RIP Gerd Gericke

We say goodbye

Our alumnus and former professor Gerd Gericke died last Saturday in Potsdam

Filmuniversitaet

8/12/2021

 

It was a long illness that finally made life difficult for him and finally made him surrender. Last Saturday Gerd Gericke closed his eyes forever.

With him one of the big ones left again and one of the quieter ones who didn't have their laurels polished on their heads.

He was one of the first to come to Babelsberg in 1955 to study film and television production. To do this, he gave up his two-year course in agriculture in Halle. A wise decision, as we now know.

"Since those interested in film had to wait a long time for the film school, a lot of interesting young people of different origins and interests had gathered," he told FUNK-Korrespondenz in 1994. "We were welcomed by the spirit of optimism from a new institution. The teachers were people who wanted something, who really tried hard with us. The four years of study were a wonderful time for me." Although the wall was not in place yet and university members were still forbidden to travel to West Berlin, he went - like many other students - still secretly to the cinema there. He was happy to talk about it. He could tell wonderfully.

His then professor Althaus and his diverse concept of production studies made it easier for Gerd Gericke to pursue his inclination and switch to dramaturgy.

When his parents and siblings fled to the West in 1958, Gerd Gericke stayed here. While the children of refugees from the republic were thrown out of other universities, Althaus held his hand over his protégé.

After graduating in 1959, Gerd Gericke went to DEFA in Berlin-Johannisthal to join the Artistic Working Group (KAG) Stacheltier. The "quill animals", satirical and humorous films, were produced here. The transition went smoothly, he recalls. He knew the terrain from internships. But with some "old hands" who had learned their craft from scratch, the "film college student" still met reservations.

At that time Gerd Gericke lived in Babelsberg and took the S-Bahn through the west to work every day. His plan to go to his parents and siblings in the West - there was already a date - finally foiled on August 13th. "I didn't break it, I have to honestly say.", He reflects later. He felt at home at DEFA and the wall made a difficult decision for him.

The last "spiked animal" came out in 1964 and the KAG of the same name became the Johannisthal group. The 11th plenum was the next shock. The 8th party congress in 1970 and Erich Honecker, who replaced Walter Ulbricht, brought hope.

1974 was created in the Johannisthal group “Jacob the Liar” directed by Frank Beyer. It was the only GDR production that was nominated for an Oscar in the category of best foreign language film. For this, the dramaturge Gerd Gericke and all of his colleagues in the film collective received the national award of the GDR, second class. At the Berlinale in 1975 the film was awarded the Silver Bear.

After the Biermann expulsion and the uproar “Island of the Swans” (GDR 1983, directed by Herrmann Zschoche) Gerd Gericke and his wife changed Gabriele Herzog to the children's film. "The agony of DEFA from the mid-80s was of course a reflex of social agony. You could cut the air in this country. And so it was in DEFA too." At that time, Gerd Gericke was the dramaturge who had produced most of the children's films. "Watching films with children is just great fun, there is no substitute for that."

During the fall of the Berlin Wall, Gerd Gericke was involved in the Film and Television Association of the GDR as deputy chairman of the association council - together with Helke Misselwitz and Rolf Richter - and was in charge of the Berlin regional association.

In the winter semester of 1991, Gerd Gericke finally came to the Film University - at that time still HFF - as professor for practical dramaturgy - and stayed here until his retirement in 2001.

Here I got to know and appreciate him. I fondly remember shared S-Bahn trips from Babelsberg to the eastern part of Berlin and the many imponderables that the timetable repeatedly presented us with in those days. These involuntary stays gave us a lot of time to talk. As I said, Gerd could tell wonderfully.

Goodbye, Gerd. The film of your life has run through and we are left with the sound of the empty reel that is still turning for us. The dramaturge in you foresaw the end and redemption for a long time.

We express our condolences to his wife Gabriele Herzog, his son and everyone who knew and liked him.

The funeral will take place on September 15, 2021 at 2 p.m. in the south-west cemetery in Stahnsdorf.

GERICKE, Gerd

Born: 4/20/1935, Behnsdorf, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

Died: 8/7/2021, Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany  

 

Gerd Gericke’s westerns, writer, script editor:

Blue Bird – 1979 [screenwriter]

Sing, Cowboy, Sing – 1981 [script editor]

The Scout – 1983 [script editor]

Bloody Heart – 1986 [script editor]