Visual Histories: German Cinema 1945 to Present
MIT OpenCourseWare traces German film-making from the ruins of 1945 to the present. The course opens with how postwar directors captured the mood of occupation and reconstruction, then spends extended time on the New German Cinema of the 1960s and 1970s, the movement associated with directors like Fassbinder and Herzog. It also examines East German DEFA productions made under state control, contrasting their concerns with West German work of the same decades, before following the industry's fragmentation from the 1990s onward into the varied styles of contemporary German film. Materials include the syllabus, film screening lists, and assignments as published by MIT, letting a self-directed learner follow the same viewing and reading sequence used in the original class. No certificate is offered, but all course materials are free to use under MIT's open license.