As of: February 15, 2024, 3:00 p.m
By: Marc Schreib
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The film team: (from left) Lutz Eigel, Angelika Wimbauer, Michael von Ferrari.
© Bibiane Wimbauer
Michael von Ferrari (65) from Trudering discovered his passion for documentaries.
He came to this as a career changer through hobby photography.
District
– “The oldest young filmmakers in Munich”, as Michael von Ferrari (65), Angelika Wimbauer (76) and Lutz Eigel (64) are actually quite fond of being referred to as.
It took them three years, together with many interview partners, to bring the documentary “Ruinenschleicher und Schachterleis – Munich after 1945” to the cinemas.
During production there were fears that the theme of “Munich in the post-war period” would stir up too great expectations.
But after three months of running, the cinemas speak for themselves.
In October 2020, Michael von Ferrari had the idea for his second film project after he had already made a previous film with Kirsten Althof from Haar and was able to record it as a complete success.
The first film was called “Nine – Memories of turbulent times.” New because the film interviews five men and four women who talk about their childhood and youth.
Environmental speaker in Haar for many years
The 65-year-old came to filming seven years ago as a career changer.
He always had a passion for hobby photography and one day discovered that he could also film well with his SLR camera.
Now also mirrorless, and filming has become increasingly important for the Munich native, who worked as an environmental officer for the municipality of Haar for 21 years.
But above all, filming older people who talk about their childhood and youth: “I have become a collector of life stories.” Many interviewees are happy that they can talk about the time after the Second World War.
The Wolfratshauser native had his first conversation in this form with his mother's oldest friend, which spurred him on: "She casually told me one day that she was employed as a tailor's apprentice on the Obersalzberg during the last months of the war." So she looked after the families the Nazi greats getting dressed.
When the Obersalzberg was bombed by the Allies, all residents were asked to go into the tunnels and survived in this way.
For Michael from Ferrari, this story was an incentive to find out more and to see where stories lie everywhere.
Interviewees were very young back then
Especially many people slumber in Munich after the Second World War.
The filmmaker, together with his two colleagues Angelika Wimbauer and Lutz Eigel, wanted to address the local people and create a local connection.
Since spring 2022, filmmaker Ursula Ambach from Munich has also been supporting the project community with specialist knowledge and dramaturgical input.
The period roughly covers the years 1945 to the 800th anniversary in 1958 and includes childhood experiences.
The interviewees experienced this time either very young or as young adults: the invasion of the Americans, how families dealt with the Nazi past and the war past, as well as urban development and the housing shortage.
The cramped conditions cannot be compared with today.
Sometimes eight to nine people lived in a two- to three-room apartment.
The contrasts are very illuminating for the 65-year-old.
The scene at the very beginning in which a contemporary witness talks about his home is particularly impressive.
He was 13 years old and the family was sitting around the table.
Suddenly the door slams open and two American GIs enter the room with submachine guns at the ready.
The mother was completely beside herself as if she had been attacked and automatically greeted the soldiers with “Heil Hitler”.
When she realized the identity, she immediately apologized.
The American took the words with humor and gave the family a pack of cigarettes, which were considered valuable foreign currency on the black market at the time.
A specialty in lean times was the push sausage.
You put a wheel of sausage on a slice of bread and push it in front of you with your teeth and are only allowed to bite into it at the end of the piece: a celebratory act for many children after the war.
“The humility and joy about simple things was much greater back then than it is today.”
Femoral fracture incident
In the middle of the project, the Truderinger had a serious bicycle accident and broke his thigh above the kneecap.
He was traveling with a friend from Haar on Fröttmaninger Berg and had already reached the level again when he changed from one lane to the other.
While crossing the grass verge, he got stuck in a hollow that he hadn't seen.
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The former Haar environmental officer has also suffered from Parkinson's for years.
But the latest project and the contact with people give him so much strength that he can cope with any physical problems very well.
And the Truderinger even had the courage to realize an additional film project together with the VHS and director Silvia Engelhardt in Taufkirchen about the war years and the post-war period in the countryside, which was shown at the end of November (we reported).
The potential that lies in these stories is great.
In collaboration with the adult education center association and possibly also the district home guardians, the 65-year-old could imagine a kind of seminar on the topic.
It is very important to him to capture everything that people can tell from the time.
The next film screening
in the Munich district will take place on Sunday, March 3rd, at 11 a.m. in the Haarer Kino.
Further dates can be found on the homepage 50er.muenchen-zeitreisen.de.