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Kuhle Wampe or Who Owns the World?
6/20/2026, 3 PM

FilmMusicTalkPresentation

Screening of Slatan Dudow's classic proletarian film and a discussion on Heartfield and the 1930s

Director Slatan Dudow and cinematographer Günther Krampf on the set of the film Kuhle Wampe at Berlin’s Müggelsee in the summer of 1931
Director Slatan Dudow and cinematographer Günther Krampf on the set of the film Kuhle Wampe at Berlin’s Müggelsee in the summer of 1931
Photo: unknown

Slatan Dudow’s film Kuhle Wampe, on which Bertolt Brecht also collaborated as a screenwriter, made history in many respects. The film centres on the Bönicke family, a working-class family who are evicted from their flat during the Great Depression and move to the ‘Kuhle Wampe’ garden colony in East Berlin. The film was made under enormous political and financial pressure and premiered in the final phase of the Weimar Republic. It was promptly banned by the National Socialists.

Today, Kuhle Wampe is regarded as a milestone in political cinema. Alongside Hertha Thiele and Ernst Busch, who took on one of his first major film roles here, thousands of working-class athletes took part – with the music provided by Hanns Eisler. The screening of an abridged version will be followed by a discussion, based on documents, film and music, about John Heartfield, the 1930s, resistance and organisation.