JOHN GREEN
John Green, born in 1941, grew up in the city of Coventry, England. He studied in the GDR for four years. After completing an internship at the DEFA documentary film studio in Berlin, he went on study film at the GDR’s national film school in Potsdam-Babelsberg, specializing in camera. After returning to the United Kingdom in 1968, he began working for GDR television as a foreign correspondent. This work took him all over the world, reporting on social, cultural and political issues and events, including the documenting of liberation struggles in the Global South. He ceased working for the GDR just before its demise in 1990.
John Green recorded his own experiences in the book Red Reporter — Covert Correspondent for East Germany and co-authored Stasi State or Socialist Paradise?, a balanced account of life in the DDR.
The interview was filmed on 29 September 2021 in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
INTERVIEW
John Green describes reporting on Namibia’s liberation struggle
John Green recalls reporting on Portugal’s Carnation Revolution
John Green describes reporting on everyday life in West Germany
John Green describes why and how he worked as a covert reporter
John Green recounts reporting on the conflict in Ireland
John Green remembers DDR solidarity with Mozambique
John Green describes his team’s production method
John Green describes increased political stringency in DDR television in the 1980s
John Green reflects on his work and the social struggles he reported on
John Green recounts beginning to work for DDR television
John Green on the DDR’s international film traineeship
John Green recounts how he came to study in the DDR
John Green describes his childhood and early interest in film
