Berlin, Divided Heaven: From the Ice Age to the Thaw
Touring Film Series

Iron Angels (Engel aus Eisen)

1980/81, West Germany, b/w, 105 min.  English subtitles
Dir. & Script:  Thomas Brasch.
Camera:  Walter Lassally.
Editing: Stefan Arnsten, Tanja Schmidbauer.
Music:  Christian Kunert.
Cast:  Hanns Zischler, Hilmar Thate, Ilse Pagé, Karin Baal, Katharina Thalbach, Kurt Raab, Ullrich Wesselmann.
16mm, rental available at Goethe-Institut New York

Synopsis:

There’s a constant hum in the air.  The city is in a state of emergency.  It’s Berlin, 1948.  The British and Americans are supplying the blockaded city via an airlift.  Many believe the next war is not far away.  Agony and anarchy are widespread, black market trading and crime flourish.

Three people want to take advantage of the chaos and lawlessness.  Völpel, who was imprisoned by the Nazi’s until 1945 as a conscientious objector, became an executioner, killing with his guillotine those who had previously condemned him.  Now he is a policeman with one goal:  to leave Berlin.  He incites young Gladow to organize holdups with the help of information he supplies.  Gladow is going on seventeen and dreams of a great career as a gangster like Al Capone.  Lisa is another member of the Gladow gang, a vivacious young woman who doesn’t care about money, rather wants to just enjoy life.

The Gladow gang terrorizes Berlin with thirteen months of serious holdups.  The police are paralyzed, since the links between East and West have broken down.  The gang is able to operate in the East without being caught in the West.  Suddenly the skies become silent, and restored order is awaited.  Vöpel wants his money so he can get out of Berlin.  Gladow thinks a wonderful future is about to begin, but he is wrong.  He is caught and sentenced to death by guillotine.

This film is based on a true story - one of the most sensational criminal cases in Germany’s postwar history.  Its stark black and white photography is reminiscent of Germany’s early expressionist tradition.

About the Director:

Thomas Brasch was born in Westow in Yorkshire on February 19, 1945.  His parents were Jewish anti-fascists who had immigrated to England before Thomas was born.  In 1947 the family moved to East Germany; Thomas’ father became a member of the SED (Socialist Unity Party) and began a political career.  After finishing school, Brasch began studying journalism at the Karl-Marx-University in Leipzig.  However, he was forced to leave the university in 1965 because of his involvement in the production of “subversive” political posters.  In the fall of 1966, he began studying dramaturgy at the Film Academy in Babelsberg.  Once again, Brasch was forced to give up his studies, and this time served 27 months in prison because he distributed leaflets in protest of the events of Prague Spring in 1968.

In 1971 Brasch had the opportunity to work in the Bertolt Brecht Archive, and then worked as a freelance writer.  In protest of the expatriation of Wolf Biermann, Brasch moved to West Berlin in December of 1976.  His debut as a director came with the film Iron Angels, which he originally wrote as a project for the Schiller Theater.  Principally known as a playwright, Brasch was awarded the Kleist Prize in 1987 at the recommendation of Christa Wolf, who described him as "Kleist-like" in his position "between two value systems, both of which confronted him with false alternatives".

Major Films: 

Engel aus Eisen (1980-81), Domino (1981-82), Rotter (1985), Mercedes (1985), and Der Passagier—Welcome to Germany (1987/88).

Related reading:

Fröhlich, Margrit. “Between Affluence and Rebellion: The Work of Thomas Brasch in the Interface between East and West.” Dissertation, Univ. of Michigan, 1993.  Dissertation Abstracts International. 53 (7) (1993): 2387A.

Davis, Geoffrey V.. “’Gegenbilder’: Order and Anarchy in the Work of Thomas Brasch.” Studies in GDR Culture and Society, 5: Selected Papers from the Tenth New Hampshire Symposium on the German Democratic Republic. Margy Gerber, ed. (1985): 153-171.

Fehervary, Helen.  “Thomas Brasch: A Storyteller after Kafka.”  New German Critique 12 (1977): 125-32.

Hoernigk, Thomas.  “Interview with Thomas Brasch.”  New German Critique 12 (1977): 141-68.

Poiger, Uta G.   Jazz, Rock, and Rebels: Cold War Politics and American Culture in a Divided Germany.  Berkeley, Los Angeles: U California Press, 2000.

Return to Film Tour Contents