Rewritten script How the GDR regime brought "Cinderella" in line with the party line
Christmas without "Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella"? Unimaginable for many fans. But did you know that the production of the film was closely monitored by the propaganda department of the GDR regime?
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- "Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella" is one of the best-known Christmas films today.
- It was a long road to cult film status. During filming 51 years ago, the fairytale film was even a case for the propaganda department of the GDR regime.
- The reason for this: the film was intended to contribute to the re-education of the people of the GDR in the spirit of socialism and to stabilize the political system in the country.
"The cheeks are stained with ash, but the chimney sweep is not. A little hat with feathers, a crossbow over his shoulder, but it's not a hunter. A silver dress with a train for the ball, but it's not a princess."
For over 50 years, the fairy tale adaptation of "Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella" has delighted millions of TV viewers every year around Christmas. The movie even has its own website, created in 2001 and run by a fan.
"Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella" was filmed in 1973 by DEFA (Deutsche Film AG der DDR) and the Czech production company Filmstudio Barrandov from Prague on location in the GDR and the Czechoslovak Republic under the direction of Václav Vorlíček.
A look at the German Federal Archives reveals something unexpected: the propaganda department of the GDR regime had already been keeping a close eye on the production of the fairy-tale film before filming began.
After all, the DEFA film starring Libuše Šafránková (Cinderella) and Pavel Trávníček (Prince) was intended to contribute to the re-education of people in the GDR in the spirit of socialism and stabilize the political system in the country.
The Cinderella file
And so it came to pass as it had to: the propaganda department of the GDR regime had the story of the Grimm fairy tale Cinderella analyzed in advance of filming to determine what needed to be changed so that the film could be brought more in line with the party line.
According to documents in the Federal Archives, Klaus Richter de Vroe, head dramaturge for children's films ("Gruppe Berlin"), drew up a detailed list of comments and correction requests for the transnational co-production.
Richter de Vroe, who died in 2020, had particular concerns about the narrative style of the adapted Grimm fairy tale.
The main advantage lies in the characterization of the heroine
The film character of Cinderella basically fit well into the world view of the GDR regime. Point 1 of the "Remarks on the scenario 'Three Nuts for Cinderella'" reads:
"The main advantage lies in the drawing of the heroine. In Grimm's work, Cinderella is a shy creature who weeps at her mother's grave, 'well-behaved and good', humble and modest, crouched and abandoned."
Grimm's Cinderella, on the other hand, "wants to go to the ball", according to Richter de Vroe: "The fact that the prince flies to her is an unexpected stroke of luck for her, the consequences of which she avoids until the end, 'good and good' and modest."
What the GDR dramaturge liked was that Cinderella wants the prince in the film and makes sure "that he loves her too by showing him what she's made of. She 'organizes' her happiness without completely abandoning her endearing feminine reserve and not without moments of uncertainty and indecision".
And further: "At the beginning, the prince mocks the gray linnet, in the end he has to love her: an interesting development of the relationship between the two."
The problem with the pigeons
Judge de Vroe later explains that he is "very much in agreement" with the story as it is told for the movie. Not least because it deviated so much from the Grimm fairy tale.
From the dramaturge's point of view, however, this created another problem:
"The Grimm fairy tale is very familiar to children in the GDR. It has poetic elements that are very memorable and their absolute absence would disappoint the children here. The poetic motif of the doves, which runs through the whole fairy tale, the memorable formulas: 'The good ones in the potty, the bad ones in the pot'."
Richter de Vroes: "Did the magic of the nut do that?"
Klaus Richter de Vroe therefore considered it "necessary to find a solution together with the Czechoslovak partners that incorporates these elements without significantly changing the existing course of action".
It seems that in the end a solution was found that satisfied both sides. The fact is: the pigeons definitely made it into the finished film.
For the further editing of the script, Judge de Vroe also advised those responsible that clear reasons should be given as to why the heroine, i.e. Cinderella, is so good at riding and archery.
"Is that what the magic of the nut did?" asked the dramaturge at the end of his remarks.
But no matter how much the GDR regime's propaganda department intervened in the script, Cinderella and her prince continue to enchant generations of people to this day.
