Weizenbaum. Rebel at Work. Filming Locations
Weizenbaum. Rebel at Work. Filming Locations
Berlin, Germany’s capital, dates to the 13th century. Reminders of the city's turbulent 20th-century history include its Holocaust memorial and the Berlin Wall's graffitied remains. Divided during the Cold War, its 18th-century Brandenburg Gate has become a symbol of reunification. The city's also known for its art scene and modern landmarks like the gold-colored, swoop-roofed Berliner Philharmonie, built in 1963.
Jena is a German city known for the Optical Museum, displaying vintage Zeiss microscopes and a spectacles collection. Planetary projections and musical laser shows take place at the Zeiss Planetarium. Nearby, the Botanical Garden has a tropical greenhouse and medicinal plants. The Karmelitenklosterruine is the remains of a 15th-century monastery. The Saaleradweg cycle path follows the Saale River through the city.
Potsdam is a city on the border of Berlin, Germany. Sanssouci Palace was once the summer home of Frederick the Great, former King of Prussia. On the grounds of the complex, the Renaissance Orangery Palace overlooks Italian-style gardens with fountains. Historic Mill offers city views. English gardens surround neoclassical Charlottenhof Palace. The 19th-century Roman Baths were built in several architectural styles.
Vienna, Austria’s capital, lies in the country’s east on the Danube River. Its artistic and intellectual legacy was shaped by residents including Mozart, Beethoven and Sigmund Freud. The city is also known for its Imperial palaces, including Schönbrunn, the Habsburgs’ summer residence. In the MuseumsQuartier district, historic and contemporary buildings display works by Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt and other artists.
Weizenbaum. Rebel at Work. (2007)
The Jewish Weizenbaum family left Germany and their family furrier business in 1936, and started all over in Detroit, Michigan, when Joseph was 13. At a time when the German capital, Berlin, was struggling with famine after World War II, Joseph Weizenbaum was soldering and programming the world's first computers. He created the first banking computer in the world, was perhaps one of the first computer nerds ever and pursued an unprecedented career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the "mighty" MIT in Cambridge, where he invented the first virtual persona, ELIZA/DOCTOR, a program that engaged humans in conversation with a computer. Later, Weizenbaum was branded as a heretic when he began to criticize his colleagues in public. After retiring as a full professor at MIT, he left the United States and is now living in Berlin-Mitte again. Weizenbaum eventually became a "preacher", strictly demanding responsibility of each individual scientist, condemning war and arguing that mankind have become insane. The film spans 9 decades of Joseph Weizenbaum's life. It provides a stage for his humorous narrative depicting a World of Yesterday while reflecting on the dawn of the computer age. It follows 84-year-old Weizenbaum on some of his numerous public lessons, effortlessly entertaining overcrowded lecture halls. The old man is an up-to-date chronicler, a chief witness against militarism and the myths of technological progress, but he remains a modest, funny and most reflective story teller. The story line of his life sketches a gigantic picture, too large for a documentary, large enough to easily fill a novel.
