On 6 April 2025, the long-awaited and festive premiere of the Friedensau film took place at the Burg-Theater. It was a bit like in Berlin or Cannes – when the new films are shown and honoured. Festively dressed guests, celebrities, a photo wall, a ‘red’ carpet ... Cheerful excitement and genuine tension were in the air.
The film "Echo des Glaubens. Friedensau: Ein Ort der Bildung und der Mission" had its premiere. One of the oldest cinemas in Germany had been chosen as the location: the Burg Theatre, which is located in the town of Burg, 15 minutes by car from Friedensau. The film tells the story of Friedensau, which was founded in 1899 and celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2024. Important scenes, interviews with contemporary witnesses and historical film and image material were combined into a ‘docu-drama’ for the film. The script was written by church historian and Friedensau expert Dr Johannes Hartlapp, who himself spent years of his childhood and youth in Friedensau, later studied theology here and has been teaching at the university for 30 years. The episodic volume ‘Wanderer, kommst du nach Friedensau ...’ by Wolfgang Hartlapp, who collected history and stories about the small village in the Jerichower Land and compiled documents in the Friedensau archive back in the 1970s and 1980s, served as the basis for the film.
In the presence of the film team, directors Matheus Volanin and Matthias Reischel, screenwriter Johannes Hartlapp, costume designer Sandra Klaus, actor Cyrus David (who plays headmaster and teacher Wilhelm Mueller), amateur actor and theology student Wieland Gelke and the university's chancellor Tobias Koch (a colonel in the 1940s in the film), the film was presented to an audience interested in Friedensau's history. In a round-table discussion – expertly moderated by Annegret Hartlapp – the selected representatives of the film team gave an insight not only into the process of making the film, but also into very personal experiences.
The tickets sold out quickly, so additional dates on 8 and 9 April 2025, 6 pm, and further rescheduled dates on 31 May, 5 pm, 1 June 2025, 6.30 pm, and 1, 2 and 3 September 2025, 6 pm, also at the Burg-Theater, will be offered. Tickets are available via this link: film.friedensau.de
The film will not be shown on state television, but in other locations, especially in Adventist churches: for example on 3 May 2025 in the Adventist Church Halle, Körnerstraße 4; on 10/11 May 2025 in the Adventist Church Oranienburg, Martin-Luther-Straße 34. For further locations and dates – the list is growing daily – see here: film.friedensau.de
Anyone who has the opportunity to watch this film should not miss it. The film will be shown this summer at the General Conference meeting in St. Louis, Missouri. According to Annegret Hartlapp, the moderator of the evening, the ‘film will go around the world’
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