Katarina Witt - Weltstar aus der DDR (Biopic from Germany)

[MaiKatze]

Today is the 3rd of October, which is Unity Day in Germany. It's been 30 years this year, so we get a lot of interesting historical stuff. ARD, Germany's biggest broadcaster, just showed an interesting biopic about Katarina Witt. You can watch it in the ARD mediathek here:

Katarina Witt - Weltstar aus der DDR

Katarina Witt ist mit zwei Olympiasiegen, vier WM- und sechs EM-Titeln die erfolgreichste Sportlerin in der Geschichte des Eiskunstlaufs. Der Film folgt ihrem Lebensweg von Sachsen bis nach Hollywood.

www.ardmediathek.de

Unfortunately all in German and I don't know if you need a VPN. If you're french you can also watch it on Arte, where it is cut a bit different and longer.

Katarina Witt - Weltstar aus der DDR - Die ganze Doku | ARTE

Die zweifache Olympiasiegerin Katarina Witt ist die erfolgreichste Sportlerin in der Geschichte des Eiskunstlaufs. Der Film von Jobst Knigge zeigt den Weg der Eiskunstlauflegende aus Sachsen bis nach Hollywood. Die Privilegien hatten einen Preis: Katarina Witt wurde systematisch von der Stasi...

www.arte.tv

I think even if you don't speak or understand the language it's pretty straightforward and you might even get the gist of it. It also has Sandra Bezic and Brian Boitano commenting.

Katarina Witt ist mit zwei Olympiasiegen, vier WM- und sechs EM-Titeln die erfolgreichste Sportlerin in der Geschichte des Eiskunstlaufs. Der Film folgt ihrem Lebensweg von Sachsen bis nach Hollywood.

Katarina Witt is, with two Olympic wins, four World Champion and six European Champion titles, the most succesful female athlete in the history of figure skating. This film follows her life's journey from Saxony to Hollywood.

 

[Winnie_20]

Oh, that’s nice! Thanks for the link.

 

[MaiKatze]

Oh, that’s nice! Thanks for the link.

No worries, I thought it might be interesting. It's scary. At one point Kati is reading her files from the Stasi (Secret Police of East Germany). They started to track her and her family when she was only 7! years old.

 

[Mathman]

Katarina Witt had universal appeal as the face of figure skating during her era. She had many fans in the West and especially in the United States. Even when she was competing against the U.S. champions Rosalynn Sumners and Debi Thomas, America figure skating fans gave her a lot of affection and support.

In this respect she was like Olympic gymnast Olga Korbut a decade previous. Kolbut won over American audiences by her irrepressible charm.

 

[LadyB]

Today is the 3rd of October, which is Unity Day in Germany. It's been 30 years this year, so we get a lot of interesting historical stuff. ARD, Germany's biggest broadcaster, just showed an interesting biopic about Katarina Witt. You can watch it in the ARD mediathek here:

Thanks for that, nice one!

 

[Fried]

And if anyone is interested in Kati Witt's coach, here is a (very) short documentary worth seeing with English subtitles.

"Eiserne Lady" im Pelzmantel - Jutta Müller wird 90 Jahre alt (ENG SUBS)

Ein Bericht aus der "Sportschau"

youtu.be

This documentary is a bit more detailed. Very interesting and also with English subtitles.

Die Eiskönigin aus Chemnitz. Ein Abend für Jutta Müller (ENG SUBS)

Eine Legende zu Lebzeiten – auf Jutta Müller trifft diese Bezeichnung zweifellos zu. Die erfolgreichste Eiskunstlauftrainerin der Welt hat sich mit 57 Medail...

youtu.be

 

[Lunalovesskating]

I finally watched the documentary this weekend and absolutely loved it. So many interesting clips I haven't seen in other documentaries about her before. Also when Kati read in her file that US companies offered her 8 million dollar deals and she knew nothing about it because the government kept it a secret

 

[Lunalovesskating]

There is a new and longer version of the documentary available now, even on Youtube. It is 40 minutes longer than the first version and you can watch it with English or other subtitles! The video has German subtitles, however, if you click on the German subtitles and then click on subtitles again and click on auto-translate to language XYZ of your choice, the subs will be translated for you (only possible on PC)! The English subtitles are really well translated, only idioms or swearwords are mistranslated due to it being an auto-translate, however, everythingelse is well translated (95% of it is great, I would estimate), so if you want to watch the documentary without having to study German, enjoy! The longer version includes many new gems such as Kati visiting St. Petersburg last year, where she also visited a Russian coach there (watch the documentary for the reveal), it also includes more details from her Stasi folder. So many new details that were not discussed in previous documentaries and I watched a lot of Kati's docus