ABSTRACT
In 1929, Wilfried Basse made a film about a day on the market on the Wittenbergplatz in Berlin— from the construction of the market stalls early in the morning, to their dismantling and cleaning of the streets in the afternoon. Basse combines images of commodities, market vendors, and customers with people passing by and traffic and bustling city life in the background. A panning shot moves from the recognizable cruciform U-Bahn station Wittenbergplatz to the open space right behind the building: the position where the market stalls are about to be erected. It was this sequence of the market's construction in particular that received attention by various eminent critics. Béla Balázs described Basse's film as a masterpiece, though contrary to Arnheim's emphasis on the film's pure and sober objectivity, he applauded the film for its unstaged reality. In December 1929, Basse made a second, longer version entitled Wochenmarkt auf dem Wittenbergplatz, including 22 intertitles.
