Article:

Produktionsgemeinschaften im DDR-Staatsfernsehen. Eine historische Produktionskulturforschung

Based on the research approaches of Production Studies this article examines whether and how collective working methods in state-socialist media industries during the Cold War can be reconstructed. The production culture of the state television broadcaster in East Germany Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF) is examined based on the example of the production group Filmgruppe Johannisthal around director Ulrich Thein, who produced eight television films and miniseries from 1963 to 1976. Using traditional sources and texts of the »para-industries« (Caldwell), the official and unofficial modes of production practices are revealed and three levels of communication and work identified. Following an »integrated cultural-industrial analysis« (Caldwell) it was possible to reconstruct a »state-socialist mode of production « (Szczepanik) in GDR television.