This research analyses the mutual representation of the GDR and the FRG in documentary film from 1949 to 1989. A comparative approach shows the importance and interdependency of the ways in which the two German states viewed one another. These formulas are characterised by parallels and continuity, but also, just as importantly, by interruptions and contradictions. Stereo-types and clichés are used, questioned and redefined. A number of discursive and structural comparisons show the constitutive role of images of ‘The other side’, characterised over the years by:
- The continuity of the professionals involved (directors, producers and institutions).
- The creation of specific genres in the representation of "the other."
- And finally, a group of specific themes and motifs represented by a small number of well defined strategies in relation to the political climate.