D 1981, D, SC Recha Jungmann, C Marian Czura, Keith Surridge, Rolf Silber, E Eva Voosen, P Pahl-Film/ZDF, Print b/w, betaSP, 90 min, German OV, ZDF
Part I: Frauen ohne Vater, ohne Mann, 30 min
Part II: Deutsche Idealisten, 30 min
Part III: Zerstörtes Vaterbild, 30 min

World War II is often the subject of feature and documentary films; its immediate heiress, the post-war period, usually misses out. It is mostly to this phase that Recha Jungmann, who lives in Frankfurt, dedicated a film that public broadcaster ZDF screened in three parts (on the past three Sundays): Unsere Mütter, Unsere Väter. […] Through her deliberate dramaturgy, Recha Jungmann conveyed a great deal about the unfulfilled lives of those years – maybe directly to the daughters and granddaughters of “our mothers.” […] Not Recha Jungmann but ZDF is responsible for the three parts’ not adding up to a whole. It was thoughtless and undignified of them to hectically wind down the closing credits so the children’s programme could sweep in screeching, in a voice that our mothers, our fathers were audibly indifferent to. […] This sensitive and intelligently-made film would have been capable of truly filling an evening. It showed how politics and history shape, or even scar, the individual’s daily life. Many are affected by this, and some don’t even know it (anymore). (Eberhard Seybold, Frankfurter Neue Presse, 10. März 1982)