The future planner

30-minute documentary for the MDR and 3sat

China booms. So much that completely new cities arise in the Middle Kingdom. One of them is Anting New Town just outside Shanghai. Planned and drafted by German architects, one of them Jens-Christian Wittig. His mission is to design parks, roads, leisure facilities and the urbanistic infrastructure. In the style of the prototype of a German small town, Weimar – which is a German figurehead for the Chinese. The office of Wittig and Rietig plans nowadays more buildings in China than in Germany. But what was an exciting job in the beginning turned out to become a passion for Wittig. He has brought in three other architecture offices from Weimar who design on the drawing board what is supposed to become reality in China. Wittig makes a difference, he put his oar in. He initiated a twinning agreement between Weimar and Shanghai-Jiading, works on a German-Chinese meeting centre in Weimar and on a Bauhaus institute in Shanghai. His visions are contagious.

The films takes us from Weimar to China and back. It shows a man of exceptional energy and with great visions for Weimar and Germany which he would not have without his experiences of China.

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Written by: Anna Schmidt
Direction: Anna Schmidt
Director or Photography: Thomas Koppehele, Dietmar Heger
Sound: Sascha Friedrich, Harry Carius
Editor: Mario Biehl