Schtonk!

Schtonk! (1992)

ComedyHistory

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.

Director: Helmut Dietl
Writers: Helmut Dietl, Ulrich Limmer.

Casts

	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

Crew