13 February 2019

Publication about the auteur Karl Fruchtmann released

Book and archive presentation, 26 February, 7 pm, Pariser Platz

Karl Fruchtmann. Ein jüdischer Erzähler – The first monograph about the auteur has now been released as the third volume in the series entitled "Fernsehen. Geschichte. Ästhetik", a joint publication by the Akademie der Künste and Deutsche Kinemathek. The book presentation will take place on 26 February at the Akademie on Pariser Platz.

Karl Fruchtmann (1915-2003) is regarded as one of the most idiosyncratic television directors ever. First and foremost, his name is associated with films that address German-Jewish relations, such as Kaddisch nach einem Lebenden (1969), in which he processes his imprisonment at a concentration camp. With Zeugen. Aussagen zum Mord an einem Volk, in 1981 he created the first comprehensive documentation of the Shoah in which the victims themselves get to speak. The Shoah was incomprehensible. In an attempt to make it comprehensible for the German television audience, Fruchtmann wanted to fight all forms of discrimination and persecution of human beings by others through cinematic means. Therefore, he often addressed violence and the experience of violence in order to provoke his audience into reflecting on mechanisms of marginalisation and persecution in the past and in the present. Many of his films came to be milestones of West German television along the road to becoming a critical medium. The book was largely written on the basis of his extensive archive, which in addition to scripts, production documentation and numerous photographs also includes extensive correspondence. The archive is now accessible and available for research: https://archiv.adk.de/bigobjekt/3551 

On the occasion of the book presentation on 26 February, his daughter Sara Fruchtmann, long-standing head of television plays for Radio Bremen Jürgen Breest, cameraman Günther Wedekind and former assistant director Werner Meyke remember the auteur.

The Archives of the Akademie der Künste and Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum for Film and Television keep significant holdings from directors, authors and producers who have played key roles in the development of television. On the basis of these extensive source materials, work-biographic presentations and thematic analyses of television in Germany are published in the series "Fernsehen. Geschichte. Ästhetik".

In case of queries: Torsten Musial, Director of the Film Archive of the Akademie der Künste, musial@adk.de 

Event Information
Karl Fruchtmann. Ein jüdischer Erzähler
Book launch and archive presentation
Tuesday, 26 February 7 pm, €6/4
Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz 4, 10117 Berlin
Press tickets
presse@adk.de or by telephone at +49 (0)30 20057-1514

Publication
Karl Fruchtmann. Ein jüdischer Erzähler
Published by Torsten Musial and Nicky Rittmeyer on behalf of the Archives of the Akademie der Künste and Deutsche Kinemathek. With further essays by Karl Prümm and Michael Töteberg
With a DVD insert Kaddisch nach einem Lebenden
edition text + criticism, Munich 2019, 240 pages, €29
ISBN 978-3-86916-751-60
Review copies
Requests to edition text + kritik, Jerome Schäfer, j.schaefer@etk-muenchen.de