Originally running at around 210 minutes, the film was edited almost beyond recognition in the hope that it could sell more successfully.

In the seventies and eighties, the film was rediscovered and its renaissance celebrated. In 2001, it was included in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register.

For decades this Body of Work was thought to be missing. However in the GDR in the 70’s and in Munich in 1988, on the basis of screenplay, sheet music, scene cuts and countless photos a con- tinuous painstaking restoration was made possible.

Eventually the most faithful and longest recon- struction of the original film was put together,