Falk Harnack
Other names: Harnack, Falk Erich Walter (birth name)
film director, theatre director, Screenwriter, actor, DEFA’s artistic director
* in Stuttgart
† in Berlin
Falk Harnack, who was closely involved with the White Rose anti-Nazi resistance group but was spared from a death sentence at the People’s Court show trials, had worked in theatre before the Second World War. In the wake of political controversy raised by his DEFA film debut ‘Das Beil von Wandsbek’ (1951), Harnack continued his work as a director for German cinema and later for public television.
About the Estate
Harnack’s experiences under National Socialism flow through his work. Productions such as ‘Der 20. Juli’ (1955), ‘Unruhige Nacht’ (1958, adapted from Albrecht Goes), ‘Jeder stirbt für sich allein’ (1962, adapted from Hans Fallada) and ‘Der Verfolger’ (1974, adapted from Günther Weisenborn) testify that he viewed it as his democratic duty to get the films’ messages across.
In early 1989 Harnack personally transferred the archival materials now at the Kinemathek. They mainly include documents about his cinematic and television works, while related holdings at other institutions are dominated by biographical and theatre history documents and archival papers about Harnack’s ties to the resistance movement.
Found among Harnack’s documents at the Kinemathek are treatments and director’s scripts, dialogue and editing lists, and stage scripts. They include correspondence, also with television stations (for instance, ZDF’s requests for changes to ‘Peenemünde’, 1970), research materials (interrogation records from the Nuremberg Trials for ‘Der 20. Juli’, literary sources), cast suggestions and lists, shooting schedules , studio sketches, opening titles and final credits, photos, audio recordings, press materials for numerous works, letters from viewers and other reactions to motion picture and television broadcasts (reviews, quota statistics, television audience surveys), documentation on rebroadcasts of films as well as on unrealized projects and scripts for audio plays. (Text: Rolf Aurich)
Content
Script, Print, Photography, Hand drawing, Literature, Paper documents, Sound recording
Dimension
approx. 2.0 Shelf meter
Inv. No.
198818
Credit LineFalk-Harnack-Archiv, Deutsche Kinemathek