Berlin – Schönhauser Corner

In the old working-class district of Prenzlauer Berg, a group of teenagers meets every evening beneath an elevated railway viaduct: they listen to music, dance, test their strength and flirt. When a streetlamp is broken and the police intervene, a rift emerges within the group. Decisions have to be made, and the friends face a turning point. Things will never be the same again.

BERLIN – ECKE SCHÖNHAUSER is one of DEFA’s most remarkable films of the 1950s. Gerhard Klein’s work is openly inspired by neorealism. Shot entirely on the streets of Berlin rather than in a studio, it features naturalistic dialogue, a documentary-style camera and authentic music – a highly unusual approach for DEFA at the time. While the film largely conforms to the state-approved political canon, relying on familiar East-West narratives, it pushes boundaries like no other DEFA film of its era. It portrays young people who resist the official youth programmes, listen to Western music and model their clothes and gestures on pop culture. „Why can’t I live the way I want to?“ one of them asks – a nuanced depiction of youth rarely seen in the GDR.

Image © DEFA-Stiftung