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Straschek Filmemigration aus Nazideutschland Pt. 2 From the beginning of the 1970s, Straschek turned primarily to publishing and especially to a project that would accompany him until the end of his life in 2009: the research into the “fate” of filmmakers that had been expelled from Nazi Germany. In doing so, he not only dealt with the exile of renowned directors such as Fritz Lang, but with anyone who had been part of the German film industry of the 1920s and 30s. It is true pioneering work because nobody else in post-fascist Germany was interested in these anti-fascist and/or Jewish emigrants. Fortunately, this project provided him with a first and last engagement for television. An editorial department of the WDR, headed by Werner Dütsch, commissioned him to produce a five-part series that was broadcast on German television in 1975. Some anecdotes about the work on this series can be found in the Filmkritik text. Straschek continued his research unabated after the end of the series. In total, he interviewed 2800 people working in the film industry who were expelled from Nazi Germany. A comprehensive publication was planned, which was to appear in the 1980s. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The research on emigration in the film industry opened up so many paths for him that he, who tackled everything with the utmost precision and perfectionism, was never able to complete the project. This, too, is highly regrettable. -- Based on extensive interviews, shot on 16mm in a series of static long takes, Film Emigration from Nazi Germany is one of the most fascinating examples of ‘film history on film’ ever produced. Straschek devoted years of his life researching the topic and accumulating both film and non-film materials. Apart from some radio features and articles, however, this 290-minute TV programme remains the only published trace of Straschek’s lifelong work on the emigration of film personnel. He had intended to publish a three-volume book, encompassing all available data about 3,000 emigrants originating from the centre and peripheries of film production, but the book never materialised. Günter Peter Straschek (1942-2009) belonged to the first cohort of students at the German Film and Television Academy (DFFB). He started studying film in 1966, alongside Hartmut Bitomsky, Harun Farocki, Holger Meins, Helke Sander, and others. His student film, A Western for the SDS[Ein Western für den SDS] (1967-1968), was confiscated by the director of the school, and the ensuing occupation of the director’s office led to the dismissal of Straschek and other students in 1968.
