Christian Schiller and Marianne Wendt:
We’ll Be Happy Tomorrow
The feature “WE’LL BE HAPPY TOMORROW” is about an East German from the city of Halle-Neustadt who explores the Polish ideal city, Nowa Huta, and questions his own memories of growing up in a prototypical socialist city: “I’m walking around in Nowa Huta, the former ideal socialist city of the future. During my childhood, bright red posters on every corner heralded a more prosperous future. I was born in Halle-Neustadt in 1974, a suburban residential community with futuristic block numbers instead of street names, which was built in order to fill the chemical plants in Leuna and Buna with active socialists. I have long since erased the ‘Neustadt’ part out of my biography, now only saying that I am from Halle. But here in Poland, I constantly meet people who proudly say: ‘I’m from Nowa Huta.’ What was so different about the Polish East? My childhood in the East shaped who I am today. The teachers at my Russian school, true to party lines, did everything they could to train me for the cadre. After the fall of the Wall, I was left with a deep sense of mistrust regarding over-celebrated socialist achievements. So why are Poles still praising their planned city? Didn’t they have similar experiences? Why didn’t their utopia go under with the fall of the socialist system, like it should have?”
Narrated by: Klaus Herm, Stefan Konarske, Friedhelm Ptok, Andreas Pietschmann, Matthias Scherwenikas, Christian Schiller, Joachim Schönfeld
Directors: The authors
Editor: Walter Filz
Producer: SWR 2009
54 min.
First broadcast:
The feature “WE’LL BE HAPPY TOMORROW” is about an East German from the city of Halle-Neustadt who explores the Polish ideal city, Nowa Huta, and questions his own memories of growing up in a prototypical socialist city: “I’m walking around in Nowa Huta, the former ideal socialist city of the future. During my childhood, bright red posters on every corner heralded a more prosperous future. I was born in Halle-Neustadt in 1974, a suburban residential community with futuristic block numbers instead of street names, which was built in order to fill the chemical plants in Leuna and Buna with active socialists. I have long since erased the ‘Neustadt’ part out of my biography, now only saying that I am from Halle. But here in Poland, I constantly meet people who proudly say: ‘I’m from Nowa Huta.’ What was so different about the Polish East? My childhood in the East shaped who I am today. The teachers at my Russian school, true to party lines, did everything they could to train me for the cadre. After the fall of the Wall, I was left with a deep sense of mistrust regarding over-celebrated socialist achievements. So why are Poles still praising their planned city? Didn’t they have similar experiences? Why didn’t their utopia go under with the fall of the socialist system, like it should have?”
Narrated by: Klaus Herm, Stefan Konarske, Friedhelm Ptok, Andreas Pietschmann, Matthias Scherwenikas, Christian Schiller, Joachim Schönfeld
Directors: The authors
Editor: Walter Filz
Producer: SWR 2009
54 min.
First broadcast:
SWR2 Feature am Sonntag
May 2nd, 2010, 14.05-15.00
Audio
