Leben unterm Soll (‘Below Target’)

On both sides of the border between the two Germanys, the industrialization of agriculture brought about profound structural changes to rural life and labour, albeit under opposing economic and ideological conditions. In West Germany, small farms were subject to the prices dictated by major feed and food corporations, as well as to the market dominance of giant farms backed by non-agricultural capital. Meanwhile, the drive for mass production pushed ecological considerations into the background, including in East Germany.
Shown during the Fuel or Food program of the 2024 Werkleitz Festival, Volker Koepp’s Ein Landfilm (‘A Rural Film’, 1993) revealed the changes in three villages in Brandenburg following German reunification. His 1980 DEFA production Haus und Hof (‘House and Farm’) presented a professional and personal portrait of a young agricultural scientist and collective farm director in the Luckenwalde district, who was responsible for improving soil conditions. She soon recognized the divergence between what she’d been taught and what the planned economy expected.
The 1975 documentary Die Enteignung (‘The Expropriation’), collectively produced at the DFFB German Film and Television Academy in West Berlin, addressed the increasingly precarious situation faced by small-scale farmers in northern Germany. By this time, many operated their farms only as a sideline or had been forced into contract farming as a last resort, essentially working as wage labourers on their own land.

Followed by an audience discussion featuring Marco Clausen, moderated by Florian Wüst.