Wilhelm Pieck

The film shows the flag handover and swearing-in ceremony of the first unit of the National People's Army on the eve of May 1, 1956 and the parade of units of the People's Army on the morning of May 1.

This reportage is focused on Wilhelm Pieck’s visit in Warsaw in 1950. He was the president of East Germany between 1949 and 1960. The visit sealed diplomatic relations between the Polish People's Republic and the newly established German Democratic Republic (1949).

Basing his work on documentary material, Andrew Thorndike tells the life story of Wilhelm Pieck: from young worker to fighter for the German working class, and from enemy of national-socialism to the first president of the German Democratic Republic.

Le communisme a suscité sur tous les continents, à travers quatre générations et sept décennies, l’engagement fraternel et généreux de centaines de millions de femmes et d’hommes qui ont servi l’un des systèmes les plus injustes et les plus sanglants de l’Histoire. « La Foi du siècle », en trois heures et demie d’images d’archives inédites, explore le mystère d’une machine totalitaire qui a séduit une part de l’humanité et restitue à chaque époque ce qui a entraîné les hommes à adhérer à cette religion terrestre.