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.
Production
Bavaria Film · WDR
Cast & Characters
Götz George
Hermann Willié
Uwe Ochsenknecht
Fritz Knobel
Christiane Hörbiger
Freya von Hepp
Harald Juhnke
Pit Kummer
Ulrich Mühe
Dr. Wieland
Rolf Hoppe
Karl Lentz
Dagmar Manzel
Biggi
Veronica Ferres
Martha
Hermann Lause
Kurt Glück
Martin Benrath
Uwe Esser
Georg Marischka
Von Klantz
Karl Schönböck
August Strasser
Directors & Crew
Helmut Dietl
Director
Helmut Dietl
Screenplay
Ulrich Limmer
Screenplay
Helmut Dietl
Producer
Günter Rohrbach
Producer
Screenshots & Stills
More Like This
An Unbelievable Sucker
1969
Mutantz, Nazis and Zombies
2013
Plan for Destruction
1943
They Stooge to Conga
1943
My diary at the end of the world
2018
Meu diário no fim do mundo: Edição futebol
2020
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
2024
Downfall
2004
Bridget Jones's Diary
2001
Life Is Beautiful
1997