Coming Out is a 1989

East German East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

film directed by Heiner Carow and written by Wolfram Witt which deals with the lead character, a high school teacher, "

coming out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

" and accepting himself as gay. It was the last East German film released to the public prior to the

German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...

and one of the last films made by

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 ...

, the East German state film studio, and the only gay-themed feature film that it made. The film premiered at the

Kino International The Kino International is a film theater in Berlin, built from 1961 to 1963. It is located on Karl-Marx-Allee in former East Berlin. It hosted premieres of the DEFA film studios until the Berlin Wall#The Fall, fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. T ...

in Berlin on 9 November 1989, the night that the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...

was opened. It won a number of awards including a

Silver Bear The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

and Teddy Award at 40th Berlin International Film Festival, and awards at the National Feature Film Festival of the GDR. The lead actors are

Matthias Freihof Matthias Freihof (born 25 November 1961) is a German television actor and director. He has performed in many TV films and series including police drama Siska for 5 years. but also works on live stage performing as an actor and a singer. He is m ...

Dagmar Manzel Dagmar Manzel (born 1 September 1958) is a German actress. She has appeared in more than 80 films and television shows since 1979. She starred in the 1986 film '' So Many Dreams'', which was entered into the 37th Berlin International Film Festi ...

, and Dirk Kummer. The film was shot on location in

East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...

and includes scenes shot with amateurs in some of the gay venues of the time.Wagner, Brigitte B. (ed.) (2014) ''DEFA after East Germany'', pp. 229-232. London: Camden House. The East German transgender activist Charlotte von Mahlsdorf played a cameo role as a barmaid.

Plot

The story revolves around a young high-school teacher, Philipp Klarmann, who during his first day at work collides with a fellow teacher, Tanja, in a school corridor. Philipp ensures Tanja is okay and later takes her out for a drink. A romance quickly develops and they become engaged to be married. It later becomes clear that Philipp is conflicted about his sexuality. He demonstrates empathy with a discriminated minority by defending a black man who is being bullied on a train. Jakob, an out gay friend of Tanja's, comes to visit. Unknown to her, he and Philipp have had a previous relationship that didn't end well. Philipp later visits a gay bar, where a party is taking place. Most patrons are in costume and many are in drag. Philipp is cautious, but allows himself to be led to a seat near an older male character. The bartender senses his hesitation in this setting and says, "There's no need to be scared. Everyone started this way. Be brave." A young man, Matthias, watches Philipp from a distance. They later meet up, have an evening out together and have sex and fall in love. Philipp's relationship with Tanja deteriorates and he struggles with his identity. His mother indicates that she realises he is gay and that she disapproves. Philipp is eventually forced to come out to Tanja, after she inadvertently meets Mathias during intermission at a concert by the famous conductor

Daniel Barenboim Daniel Moses Barenboim (; born 15 November 1942) is an Argentines, Argentine-Israeli classical pianist and conductor based in Berlin, who also has Spain, Spanish and State of Palestine, Palestinian citizenship. From 1992 until January 2023, Bare ...

that all three are attending. Matthias is distraught when he learns that Philipp has a fiancée and runs out of the concert hall in distress. Over the next few weeks, Philipp searches for Matthias and also goes

cruising for sex Cruising for sex or cruising is walking or driving about a locality, called a cruising ground, in search of a sex partner, usually of the anonymous, casual, one-time variety. Published: 11-14-2007 Published: 9-21-2005 Article from NYT about a ...

; he meets up with a man and has casual sex, an experience which he enjoys but it perplexes him when the man casually leaves afterwards. He eventually finds Mathias at a bar with another young man, who is one of the pupils Phillipp teaches. Matthias rejects Philipp and Philipp goes away upset and returns to the gay bar where the two originally met. The old man Philipp first met in the bar is there again and he tells him the story of how he was forced to separate from his lover during the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

period. He concludes his story by saying "everyone is alone ... everyone is afraid." The film ends with a classroom scene, in which the head teacher, who has apparently discovered Philipp's sexual orientation, comes to do a sham classroom observation, theoretically to see if he is suitable to teach. Philipp sits on his desk saying and doing nothing, prompting the head teacher to yell 'Kollege Klarmann!' to which Philipp simply replies 'Ja', signifying his acceptance of his sexual orientation.

Cast

as Philipp Klarmann *

as Tanja * Dirk Kummer as Matthias *

Michael Gwisdek Michael Gwisdek (14 January 1942 – 22 September 2020) was a German actor and film director. Career He began his acting career in East Germany and has appeared in more than 130 films and television shows since 1968. His debut film as a direct ...

as Achim * Werner Dissel as Older homosexual man *

Gudrun Ritter Gudrun Ritter (born 16 November 1936) is a German actress. She appeared in more than one hundred films since 1959. Selected filmography References External links * * 1936 births Living people German film actresses People from ...

as Frau Moellemann, Waitress * Walfriede Schmitt as Philipp's mother * Axel Wandtke as Jakob * Charlotte von Mahlsdorf as the Barmaid * Pierre Bliss as Araber * René Schmidt as Young man in the park * Thomas Gumpert as Larry * Ursula Staack as Wanton * Robert Hummel as Lutz * Horst Ziethen as Lanky boy

Production

The opening scene follows an ambulance through well-known areas and boroughs such as

Prenzlauer Berg Prenzlauer Berg () is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality of Berlin, forming the southerly and most urban district of the borough of Pankow. From its founding in 1920 until 2001, Prenzlauer Berg was a district of Berlin in its own right ...

Berlin-Mitte Mitte (; German for "middle" or "center") is a central section () of Berlin, Germany, in the eponymous Boroughs of Berlin, borough () of Mitte. Until 2001, it was itself an autonomous district. Mitte proper comprises the historic center of Old ...

(

Alexander Platz (, ''Alexander Square'') is a large town square, public square and transport hub in the central Mitte (locality), Mitte district of Berlin. The square is named after the Emperor of All Russia, Russian Tsar Alexander I of Russia, Alexander I, w ...

) and

Friedrichshain Friedrichshain () is a quarter (''Ortsteil'') of the borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg in Berlin, Germany. From its creation in 1920 until 2001, it was a freestanding Boroughs of Berlin, city borough. Formerly part of East Berlin, it is adjace ...

on a night that the audience could assume is New Year's Eve, due to the fireworks in the background. Other scenes in the movie are filmed on locations that were common meeting points for homosexuals in East Germany such as the Fairytale Fountain (Märchenbrunnen) in

Volkspark Friedrichshain Volkspark Friedrichshain () is a large urban park on the border of the :Localities of Berlin, Berlin neighborhoods of Friedrichshain and Prenzlauer Berg. The oldest public park in Berlin, at 52 hectares, it is also the fourth-largest, after Berlin ...

and bars such as ''Schoppenstube'' in Prenzlauer Berg and ''Zum Burgfrieden'' which was located at Wichertstraße 69, though it was closed in January 2000. Scenes filmed in the school where Philipp teaches were filmed in the Carl-von-Ossietzky-Gymnasium, a historical building and school in

Pankow Pankow () is the second largest and most populous Boroughs and quarters of Berlin, borough of the German capital Berlin. In Berlin's 2001 administrative reform, it was merged with the former boroughs of Prenzlauer Berg and Weissensee (Berlin), W ...

and some halls were used in a few scenes. The family of

Lothar Bisky Lothar Bisky (17 August 1941 13 August 2013) was a German politician. He was the chairman of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), the successor of East Germany's Socialist Unity Party (SED). In June 2007, he became co-chairman of The Left ...

allowed scenes which took place in Tanja's apartment to be filmed in their Berlin home. Bisky was the director of the University of Film and Television (Potsdam-Babelsberg) from 1986 to 1990 and later, in the reunified Germany, he became a left wing politician. Two of his three sons are gay, one of whom is Berlin-based painter

Norbert Bisky Norbert Bisky (born 1970) is a German artist based in Berlin. He is one of the most important representatives of a new figurative painting in the 21st century. Life Norbert Bisky was born in Leipzig and grew up in the former German Democrati ...

Awards

The film has been shown at film festivals around the world and has won a number of awards, including: * 1990 40th Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) -

for 'outstanding artistic contribution',. Retrieved 3 December 2016 for its 'expression of respect for human rights, humanity, and tolerance'. Teddy Award, an award for the best LGBT films at the Berlinale. * 1990 ''Akademie der Künste Berlin'' (

Academy of Arts, Berlin The Academy of Arts () is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany. The academy's predecessor organization was founded in 1696 by Elector F ...

) -

Konrad Wolf Prize The Konrad Wolf Prize () is a German performing arts, new media art and film award given since 1986 by the Academy of Arts, Berlin (formerly the East German Academy of Arts). It is named after the East German film director and former president of t ...

for director Heiner Carow and author Wolfram Witt.Konrad Wolf Prize. Academy of Arts, Berlin
Retrieved 3 December 2016 * 1990 (National Feature Film Festival of the GDR) - Best Director (Heiner Carow); Best Young Male Actor (Matthias Freihof).

References

External links

''Coming out''
(9 June 2011) i
East German Cinema Blog
Retrieved 4 August 2017 {{DEFAULTSORT:Coming Out (1989 Film) 1989 films 1989 LGBTQ-related films LGBTQ-related coming-of-age drama films Silver Bear for outstanding artistic contribution East German films German LGBTQ-related films 1980s German-language films Films directed by Heiner Carow Films set in Berlin Films shot in Berlin Gay-related films 1980s German films