Pankoff. Ein gesamtdeutsches Stück

A satirical montage. In the 1950s and 60s, West German politicians commonly used East Berlin’s Pankow district as a synonym for the political leadership of East Germany. Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, calling it “Pankoff” in a parody of a Russian accent, scorned it as a Soviet-run “zone regime”. The film combines street interviews with (uninformed) West Germans with scenes from the district. Footage of a men’s choir, a folk festival and an open-air swimming pool are evidence of carefree normality – “come, let’s go to Pankow, it’s lovely there!”.