PROGRESS FILM-VERTRIEB GMBH PRESENTS
THE GERMAN UNIVERSITY FOR PHYSICAL EDUCATION
CAMERA: HORST THURLING EDITING: PUTTY KRAFFT
MUSIC: GERD NATSCHINSKI
SCENARIO & DIRECTION: ERICH KAHL PRODUCTION: ERICH ALBRECHT
A DEFA FILM 1952
Summer of 1952.
One of the largest construction sites of the GDR.
Our government is building the German University for PE in Leipzig,
in accordance with the law for the promotion of youth and sports.
With this extensive project,
our modern, leading sport institution
will become a teaching and research centre
in all areas of physical education.
Volunteer groups of students and workers
help build their new university.
A great achievement of our 5-year plan.
A great complex with 6 sport halls,
a swimming pool, boarding facilities for 1,200 students,
a sports clinic, a library, a boat house,
and many class, research, utility and administration rooms.
The German University for PE was founded in October 1950.
Students currently live and study in this building.
Morning flag-raising ceremony with our sports students.
Our sports students.
Yesterday, they were workers of the Republic.
For increased and better production,
we need healthy, strong people.
Sports enhance the people's health.
They help our workers relax
for renewed strength to build socialism.
Coming from the production sector, young people
with a talent and passion for sports, be they a fitter or a steelworker,
a textile worker, a tractor driver or a young farmer,
are sent to the University for PE through the Worker and Farmer College,
to be able to help
build the happy future of a healthy people.
Having a passion for sports isn't enough.
Sport studies require serious work
and hard training of the body and mind.
A versatile education and training
brings about politically conscious,
professional sports teachers and researchers.
The best evidence
of the teachers' and students' outstanding work
are the top athletes who were educated at the University.
They represent the German University for PE
in national and international competitions.
"Ready to work and defend peace."
Each student owns or works toward the sports performance badge.
One of the most important missions of the University
is to train specialized teachers,
and a new generation of researchers.
This pommel horse routine results
from scientific research work at the University.
It illustrates new methods for vaulting.
Students love boxing
because it requires courage, toughness and stamina.
Excessive strain on the body is damaging.
The Department of Sports Medicine of the German University for PE,
under Dr. Tittel,
ensures the careful monitoring and care of students by a medical team.
At the same time, fruitful medical research is performed.
Thus, functioning of the heart, blood circulation,
and breathing,
and the influence of the nervous system on exercise
are observed in situ and described.
Then, using results from advanced science,
especially by Pavlov,
they are analysed.
Classes here never amount to the delivery
of old, dry school knowledge from teacher to students.
An anatomy class on a live model.
These are muscles.
Here's how they are built, how they react and work.
Knowledge thus acquired is applied to the care of the body.
Sportsmen need to be able to massage.
The most modern medical equipment for our students:
under water pressure massage.
Our students receive exemplary care in all areas.
The catering is outstanding.
The positive influence of appetizing meals
and of clean, nicely dressed tables on people's well-being
shouldn't be underestimated.
Thanks to our government's generous support,
our students have no economic worries.
During lunch break, one can read
the newspaper or journals,
play a game of chess, grab a book in the cozy lounge
or study in one's room to prepare for the upcoming class.
Let's have a look in the great lecture hall.
Vice-president Hühne is giving a sociology lecture.
Ernst Thälmann turned the German Communist Party
into a revolutionary party of the masses,
firmly grounded in Marxism-Leninism.
It was
the only party
representing and defending the interests of the working class
and of the German people in all areas of the nation's life.
Ernst Thälmann trained cadres
who didn't capitulate in front of fascism.
The work of Ernst Thälmann's life is a crucial part
of true national, true German history.
This must be firmly anchored in the German people.
To each of you,
what E. Thälmann stood for has become your knowledge and duty.
This includes the younger students
of the Worker and Farmer College.
Here, they're attending a physics lesson.
Let's see with this class
how the unity between theory and practice in sports
is illustrated.
The centre of gravity and laws of statics
are explained theoretically,
demonstrated practically,
and finally applied on the sports field.
With this basis in scientific knowledge,
better sports performance can be achieved with ease.
The foundation of all work is our social conscience.
"Ready to work and defend peace."
This compels us
to fight for peace,
to protect our socialist homeland from another war,
and to defend it with weapons.
Training of the sports students is expanded through an internship.
After the second semester, students go to a training camp,
a sports school or a company's sports association,
to perform their first practical work
under the supervision of an experienced teacher.
Exercise night at a company's sports association in Leipzig.
The student working here,
Jürgen Wolff, has chosen fencing as his specialty.
He practices with the GDR women foil champion,
and leads exercise hour
with 50 sports enthusiasts from Leipzig companies.
He will go back to the German University of PE
with plenty of practical experience.
Then, once he graduates,
he'll be one of the pillars of the people's sports,
to provide workers in factories or in the countryside with new strength,
for the great missions of our nation.
THE END
Subtitles: Élisabeth Fuchs