Schtonk!

Schtonk!

DVD Cover
Directed by Helmut Dietl
Written by Helmut Dietl
Ulrich Limmer
Starring Götz George
Uwe Ochsenknecht
Christiane Hörbiger
Release dates
 1992
Running time
 115 min.
Country Germany
Language German

Schtonk! (1992) is a satirical German film, retelling the hoax of the Hitler Diaries.

Subtitled Der Film zum Buch vom Führer ("The film accompanying the Führer's book"), the film is a grotesque farce about the events when, in 1983, German Stern magazine began to publish, with great fanfare, the 60 volumes of the alleged diaries of Adolf Hitler – which two weeks later turned out to be entirely fake.

The film is widely considered a hilarious tale, making fun not only of the events and characters who were involved in the hoax, and who are only thinly disguised in the film, but also of the discomfort Germany has with its difficult past.

The film is co-written and directed by Helmut Dietl and, among his many respected comedies, is frequently considered his best. Dietl researched the scandal for two years and has been quoted as having to leave out several real events from the film because they were too outrageous.

The title is a bow to Charlie Chaplin's classic The Great Dictator, in which the Führer repeatedly uses "Schtonk!" as an expression of disgust – the word has no meaning in German but resembles the Bavarian Gschtonk! (Gestank, meaning stench), and Stunk (pronounced as shtoonk), a colloquial expression for a scuffle or altercation.

Plot

Fritz Knobel (the film's alter-ego of real-life forger Konrad Kujau) supports himself by faking and selling Nazi memorabilia. So he sells a portrait of Eva Braun and one volume of Hitler's alleged diaries to factory owner Karl Lenz. Lenz presents this on a "birthday party to the Führer" to his guests, among them sleazy journalist Hermann Willié. Willié is working for the magazine "HH press" (real-world Stern magazine is located in Hamburg, which is abbreviated "HH" on German car license plates; "HH" is pronounced "haha", but is also an abbreviation of "heil Hitler"). In the events Knobel writes down according to what happens around him; after he meets his later lover Martha, she becomes his inspiration for Eva Braun. As he then comes under increasing stress, having to deliver the remaining volumes that he had already sold, he turns more and more into a mock image of Hitler himself.

International awards

Nominations

In 1993, the film Schtonk! was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Foreign Language Film (losing to the French film Indochine), as well as for a Golden Globe in the same category (losing there to Indochine also).

Won

In 1992, Schtonk! won 3 Film Awards in Gold at the German Film Awards in the categories Outstanding Feature Film, Outstanding Individual Achievement: Actor (Götz George), and Outstanding Individual Achievement: Direction (Helmut Dietl), as well as the Best Screenplay Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival (Helmut Dietl, Ulrich Limmer). In 1993, Harald Juhnke won the Ernst Lubitsch Award for his role as Pit Kummer in Schtonk!

Major characters

External links