Planetarische Bauern

Shrouded in legends and stories, moors were once feared and shunned like almost no other landscape. By the early 1990s, however, only one per cent of the originally 550 hectares of moorland in eastern Germany remained as living, growing moors. Moreover, just a fifth of this area wasn’t affected by excessive nutrient input – a shocking statistic. In Ein Moor ohne Wasser stirbt (‘A Moor Without Water Dies’) commissioned by DEFA Dok-Film GmbH, Siegfried Bergmann presents various near-natural moorland types and, in conversation with agronomist, biologist and conservationist Professor Michael Succow, explores the threats still facing the remaining moors.

On loan from the German Broadcasting Archive

After training as a gardener and studying biology at the University of Jena, in 1959 Siegfried Bergmann began a career that would span more than three decades as a writer, director and cinematographer in DEFA’s biology film department. He worked closely with his wife Christine, who was responsible for the dramaturgy of many of their films. Although employed by DEFA, the Bergmanns often worked on commission for East German television – a circumstance that may have allowed them to address ecological and environmental issues in a more critical light than was usually permitted in East Germany. Augen der Landschaft (‘Eyes of the Landscape’) explores the ecological significance of ‘kettle holes’ – small, pond-like depressions which influence the microclimate of fields and meadows in various ways, but are increasingly threatened by littering and infill.

On loan from the German Broadcasting Archive