Peter Krieg
Encyclopedia
Peter Krieg, born as Wilhelm Walter Gladitz (August 27, 1947, Schwäbisch Gmünd
, Germany
– July 22, 2009 in Berlin
) was a documentary film
maker, producer
and writer
. He initially enrolled in business and economics courses at Hamburg University but abandoned his studies to travel and teach horsemanship in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. He later returned to Germany with his first wife, the American Heidi Knott, with whom he studied film at the German Film & TV Academy (DFFB) in Berlin
and collaborated on his early works.
For September Wheat Krieg received the German Film Award and the Adolf-Grimme-Prize. Many of his films were internationally distributed. He has also produced documentary films of other filmmakers, such as Egypt
ian/German A'Wahed Askar.
, 1982–2005) as well as the interActiva Festival for Interactive Media (Cologne
/Babelsberg 1991-1995).
He temporarily headed the design team of the HTC digital film production center at Babelsberg Film Studios
, and was executive producer for several exhihibion and theme park attraction films (Expo 2000, Space Center Bremen, Nuerburgring Attraction Center).
In the late 1980s, Krieg became interested in second-order cybernetics
and radical constructivism and edited a book honouring the 80th birthday of Heinz von Foerster
(Das Auge des Betrachters - The Eye of the Viewer).
After 1999 he promoted Pile Systems Inc, a software company developing a new "relationist" approach to data.
Krieg, who called himself a "68-leftist-turned-libertarian", had two children and lived in Berlin.
Schwäbisch Gmünd
Schwäbisch Gmünd is a town in the eastern part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. With a population of around 62,000, the town is the second largest in the Ostalbkreis and the whole region of East Württemberg after Aalen...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
– July 22, 2009 in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
) was a documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
maker, producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
and writer
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
. He initially enrolled in business and economics courses at Hamburg University but abandoned his studies to travel and teach horsemanship in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. He later returned to Germany with his first wife, the American Heidi Knott, with whom he studied film at the German Film & TV Academy (DFFB) in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
and collaborated on his early works.
For September Wheat Krieg received the German Film Award and the Adolf-Grimme-Prize. Many of his films were internationally distributed. He has also produced documentary films of other filmmakers, such as Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian/German A'Wahed Askar.
Biography
Peter Krieg initiated and co-founded the OEKOMEDIA Institute and Festival for Ecological Media, (FreiburgFreiburg
Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In the extreme south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain...
, 1982–2005) as well as the interActiva Festival for Interactive Media (Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
/Babelsberg 1991-1995).
He temporarily headed the design team of the HTC digital film production center at Babelsberg Film Studios
Babelsberg Studios
The Studio Babelsberg, located in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany, is the oldest large-scale film studio in the world. Founded in 1912, it covers an area of about . Hundreds of films, including Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel were filmed there...
, and was executive producer for several exhihibion and theme park attraction films (Expo 2000, Space Center Bremen, Nuerburgring Attraction Center).
In the late 1980s, Krieg became interested in second-order cybernetics
Second-order cybernetics
Second-order cybernetics, also known as the cybernetics of cybernetics, investigates the construction of models of cybernetic systems. It investigates cybernetics with awareness that the investigators are part of the system, and of the importance of self-referentiality, self-organizing, the...
and radical constructivism and edited a book honouring the 80th birthday of Heinz von Foerster
Heinz von Foerster
Heinz von Foerster was an Austrian American scientist combining physics and philosophy. Together with Warren McCulloch, Norbert Wiener, John von Neumann, Lawrence J. Fogel, and others, Heinz von Foerster was an architect of cybernetics.-Biography:Von Foerster was born in 1911 in Vienna, Austria,...
(Das Auge des Betrachters - The Eye of the Viewer).
After 1999 he promoted Pile Systems Inc, a software company developing a new "relationist" approach to data.
Krieg, who called himself a "68-leftist-turned-libertarian", had two children and lived in Berlin.
Filmography
Among his best known films are:- Bottle Babies (1975)
- Seeds of Health (1976)
- Foster Children (1979)
- September Wheat (1980)
- The Pack-Ice Syndrome (1982)
- Report from a Deserted Planet (1984)
- Father's Land (1986)
- The Soul of Money (1987)
- Machine Dreams (1988)
- Suspicious Minds (1991)
- Addio Africa? (1993).
External links
- Aitken. Ian (ed.); Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film, Routledge 2006