Gerhard Klein
Gerhard Klein (1 May 1920 – 21 May 1970) was a German film director and screenwriter.
Gerhard Klein
- Born
- 1 May 1920
- Birthplace
- Berlin, Germany
- Died
- 21 May 1970
- Place of death
- East Berlin, East Germany
- Occupation
- film director, screenwriter, actor
- Nationality
- German Reich · German Democratic Republic
- Honours
- National Prize of East Germany
- Languages
- German
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wikidata · Q1511912 · wikipedia · Gerhard Klein
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Institutions cited
Bibliothèque nationale de France · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
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Key facts
Key facts
• Born — 1 May 1920 • Birthplace — Berlin, Germany • Died — 21 May 1970 • Place of death — East Berlin, East Germany • Occupation — film director, screenwriter, actor
Documentary record
Gerhard Klein, a film director, director and screenwriter, was born on 1 May 1920 in Berlin and died on 21 May 1970 in Berlin. Both events are recorded by the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Biography
Biography
Klein was the son of a lathe operator and pursued filmmaking autodidactically from a young age. He was arrested twice for his activities in the Communist Party's resistance organization. He served in the Wehrmacht during the Second World War. After the war he was active in the KPD's main youth committee and at the Berlin Magistrate's Youth Office and worked as an animator. From 1946 he worked at DEFA, initially as a screenwriter for short films, and soon also as an assistant director in the DEFA studio for newsreels and documentaries. In 1952, Klein moved to the DEFA studio for feature films. It was then that he met his future wife, the children's writer Rosel Klein. After a study trip to the USSR, Klein played a key role in establishing the DEFA children's film studio. With Alarm im Zirkus (Alarm in the Circus), he established the model for films which reported on divided Berlin in a documentary style. Berlin – Ecke Schönhauser (Berlin – Schönhauser Corner) was the first film to reveal the problem of juvenile delinquents in the eastern part of the city. After The Gleiwitz Case, in which Klein reconstructed the staged attack on the Gleiwitz radio station, he devoted his subsequent films to depicting everyday life in East Germany. From 1963 to 1967, Klein was a member of the Volkskammer. Klein fell ill in the spring of 1970 during the filming of the movie Leichensache Zernik and died shortly afterwards.
Filmography
Filmography
• 1950: Für ein einiges, glückliches Vaterland (short film) • 1951: Aladin (Regie, Drehbuch) • 1954: Alarm in the Circus (director) • 1956: A Berlin Romance (director) • 1957: Berlin – Ecke Schönhauser… (director) • 1958: Geschichte vom armen Hassan (director) • 1958: Der Schinderhannes (actor) • 1959: Seltsame Jagd (director) • 1961: Ein Sommertag macht keine Liebe (director) • 1961: The Gleiwitz Case (director) • 1963: Sonntagsfahrer (director) • 1965: Berlin um die Ecke (director) • 1965: Denk bloß nicht, ich heule (actor) • 1967: Geschichten jener Nacht (Episode 4 – director) • 1972: Leichensache Zernik (screenwriter, film finished posthumously)
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Berlin.
Birth place
East Berlin.
Death place
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Gerhard Klein, revision 1371152913 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
References
Citations
References
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Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 27 August 2026.
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