Schtonk!

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.

6.876

115 min

Cast

Götz George

as Hermann Willié

Uwe Ochsenknecht

as Fritz Knobel

Christiane Hörbiger

as Freya von Hepp

Harald Juhnke

as Pit Kummer

Ulrich Mühe

as Dr. Wieland

Rolf Hoppe

as Karl Lentz

Dagmar Manzel

as Biggi

Veronica Ferres

as Martha

Hermann Lause

as Kurt Glück

Martin Benrath

as Uwe Esser

Georg Marischka

as Von Klantz

Karl Schönböck

as August Strasser

Rosemarie Fendel

as Karl Lentz's Wife

Wolfgang Menge

as German Graphologist

Hark Bohm

as Priest

Willy Harlander

as Bavarian Border Official

Thomas Holtzmann

as Cornelius

Hans-Joachim Hegewald

as Schuback

Peter Roggisch

as Obersturmbandführer

Günter Junghans

as East German Police Officer

Armin Rohde

as SS Man

Michael Kessler

as SS Man

Martin Feifel

as SS Man

Director

Helmut Dietl