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Books by Sebastian Heiduschke

Revista Lengua y Cultura, 2021

Empirische Studien belegen, dass in virtuellen Kursen häufiger unlautere Mittel eingesetzt werden... more Empirische Studien belegen, dass in virtuellen Kursen häufiger unlautere Mittel eingesetzt werden als im Präsenzunterricht. Dieser Artikel zeigt anhand zweier Fallbeispiel aus dem universitären virtuellen DaF-Unterricht verschiedene Möglichkeiten, die Integrität eines Kurses ohne eine Vielzahl an intrusiven technischen Mitteln zu gewährleisten. Während eine logische Reihung von formativen und summativen Tests den direkten Vergleich studentischer Leistungen erlaubt, kann durch die Kombination asynchroner und synchroner Unterrichtselemente eine Datenbank erstellt werden, welche als Grundlage zur Bewertung von Tests dient.

Transnational German Studies, 2020

This essay introduces readers to the significance of film co-productions in German cinema. By off... more This essay introduces readers to the significance of film co-productions in German cinema. By offering four case studies, the article illustrates how various degrees and constellations of political, economic, technological and content convergence in the German film industry shaped the type, frequency and manner of film co-production with international partners. A close look at the production and distribution history of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) reveals the influence of Paramount and MGM on UFA’s release strategy and the editing of the film for the US market via their transnational distribution company Parufamet. In this instance, one encounters early tendencies for media conglomerates spanning entire continents. The second example acquaints readers with the co-production Die Tochter des Samurai (The Samurai’s Daughter; 1936), which German director Arnold Fanck and Japanese director Itami Mansaku shot in two versions (one by each director) on location in Japan at a time when exports of German films declined due to the increasing boycotts of National Socialist products. The love story between a Japanese national and an Aryan woman also surfaces interesting co-production techniques of the directors that resemble competition rather than collaboration, as evidenced by the release of two film versions instead of one. A third example takes the reader to encounter one of DEFA’s international stars, the Serbian Gojko Mitic, who like no other actor defined the genre of the Indianerfilme and is up to this day associated with these East German ‘Red Westerns’. Here, the concept of a co-production expands into a series of twelve films that only became possible due to the transnational nature of filmmaking. The essay closes with an example from Studio Babelsberg, showing how since the early 2000s, the historic film studio that housed UFA and DEFA has co-produced a number of expensive Hollywood blockbusters such as The Pianist (2002), The Reader (2008), Valkyrie (2008), Inglorious Basterds (2009) and The Hunger Games - Mockingjay (2014; 2015) to name but a few. This final example showcases how Studio Babelsberg has shifted towards offering technical expertise and excellent infrastructure as ways to produce internationally successful films. The essay will provide readers with a basic understanding of German film history while simultaneously allow them to comprehend the limitations of national cinemas, in particular in the age of cross-cultural convergence. It will also further new lines of inquiry and provide models for the exploration of other transnational aspects of German cinema.

One of the more curious events in German film history took place in Berlin on February 9, 1991, w... more One of the more curious events in German film history took place in Berlin on February 9, 1991, when the full-length DEFA feature film Der Strass (Rhinestones, 1990, dir. Andreas Höntsch) opened to the general public at the Kino Babylon. 1 Audiences saw a film that was started in one country, the GDR, and finished months later, after the opening of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 and German unification on October 3, in another one, the FRG. When released, the film had been financed half in East marks and half in West marks, as the currency union in July 1990 replaced East German currency with its West German counterpart. 2 It was all the more curious because the director did not expect for the film to be released, but rather censored or banned due to its irreverent depiction of the GDR personified in the figures of a photographer's pursuit of an exotic dancer. Manifold changes in the country's political system paved more than only a path to democratic structures, but also enabled a new way of filmmaking independent of political restrictions. Der Strass became the first DEFA film made in a democratic GDR and became superfluous of sorts immediately, since, by the time of its release, the GDR had ceased to exist. 3 1 The DEFA Stiftung uses the English title Synthetic Ice: http://www.defastiftung.de/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=412&FilmID=Q6UJ9A002M6N&qpn=0. We are adopting the title used by the DEFA Film Library: https://ecommerce.umass.edu/defa/film/30930. 2 The director explained the interesting financial arrangements in an interview: http://www.carmen-blazejewski.de/film/dokumentarfilm/11-film/105-lebenskuenstler-im-norden.html. 3 http://www.defa-stiftung.de/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=875.