Happily socialist ever after? East German children’s films and the education of a fairy tale land

Abstract

Cinemas are an important site of learning for young people. Far from being a passive means of instruction, films aimed at children and young people provide an opportunity for a nation’s youth to interact with films’ messages both in and outside the cinema. From deciding which films to attend, to discussing the film’s ideas with their peers, parents and teachers, they offer young people the possibility of participating in a dialogue with adults about accepted social and cultural mores, such as gender and sexuality roles. This process is especially evident in socialist societies of the cold war era, where the state owned a monopoly on the film industry. This article examines representative children’s and young people’s films from the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany), focusing especially on the well‐known fairy tale films from that country, in order to demonstrate the changes in social attitudes and practices regarding girls’ and boys’ place in society as young, gendered, citizens of the nation.