th anniversary of DEFA. Beginning with the founding event of DEFA on May 17, 1946, it continues with film clips from many test recordings of the first feature films after licensing. Well-known directors, screenwriters, actors and musicians accompany the historical newsreel and feature film excerpts and thus bear witness to the reconstruction work in the early post-war years. A documentary that reflects the diversity of DEFA productions in the film and newsreel sector.

The film’s title is taken from a song, used here as a leitmotif, written by Günter Jordan and the East German rock group Pankow. This sensitive report about rebellious teenagers in Berlin’s “wild East” was banned before its first screening.

The documentary tells the story of the Volksmarinedivision, which was formed by revolting sailors stationed in Berlin during the November Revolution. Starting with the November Revolution itself and the founding of the Volksmarinedivision, the main focus is on the political developments surrounding it and its involvement in the battles for the Berlin City Palace at Christmas 1918 and the unrest in January and March 1919, during which the Volksmarinedivision was smashed by the Freikorps and its members persecuted. Due to its proximity to the Spartacus League and the KPD, which had just been founded at the time, the Volksmarinedivision was an important point of reference for GDR historical politics and the patron saint of the GDR's Volksmarine.