Schtonk! (1992)

Schtonk! (1992)

One of the first funny german look at its past. 1992-03-12 Germany 115 Min. PG-13
7 66 votes

Overview

Schtonk! is a farce of the actual events of 1983, when Germany's Stern magazine published, with great fanfare, 60 volumes of the alleged diaries of Adolf Hitler – which two weeks later turned out to be entirely fake. Fritz Knobel (based on real-life forger Konrad Kujau) supports himself by faking and selling Nazi memorabilia. When Knobel writes and sells a volume of Hitler's (nonexistent) diaries, he thinks it's just another job. When sleazy journalist Hermann Willié learns of the diaries, however, he quickly realizes their potential value... and Knobel is quickly in over his head. As the pressure builds and Knobel is forced to deliver more and more volumes of the fake diaries, he finds himself acting increasingly like the man whose life he is rewriting. The film is a romping and hilarious satire, poking fun not only at the events and characters involved in the hoax (who are only thinly disguised in the film), but at the discomfort Germany has with its difficult past.

Cast

Götz George is Hermann Willié
Hermann Willié
Uwe Ochsenknecht is Fritz Knobel
Fritz Knobel
Christiane Hörbiger is Freya von Hepp
Freya von Hepp
Harald Juhnke is Pit Kummer
Pit Kummer
Ulrich Mühe is Dr. Wieland
Dr. Wieland
Rolf Hoppe is Karl Lentz
Karl Lentz
Hermann Lause is Kurt Glück
Kurt Glück
Martin Benrath is Uwe Esser
Georg Marischka is Von Klantz
Von Klantz
Karl Schönböck is August Strasser
August Strasser