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About the Housing Question 1972

[original title:  Zur Wohnungsfrage 1972]

Switzerland 1972. original: 16mm commag; Videotransfer: ab gespielter Kopie auf Anfrage, colour, 30 min.
 

In "Zur Wohnungsfrage" (About the Housing Question), Friedrich Engels wrote that the housing problem was not just a matter of physical and hygienic conditions, but was still an instrument of control in the hands of the ruling class.

"Zur Wohnungsfrage" is a film about the housing problem in today's Euroean vities such as Berlin, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Essen, Mannheim, Munich and Zurich. In the first chapter "Wohnen im Grünen" (Living in the Green Belt), the spotlight turns on this ideology with its suggestion of quiet, health and nature, which gives the building firms and investors an alibi for their business promotions. The second chapter "Wohnen im Ghetto" (Living in the Ghetto) shows the inevitable consequences, the social and economic isolation and the disintegration of these people. In the third chapter "Zuckerbrot und Peitsche" (The Sweet and the Whip) the question is raised about the connction between the separation of workplace and home and the sectors of production and consumption, and the usual consequences of this economic exploitation, the shacks of those without homes, ist presented. In the foourth chapter "Wohnungsnot und Herrschaft" (Housing shortages and control) the decisive question is put: what are the criteria for developing and planing our cities? The film shows who finally decides.

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