Heimat 1 by Edgar Reitz

The feature film cycle Heimat by Edgar Reitz is one of the greatest television and cinematic works of the 20th century. The 933-minute epic, filmed in both black-white and colour in 1981/82, garnered numerous German and international film awards and is regarded as one of the key cinematic works dealing with German history.

Conservation and Restoration

Before the conservation began, there was only one existing cinematic copy of the film, which was in very poor condition. In response to festivals and cultural organizations which have shown interest in showing the film again, this project completely restored the film reels and produced new 35-mm copies. Because of the way the black-white and colour segments were mixed, the original negatives were never compiled into a complete master copy, but were stored as separate reels at the Federal Film Archive. To produce new copies, the organizers had to create new colour grading for the entire work. The director Edgar Reitz has been involved in the project and artistically supervised the entire restoration process together with the cameraman Christian Reitz. Their goal was to produce a high-quality digital master copy and a spliced compilation of the archive negatives for a future cinematic release.

Following the conservation measures to safeguard the film, experts have concluded that the results are outstanding. The high-quality negatives can now be presented as never before. The remastered version of the film “Heimat 1” by Edgar Reitz is now available for all presentation forms and uses.

Book debut and cinema premiere

The premiere of “Heimat Remastered Nonstop” has been shown at the Kino Babylon in Berlin from 27 February to 1 March 2015. In addition to screenings of the individual episodes, fans have been able to participate in two cinematic marathons titled “Heimat Nonstop” featuring all eleven episodes in succession from 4 pm to 9 am with small breaks and a concluding breakfast (27 and 28 February 2015).

The screening on 1 March 2015 has been accompanied by the presentation of the new book “Edgar Reitz – Chronist deutscher Sehnsucht” (Edgar Reitz – Chronicler of German Desire) by Thomas Koebner, followed by the concluding event “Reunion Festival” attended by the original production team and actors from 1980-84.


Artistic director: Edgar Reitz and Christian Martin Reitz
Funding period: 1 Sep. 2011 – Dec. 2013