Puppets in DEFA Animation Films

The Book

The German Institute for Animation Film (DIAF) was founded in November 1993 in Dresden, where the DEFA Studio for Animation Film produced about 1,500 animated films between 1955 and 1990.The bilingual book is the accompanying reading to the Europe-wide exhibition hosted by the DIAF. It provides an insight in a remarkable period of German film history and in the genre of traditional animation film.

On 1. April 1955, the DEFA Studio for Animation Film was founded in Dresden. About 80 employees - including graphic artists, set designers, puppeteers and cross-over artists from other creative professions - took their first steps and gained experience in animation film. They built up a film production company from which 1,500 animated films for the cinema and television would foIlow, until the cIosure of the state-owned studio in 1992. Not onIy were these animated films from Dresden popular with audience in communist East Germany, they were also exported to more than one hundred countries and screened regularly at national and international festivals where they achieved great success.
Puppet film always had a special place in the hearts of the Dresden-based filmmakers. And as their creative output demonstrates, they developed the most diverse ideas for designs and worked with a whole range of materials. Published as an accompaniment to the exhibition of the same name compiled by the German Institute for Animation Film (DIAF) and already shown throughout Europe, "Puppets in DEFA Animation Films" provides numerous insights into both this remarkable chapter in German film history and into the richly traditional genre of puppet animation film in Dresden.
All texts are printed in German and English.

Samples:

•  Table of Content (69 KB)
•  Introduction (44 KB)

The Authors

[Translate to English:]

- Sabine Scholze arbeitete von 1984 bis 1992 als Dramaturgin im DEFA-Studio für Trickfilme. Sie ist Mitbegründerin und von 1996 bis 2008 Geschäftsführerin des Deutschen Instituts für Animationsfilm (DIAF).
- Jörg Herrmann war von 1958 bis 1970 Animator mit Regiauftrag und von 1970 bis 1979 Regisseur im Trickfilmstudio. 1983 bis 1990 freiberuflich mit eigenem Trickatelier, heute Produzent und Regisseur.
- Martina Großer war Szenenbildnerin und Autorin im Trickfilmstudio und ist Mitgeschäftsführerin der Hylas-Trickfilm Dresden.
- Ralf Hofmann war Kameramann im Trickfilmstudio und ist Mitgeschäftsführerin der Hylas-Trickfilm Dresden.