This official rating certificate for the film
“The Rose Garden” issued by the
German Motion Picture Rating
Agency
in
Wiesbaden is in the
collection of the
German Film
Institute’s
Artur
Brauner Archives in
Frankfurt a.M. It
was issued upon request on April 24, 1990. In
addition to the film’s technical data such as its length (3080 m), running time
(113 mins), aspect ratio (35 mm) or language (German), the document also names the
company
CCC-Filmkunst
LLC as its production company. It is to them that this letter is
addressed. According to the certificate, the feature film was given a permanent
rating of “highly recommended” based on an internal vote of 4:1. The film is
described as a “social issues drama” and tagged with keywords such as “coming
to terms with the past,” “guilt and atonement,” “persecution of Jews,”
“German justice system,” “politically engaged,” and “social criticism.”
The section explaining the committee’s rating includes a brief plot summary and
mainly highlights the acting, character development, and the film’s detailed
observation, which the reviewers also saw reflected in the combination of image and
sound. The production date, which coincided with
Germany’s
reunification, is seen as adding to the film’s significance because it
prompted a new period of thinking in historical terms about one’s home country.
First, this document can be read as a source shedding light on the trends in the
culture of remembrance in
Germany; moreover,
the plot of this film shot in locations in
Hamburg and
Frankfurt also tells
the story of the historic events that occurred at the school on
Bullenhuser Damm in
Hamburg.
Letter from the German Motion Picture Rating Agency to CCC-Filmkunst LLC, Wiesbaden. Dated May 8, 1990 Regarding the Rating of the Movie “Der Rosengarten” [“The Rose Garden”] (translated by Insa Kummer), edited in: Key Documents of German-Jewish History,
<https://dx.doi.org/10.23691/jgo:source-142.en.v1> [October 06, 2024].