Editing Schtonk!

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{{more citations needed|date=April 2018}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Schtonk!
| image          = Schtonk dvd cover.jpg
| caption        = DVD cover
| director       = [[Helmut Dietl]]
| producer       =
| writer         = Helmut Dietl<br />Ulrich Limmer
| starring       = [[Götz George]]<br />[[Uwe Ochsenknecht]]<br />[[Christiane Hörbiger]]
| music          =
| cinematography =
| editing        =
| distributor    =
| released       = {{film date|1992|df=y}}
| runtime        = 115 minutes
| country        = Germany
| language       = German
| budget         =
| gross          =1.9 million admissions (Germany)<ref name=adm/>
}}
'''''Schtonk!''''' (subtitled ''Der Film zum Buch vom Führer''; "The film accompanying the ''[[Führer]]'s'' book") is a 1992 German satirical film which retells the story of the 1983 ''[[Hitler Diaries]]'' hoax. It was written and directed by [[Helmut Dietl]].

==Background==
{{main|Hitler Diaries}}
In 1983, the German magazine ''[[Stern (magazine)|Stern]]'' began to publish the purported Hitler diaries with great fanfare. They were soon proven to be fake using basic forensic techniques.

Co-writer and director Helmut Dietl researched the scandal for two years and was 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 Tomainian dictator Adenoid Hynkel repeatedly uses "Schtonk!" as an expression of disgust{{snd}}the word has no meaning in German.

== Plot ==
Fritz Knobel (the film's alter-ego of real-life forger [[Konrad Kujau]]) supports himself by faking and selling Nazi memorabilia. He sells a portrait of [[Eva Braun]] and one volume of Hitler's alleged diaries to factory owner Karl Lenz. Lenz presents this to his guests during a "birthday party for the ''Führer''", among whom is sleazy journalist Hermann Willié. Willié works for the magazine ''"HH press"'', which links to [[Hamburg]] (as a licence plate abbreviation), where the ''Stern'' magazine is located and also to the common abbreviation for "''Heil Hitler''" among neo-Nazis. Knobel writes the subsequent diaries based on what happens around him; after he meets Martha and she becomes his lover beside his wife Biggi, she also becomes his inspiration for Eva Braun in the diaries. The rumors about his work cause a major Nazi [[fad|craze]] among the high society, allowing former Nazi officials to use openly their Nazi ranks (e.g. [[Obergruppenführer]]). Willié becomes even more obsessed buying the old [[yacht]] ''Carin II'' of [[Hermann Göring]] and starting an affair with his (fictional) grandniece Freya von Hepp, based on Hermann Göring's daughter [[Edda Göring]].

Towards the end, the plot has developed its own dynamics, putting more and more pressure on Knobel to deliver the remaining volumes while permanently fearing the uncovering of the [[forgery]]. The volumes are convincing enough to fool the enthusiastic journalists, who are willing to overlook some oddities, especially a false monogram "FH" instead of "AH" on one of the volumes. They even invent ''alternative facts'' for their explanation (the term "[[Führerhauptquartier]]" instead of "Adolf Hitler" for instance). Later Knobel manages to manipulate a [[Graphology|forensic graphoanalysis]] to his advantage but it seems only a matter of time until the truth is discovered. The constant fear and the struggle with a too close identification with the person he is writing about make Knobel collapse. His two spouses take over the initiative forcing him to pull himself out of the forgery business just in time, while the others fall, similar to the [[End of World War II in Europe|end of World War II]], more or less hard according to their personal level of belief.

== Cast ==
* [[Götz George]]{{snd}}Hermann Willié (journalist; fictional equivalent of [[Gerd Heidemann]])
* [[Uwe Ochsenknecht]]{{snd}}Fritz Knobel (forger Konrad Kujau)
* [[Christiane Hörbiger]]{{snd}}Freya von Hepp ([[Hermann Göring]]'s grandniece, Willié's/Heidemann's noble girl friend)
* [[Dagmar Manzel]]{{snd}}Biggi
* [[Veronica Ferres]]{{snd}}Martha
* [[Ulrich Mühe]]{{snd}}Dr. Wieland
* [[Harald Juhnke]]{{snd}}Pit Kummer
* [[Hermann Lause]]{{snd}}Kurt Glück
* [[Martin Benrath]]{{snd}}Uwe Esser
* Rosemarie Fendel{{snd}}Mrs. Lentz

==Reception==
The film was a huge hit in Germany but performed badly in many other territories.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Screen International]]|date=2 February 1996|page=30|title=Making Mann more desirable}}</ref> It was the second highest grossing German film of the year with 1.9 million admissions, behind ''[[Otto – Der Film|Otto]]: Der Liebesfilm''.<ref name=adm>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Screen International]]|date=26 March 1993|page=34|title=Statistics}}</ref>

== Awards ==
In 1992, ''Schtonk!'' won three awards at the [[German Film Award]]s 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.

''Schtonk!'' was nominated for an [[65th Academy Awards|Academy Award]] and a [[50th Golden Globe Awards|Golden Globe]] in the category of "Best Foreign Language Film" in 1993, losing to the French film ''[[Indochine (film)|Indochine]]'' in both cases.<ref name="Oscars1993">{{Cite web|url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1993 |title=The 65th Academy Awards (1993) Nominees and Winners |accessdate=19 September 2015 |work=oscars.org|date=4 October 2014 }}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{IMDb title|id=0105328|title=Schtonk!}}

{{German submission for Academy Awards}}

[[Category:1992 films]]
[[Category:1990s satirical films]]
[[Category:German comedy films]]
[[Category:1990s German-language films]]
[[Category:German films based on actual events]]
[[Category:German satirical films]]
[[Category:Films set in Hamburg]]
[[Category:Films set in West Germany]]
[[Category:Films about con artists]]
[[Category:Films about journalists]]
[[Category:Comedy films based on actual events]]
[[Category:Films à clef]]
[[Category:Films about hoaxes]]
[[Category:1990s German films]]