Träumt für morgen

In an East Berlin courtyard children view a Punch-and-Judy show and then make their own hand puppets. They perform their first skit at the sickbed of a friend. They replicate scenes out of their own lives and imagine their future professions. “A happy world in which everyone can become anything they want”, concludes the commentator at the end of the documentary. The film captivates on account of its authentic rendering of the children and their world. Träumt für morgen (Dream for Tomorrow) is an argument for human solidarity in a future of peace and freedom. The film was the Austrian director Hugo Hermann’s first production for the DEFA-Studio for Newsreels and Documentaries and manifests the mood of détente in East German cultural politics after Stalin’s death in 1953. However, during the filming of Träumt für morgen as well as over his next production from 1957, Stahl und Menschen, a conflict arose between Hermann and the state film authorities. The dispute led to his dismissal from DEFA.