Based on various feature films made during the rain of the NSDAP in the years 1933-1945, DEUTSCHLAND, ERWACHE! (85 min) analyzes how Nazi propaganda worked. Even seemingly apolitical films were used to convince people of the ideology.
Leiser was 15 years old when he witnessed the so-called “Reichskristallnacht” in Berlin. DIE FEUERPROBE - NOVEMBERPOGROM 1938 (82 min) combines rare historical footage with eyewitness testimonies to create a haunting documentary that not only describes this early escalation of anti-Semitic violence in Nazi Germany, but also its significance as a turning point in the persecution of European Jews.
OTTO JOHN - EINE DEUTSCHE GESCHICHTE (93 min) On July 20, 1954, ten years after the failed assassination attempt on Hitler, the president of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the lawyer and resistance fighter Otto John (1909-1997), took part in the commemorations in West Berlin. He disappeared the following night and reported back from East Berlin a few days later. Here he denounced the rearmament of the FRG in the media as an obstacle to reunification. 15 months later, he returned to the West and claimed to have been kidnapped. In one of the most spectacular, but also most controversial cases of post-war West German justice, John was sentenced to four years in prison for spying for the KGB. He fought the conviction until his death. In Leiser's documentary, Otto John describes his view of the events.
The digital restorations were made possible by the Film Heritage funding program, financed by the BKM, the federal states and the FFA.
