Behind the Iron Curtain, there was an interesting film culture. The cinemas of Poland, Russia, East-Germany, Hungary and Czechoslovakia produced several film classics during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s that fared very well at international film festivals. In Poland, there was also a massive culture of film posters. The best graphic artists of the country designed quite freely innovative images that were spread by hundreds of thousands to every town and village in the country. East-Germany and Romania were the specialists in film postcards. VEB Progress Filmvertrieb had the monopoly on film distribution in East-Germany and produced thousands of wonderderful star postcards to help promote the films.
![Yves Montand]()
Yves Montand. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 807, 1958. Retail price: 0,20 DM.
![Nicole Courcel]()
Nicole Courcel. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, no. 808, 1958. Retail price: 0,20 DM.
![Gérard Philipe]()
Gérard Philipe. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 73. Photo: Franco-London-Film S.A. Publicity still for Le rouge et le noir/The Red and the Black (Claude Autant-Lara, 1954).
![Hildegard Knef]()
Hildegard Knef. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, nr. 7/319. 1957. Photo: DEFA.
Progress was founded in 1950, under German-Soviet management. It was a cooperation of the Russian Sovexport and the East-German DEFA film distribution.
The firm, which still exists, was located in the Jäger Strasse 32 in East-Berlin, in the building of the DEFA Studios for newsreels and documentaries. In 1955, Sovexport retired as a partner and the Progress Film-Vertrieb was transformed in a state-owned company.
In the following decades, Progress produced to promote its films thousands of posters, film programmes and also postcards in different sizes. Regular formats of these 'starpostkarten' were 9 x 13 cm during the 1950s and later 10 x 14,5 cm. These cards had a white edge below the photo. In the 1970s, there were also series with colour postcards and A5 format cards (14,7 x 20,7 cm).
I like the Progress Starpostkarten because they gave a unique view on the popular East-European film stars of the period.
The muscular Serbian actor Gojko Mitic for instance, the most famous Indian in Eastern Europe. The handsome star played in numerous Westerns from East-Germany between 1966 and 1984.
Or Angelica Domröse, who played the unforgettable Paula in one of the biggest hits of the DEFA, Die Legende von Paul und Paula/The Legend of Paul and Paula (Heiner Carow, 1973), also with Winfried Glatzeder.
![Angelica Domröse]()
Angelica Domröse. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 2091, 1964. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Klaus Fischer.
![Winfried Glatzeder]()
Winfried Glatzeder. Big East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 163/73, 1971. Retail price: 0,50 M. Photo: Linke.
![Iurie Darie (1929 – 2012)]()
Iurie Darie. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2703, 1966. Retail price: 0,20 M. Photo: Balinski.
![Cox Habbema]()
Cox Habbema. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 3307, 1968. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Reinke / DEFA. Publicity still for Wie heiratet man einen König (1968).
![Gojko Mitic]()
Gojko Mitic. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2930, 1967. Retail price: 0,20 MDN. Photo: Pathenheimer / DEFA.
![Daniel Olbrychski]()
Daniel Olbrychski. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 117/73, 1973. Retail price: 0,20 M.
The GDR required that 60% of the by Progress distributed films should come from socialist and 40% from non-socialist countries.
So Progress also produced many cards of British, French, Italian and West-German films and its stars. Left-wing stars like Gérard Philipe, Yves Montand and Vanessa Redgrave were obviously popular in East-Germany.
In these cards the foreign photographers were not mentioned. The only photo credit was: Progress. East German photographers whose work often was shown at the Progress cards were in the 1950s Kurt Wunsch and Gerhard Puhlmann, in the 1960s Ludwig Schirmer and Klaus Fischer and in the 1970s Günter Steffen, Peter Söllner and Ute Mahler.
Perhaps surprising, but Hollywood was a permanent guest in the GDR too. American films were loved, but in the 1950s and 1960s only hestitantly imported, not only for political reasons. The licenses for the major Hollywood films were expensive.
In the 1970s more Hollywood films were presented, but with a delay of sometimes ten years. In the early 1980s, the proportion of non-socialist films had grown to 65% and the share of American films 23%.
Today, more than 25 years since the last Progress were produced, there are many collectors like me. A bit of Ostalghia?
![Armin Mueller-Stahl]()
Armin Mueller-Stahl. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2254. Photo: Schirmer.
![Eva-Maria Hagen]()
Eva-Maria Hagen. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2249, 1965. Retail price: 0,15 MDN. Photo: Schwarzer.
![Anna Prucnal]()
Anna Prucnal. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2259, 1965. Retail price: 0,15 MDN. Photo: Schwarz.
![Ewa Krzyzewska]()
Ewa Krzyzewska. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 2530, 1966. Retail price: 0,15 MDN. Photo: Balinski.
![Angelica Domröse]()
Angelica Domröse. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 4/F/73, 1973. Retail price: 0,20 MDN. Photo: Linke.
Next week: the Romanian star postcards of Casa Filmului Acin.
Source: Philipp Humpert (Amerika. Werkleitz festival) (German), Hans-Jürgen Furcht (Archiv Starpostkarten / Schauspielerfotos) (German), Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.
Yves Montand. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 807, 1958. Retail price: 0,20 DM.
Nicole Courcel. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, no. 808, 1958. Retail price: 0,20 DM.
Gérard Philipe. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 73. Photo: Franco-London-Film S.A. Publicity still for Le rouge et le noir/The Red and the Black (Claude Autant-Lara, 1954).
Hildegard Knef. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, nr. 7/319. 1957. Photo: DEFA.
A State-owned Company
Progress was founded in 1950, under German-Soviet management. It was a cooperation of the Russian Sovexport and the East-German DEFA film distribution.
The firm, which still exists, was located in the Jäger Strasse 32 in East-Berlin, in the building of the DEFA Studios for newsreels and documentaries. In 1955, Sovexport retired as a partner and the Progress Film-Vertrieb was transformed in a state-owned company.
In the following decades, Progress produced to promote its films thousands of posters, film programmes and also postcards in different sizes. Regular formats of these 'starpostkarten' were 9 x 13 cm during the 1950s and later 10 x 14,5 cm. These cards had a white edge below the photo. In the 1970s, there were also series with colour postcards and A5 format cards (14,7 x 20,7 cm).
I like the Progress Starpostkarten because they gave a unique view on the popular East-European film stars of the period.
The muscular Serbian actor Gojko Mitic for instance, the most famous Indian in Eastern Europe. The handsome star played in numerous Westerns from East-Germany between 1966 and 1984.
Or Angelica Domröse, who played the unforgettable Paula in one of the biggest hits of the DEFA, Die Legende von Paul und Paula/The Legend of Paul and Paula (Heiner Carow, 1973), also with Winfried Glatzeder.
Angelica Domröse. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 2091, 1964. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Klaus Fischer.
Winfried Glatzeder. Big East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 163/73, 1971. Retail price: 0,50 M. Photo: Linke.
Iurie Darie. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2703, 1966. Retail price: 0,20 M. Photo: Balinski.
Cox Habbema. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 3307, 1968. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Reinke / DEFA. Publicity still for Wie heiratet man einen König (1968).
Gojko Mitic. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2930, 1967. Retail price: 0,20 MDN. Photo: Pathenheimer / DEFA.
Daniel Olbrychski. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 117/73, 1973. Retail price: 0,20 M.
A Bit of Ostalghia
The GDR required that 60% of the by Progress distributed films should come from socialist and 40% from non-socialist countries.
So Progress also produced many cards of British, French, Italian and West-German films and its stars. Left-wing stars like Gérard Philipe, Yves Montand and Vanessa Redgrave were obviously popular in East-Germany.
In these cards the foreign photographers were not mentioned. The only photo credit was: Progress. East German photographers whose work often was shown at the Progress cards were in the 1950s Kurt Wunsch and Gerhard Puhlmann, in the 1960s Ludwig Schirmer and Klaus Fischer and in the 1970s Günter Steffen, Peter Söllner and Ute Mahler.
Perhaps surprising, but Hollywood was a permanent guest in the GDR too. American films were loved, but in the 1950s and 1960s only hestitantly imported, not only for political reasons. The licenses for the major Hollywood films were expensive.
In the 1970s more Hollywood films were presented, but with a delay of sometimes ten years. In the early 1980s, the proportion of non-socialist films had grown to 65% and the share of American films 23%.
Today, more than 25 years since the last Progress were produced, there are many collectors like me. A bit of Ostalghia?
Armin Mueller-Stahl. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2254. Photo: Schirmer.
Eva-Maria Hagen. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2249, 1965. Retail price: 0,15 MDN. Photo: Schwarzer.
Anna Prucnal. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2259, 1965. Retail price: 0,15 MDN. Photo: Schwarz.
Ewa Krzyzewska. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 2530, 1966. Retail price: 0,15 MDN. Photo: Balinski.
Angelica Domröse. East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 4/F/73, 1973. Retail price: 0,20 MDN. Photo: Linke.
Next week: the Romanian star postcards of Casa Filmului Acin.
Source: Philipp Humpert (Amerika. Werkleitz festival) (German), Hans-Jürgen Furcht (Archiv Starpostkarten / Schauspielerfotos) (German), Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.