Andrew Thorndike
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Andrew Thorndike (30 August 1909 – 14 December 1979) was a German documentary
film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...
. He directed 16 films between 1949 and 1977. His 1950 documentary, '' Der Weg nach oben'', won the Best Documentary Film at the
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (, KVIFF) is an annual film festival held in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. The Karlovy Vary Festival is one of the oldest in the world and has become Central and Eastern Europe, Central and Eastern Eur ...
in 1951. He was a member of the jury at the
5th Moscow International Film Festival The 5th Moscow International Film Festival was held from 5 to 20 July 1967. The Grand Prix was shared between the Soviet film '' The Journalist'', directed by Sergei Gerasimov and the Hungarian film ''Father'', directed by István Szabó. The f ...
. At the
11th Moscow International Film Festival The 11th Moscow International Film Festival was held from 14 to 28 August 1979. The Golden Prizes were awarded to the Italian-French film ''Christ Stopped at Eboli (film), Christ Stopped at Eboli'' directed by Francesco Rosi, the Spanish film ''S ...
in 1979, he was awarded the Honorable Prize for his contribution to cinema.


Background

Thorndike was related to a ''
Mayflower ''Mayflower'' was an English sailing ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, reac ...
'' family who had settled in the United States. He grew up in a wealthy family on an estate in Senzig, outside of Berlin, the son of an advertising executive. Thorndike's father was on the board of
Krupp Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp (formerly Fried. Krupp AG and Friedrich Krupp GmbH), trade name, trading as Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century as well as Germany's premier weapons manufacturer dur ...
. He received commercial training before becoming an employee of
Ufa Ufa is a city in Russia and the capital of the republic of Bashkortostan. UFA or Ufa may also refer to: Places * Ufa (river), a river in Russia; a tributary of the Belaya * Ufa International Airport, near the Russian city * Ufa railway statio ...
in 1931. Thorndike quickly became head of the firm's advertising film division. Thorndike began working for the Supreme Command of the German Army and Navy beginning in 1941, where his job was to produce military training films. He also directed a documentary for Ufa, ''Die Herrin des Hofes'' (Mistress of the Farm), in 1942. During the war, Thorndike turned against the Nazi government and was accused of anti-government activities. He was forced into the German army and sent to the Eastern Front, where he was captured and taken to Russia as a prisoner of war in 1945. Upon his return to East Germany in 1948, he took a job with the state-run film studio
DEFA DEFA (''Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft'') was the state-owned film studio of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) throughout the country's existence. Since 2019, DEFA's film heritage has been made accessible and licensable on the PR ...
, where he produced many propaganda films. His 1950 documentary, '' Der Weg nach oben'', was his first feature-length film. A scathing critique of western involvement and economic-social problems in Western Germany in the post-war years, it won the Best Documentary Film at the
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (, KVIFF) is an annual film festival held in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. The Karlovy Vary Festival is one of the oldest in the world and has become Central and Eastern Europe, Central and Eastern Eur ...
in 1951. Also in 1950, Thorndike met Annelie Kungik, a former schoolteacher, through their mutual work in films. He began collaborating with her and the two were married in 1953. After their marriage, Annilie began co-directing films with her husband. While at work on ''Stalin und das deutsche Volk'' (Stalin and the German People), he crossed into West Berlin and was subsequently arrested in March 1953. Thorndike was charged with aiding and abetting treason. His arrest created tensions between East and West Germany before he was released by the West German government. East German master spy
Markus Wolf Markus Johannes Wolf (19 January 1923 – 9 November 2006), also known as Mischa, was a German spymaster who served as the head of the Main Directorate for Reconnaissance (), the foreign intelligence division of East Germany's Ministry for Sta ...
claims that until the time of his arrest in Berlin, Thorndike was an operative for the East German Foreign Intelligence Service and that the agency was trying to create inroads in
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
's economic and political spheres through him. An East German newspaper claimed that the Thorndikes' 1956 documentary, ''Du und mancher Kamerad'' (You and Some Comrades), was positively received in the UK. The film was banned in West Germany and remained so some years after its release. Two of the couple's later films, ''Holiday on Sylt'' from 1957 and ''Operation Teutonic Sword'' from 1958, were banned in Britain by the
British Board of Film Classification The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is a non-governmental organization, non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of films exhibited ...
. Thorndike had his own production unit at DEFA, which was consolidated with DEFA-Gruppe 67 (DEFA-Group 67) in 1968, with Thorndike as the head of this project. During this time he founded the East German Film and Television Workers Guild which he remained in charge of until his death.


Filmography

*'' Die Herrin des Hofes'' (Documentary short) (1942) *'' Der 13. Oktober - 1. Der durchbrochene Kreis'' (Short) (1949) *'' Von Hamburg bis Stralsund'' (Documentary short) (1950) *'' Der Weg nach oben'' (Documentary) (1950) *'' Wilhelm Pieck – Das Leben unseres Präsidenten'' (Documentary) (1950) *''
Youth Sports Festival ''Youth Sports Festival'' is an East German sports documentary film about the athletics competition featured at the 3rd World Festival of Youth and Students held in Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of ...
'' (Documentary) (1951) *''
Die Prüfung Die, as a verb, refers to death, the cessation of life. Die may also refer to: Games * Die, singular of dice, small throwable objects used for producing random numbers Manufacturing * Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semicondu ...
'' (Documentary short) (1952) *'' Die Sieben vom Rhein'' (Documentary) (1954) *'' Die Novemberrevolution 1918'' (Documentary short) (1956) *'' Du und mancher Kamerad'' (Documentary) (1956) *'' Der Fall Harzmann und andere'' (Documentary short) (1957) *'' Holiday on Sylt'' (Documentary short) (1957) *'' Operation Teutonic Sword'' (1958) *''
Die Konzessionen des Mister Urquhart Die, as a verb, refers to death, the cessation of life. Die may also refer to: Games * Die, singular of dice, small throwable objects used for producing random numbers Manufacturing * Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semicondu ...
'' (TV Movie documentary) (1961) *'' Das russische Wunder'' (Two-part documentary) (1964) *'' Tito in Deutschland'' (Short) (1965) *'' Du bist min – Ein deutsches Tagebuch'' (Documentary) (1969) *'' Wladimir Iljitsch Uljanow Lenin'' (Documentary) (1970) *'' Mein ganzes Leben lang'' (Documentary) (1971) *''
Start Start can refer to multiple topics: * Takeoff, the phase of flight where an aircraft transitions from moving along the ground to flying through the air * Starting lineup in sports * Track and field#Starts use in race, Starts use in sport race * S ...
'' (Documentary) (1972) *'' Hier deutsche Volkspolizei'' (Documentary) (1972) *'' Die alte neue Welt'' (Documentary) (1977)


References


Bibliography

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thorndike, Andrew 1909 births 1979 deaths Film people from Frankfurt German male writers German documentary filmmakers