nazi,diary,portrait painting,fake,adolf hitler

Schtonk! (1992)

Poster for Schtonk!

One of the first funny german look at its past.

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 & Crew

Director
Helmut Dietl
  • Profile picture of Götz George
    Hermann Willié Götz George
  • Profile picture of Uwe Ochsenknecht
    Fritz Knobel Uwe Ochsenknecht
  • Profile picture of Christiane Hörbiger
    Freya von Hepp Christiane Hörbiger
  • Profile picture of Harald Juhnke
    Pit Kummer Harald Juhnke
  • Profile picture of Ulrich Mühe
    Dr. Wieland Ulrich Mühe
  • Profile picture of Rolf Hoppe
    Karl Lentz Rolf Hoppe
  • Profile picture of Dagmar Manzel
    Biggi Dagmar Manzel
  • Profile picture of Veronica Ferres
    Martha Veronica Ferres

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Keywords

  • nazi
  • diary
  • portrait painting
  • fake
  • adolf hitler