Mädchen in Uniform
Encyclopedia
Mädchen in Uniform is a 1931
German
feature-length film based on the novel
and play
Gestern und heute by Christa Winsloe
and directed by Leontine Sagan
with significant artistic direction from Carl Froelich
, who funded the film. Winsloe also wrote the screenplay and was on the set during filming.
It is noted as the first feature film to be produced with an openly pro-lesbian
storyline and remains a cult film
among lesbians.
with Hertha Thiele
and Claire Harden in the lead roles. After Leipzig the play was produced on the stage in Berlin
as Gestern und heute (Yesterday and Today) with a different cast and a more prominent lesbian theme, which was again toned down somewhat for the film.
Having mostly played the same roles on stage, the cast was able to produce the film at speed and on a low budget of RM55,000. It was largely shot at the Potsdam
military orphanage, now a teacher training college for women. Carl Froelich's studio in Berlin-Tempelhof
was also used. The film's original working title was Gestern und heute but this was thought too insipid and changed to increase the chances of box-office success. Although sound had only been used for two years in cinema, it was used artfully.
The film was groundbreaking in a number of ways: firstly for its all-female cast; secondly for its sympathetic portrayal of lesbian pedagogical eros
and homoeroticism
revolving around the passionate love of a fourteen-year-old (Thiele) for her teacher (Dorothea Wieck
); and thirdly for its co-operative and profit-sharing financial arrangements (although in practice these ultimately failed).
During an interview about the film decades later, Thiele said:
Thiele also said, "However, I really don't want to make a great deal of […] or account for a film about lesbianism here. That's far from my mind, because the whole thing of course is also a revolt against the cruel Prussia
n education system."
After many screen tests, Winsloe had insisted that her friend Thiele play the lead role. Director Sagan would have preferred Gina Falckenberg who had done the role on stage in Berlin, but along with having played Manuela in Leipzig, Thiele had already played a young lesbian in Ferdinand Bruckner
's stage play Die Kreatur (The Creature) and although twenty-three years old when filming began, she was considered to be more capable of portraying a fourteen-year-old.
From its premiere at the Capitol cinema in Berlin until 1934 the film is said to have grossed some RM6,000,000. Despite the collective nature of the filming for which cast and crew received only a quarter of the normal wage, none saw a share of the 6,000,000 marks and Thiele later hinted that the profits had been mostly retained by the producers.
The film was distributed outside Germany and was a huge success in Romania
. During a 1980 interview Thiele said the school play scene caused a "longstockings and kissing" cult when the film was first shown there. It was also distributed in Japan
, the US
(where it was first banned, then released in a heavily cut version), England
and France
.
Mädchen in Uniform won the audience referendum for Best Technical Perfection at the Venice Film Festival
in 1932 and received the Japanese Kinema Junpo Award for Best Foreign Language Film (Tokyo, 1934).
Later, an alternate ending which subtly pandered to pro-Nazi
ideals enabled continued screening in German cinemas, but eventually even this version of the film was banned as 'decadent' by the Nazi regime, which reportedly attempted to burn all of the existing prints, but by then several had been dispersed around the world. Sagan and many others associated with the film fled Germany soon after the banning. Many of the cast and crew were Jewish, and those who could not escape from Germany died in the camps. "You were only first aware that they were Jewish when fascism was there and you lost your friends," said Thiele, who left Germany in 1937. Assistant director Walter Supper killed himself when it became clear his Jewish wife would be arrested.
Despite its later banning, Mädchen in Uniform was followed by several German films about intimate relationships among women, such as Acht Mädels im Boot (Eight Girls in a Boat, 1932) and Anna and Elisabeth (1933), which also starred Wieck and Thiele but was banned by the Nazis soon after its opening night, along with Ich für dich, du für mich (Me for You, You for Me, 1934).
The film is said to have inspired the 1949 novel Olivia by Dorothy Bussy
, which treats very similar themes. There was a German remake in 1958
, directed by Géza von Radványi and starring Lilli Palmer
, Romy Schneider
, Therese Giehse
.
until the 1970s and was not shown again in Germany until 1977 when it was screened on television
there. It was later released in its surviving form as a videotape
(with English subtitles
) in the US (1994) and the UK (2000) by the British Film Institute
. Even this version likely lacks some scenes and for a full understanding of what may have been censored, a viewing of the film might be followed with a reading of the original novel
by Christa Winsloe (The Child Manuela. Virago Press, 1994)
1931 in film
-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:*Best Picture: Cimarron - MGM*Best Actor: Lionel Barrymore - A Free Soul*Best Actor: Wallace Beery - The Champ*Best Actor: Fredric March - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde...
German
Cinema of Germany
Cinema in Germany can be traced back to the late 19th century. German cinema has made major technical and artistic contributions to film.Unlike any other national cinemas, which developed in the context of relatively continuous and stable political systems, Germany witnesses major changes to its...
feature-length film based on the novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
and play
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
Gestern und heute by Christa Winsloe
Christa Winsloe
Christa Winsloe was a 20th century German-Hungarian novelist, playwright and sculptor, best known for her play Gestern und heute, filmed in 1931 as Mädchen in Uniform and the 1958 remake.- Biography :...
and directed by Leontine Sagan
Leontine Sagan
Leontine Sagan was an Austrian actress and theatre director.Born in Budapest, Sagan trained with Max Reinhardt. The first and most widely known of her two films is Mädchen in Uniform...
with significant artistic direction from Carl Froelich
Carl Froelich
Carl August Froelich was a German film pioneer and film director.-Apparatus builder and cameraman:...
, who funded the film. Winsloe also wrote the screenplay and was on the set during filming.
It is noted as the first feature film to be produced with an openly pro-lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
storyline and remains a cult film
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
among lesbians.
Cast (in order of credits)
- Hertha ThieleHertha ThieleHertha Thiele was a German actress. She is noted for her starring roles in controversial stage plays and films produced during Germany's Weimar Republic and the early years of the Third Reich. Thiele later became a television star in East Germany...
as Manuela von Meinhardis - Dorothea WieckDorothea WieckDorothea Wieck was a German theatre and film actress.- Career :Wieck made her debut in 1926 and appeared in several silent films...
as Governess Fräulein von Bernburg - Emilia Unda as MotherNunA nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...
Fräulein von Nordeck zur Nidden, headmistress - Gertrud de Lalsky as her Excellency von Ehrenhardt, Manuela'a aunt
- Marte Hein as duchess, ProtectorProtector (trust)In trust law, a protector is a person appointed under the trust instrument to direct or restrain the trustees in relation to their administration of the trust....
of the school - Hedwig Schlichter as Fräulein von Kesten
- Lene Berdolt as Fräulein von Garschner
- Lisi Scheerbach as Mademoiselle Oeuillet
- Margory Bodker as Miss Evans
- Erika MannErika MannErika Julia Hedwig Mann was a German actress and writer, the eldest daughter of novelist Thomas Mann and Katia Mann.-Life:...
as Fräulein von Atems (or Attems) - Else Ehser as Elise, wardrobe mistress
- Ellen Schwanneke as Ilse von Westhagen
- Ilse Winter as Marga von Rasso
- Charlotte Witthauer as Ilse von Treischke
- Erika Biebrach as Lilli von Kattner
- Ethel Reschke as Oda von Oldersleben
- Annemarie von Rochhausen as Edelgard KomtessseCountA count or countess is an aristocratic nobleman in European countries. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The adjective form of the word is...
von Mengsberg - Ilse Vigdor as Anneliese von Beckendorf
- Barabara Pirk as Mia von Wollin
- Doris Thalmer (credited as Doar Thalmer) as Mariechen von Ecke
Production
Winsloe's novel had previously appeared as a stage play under the title Ritter Nérestan (Knight Nérestan) in LeipzigLeipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
with Hertha Thiele
Hertha Thiele
Hertha Thiele was a German actress. She is noted for her starring roles in controversial stage plays and films produced during Germany's Weimar Republic and the early years of the Third Reich. Thiele later became a television star in East Germany...
and Claire Harden in the lead roles. After Leipzig the play was produced on the stage in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
as Gestern und heute (Yesterday and Today) with a different cast and a more prominent lesbian theme, which was again toned down somewhat for the film.
Having mostly played the same roles on stage, the cast was able to produce the film at speed and on a low budget of RM55,000. It was largely shot at the Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
military orphanage, now a teacher training college for women. Carl Froelich's studio in Berlin-Tempelhof
Tempelhof
Tempelhof is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg. It is the location of the former Tempelhof Airport, one of the earliest commercial airports in the world. It is now deserted and shows as a blank spot on maps of Berlin. Attempts are being made to save the still-existing...
was also used. The film's original working title was Gestern und heute but this was thought too insipid and changed to increase the chances of box-office success. Although sound had only been used for two years in cinema, it was used artfully.
The film was groundbreaking in a number of ways: firstly for its all-female cast; secondly for its sympathetic portrayal of lesbian pedagogical eros
Gustav Wyneken
Gustav Wyneken was a German educational reformer, free thinker and charismatic leader. His ideas and practice on education and youth became highly influential but were also controversial.-Early life:He was born to a Christian family, and studied Theology and Philology in Berlin...
and homoeroticism
Homoeroticism
Homoeroticism refers to the erotic attraction between members of the same sex, either male–male or female–female , most especially as it is depicted or manifested in the visual arts and literature. It can also be found in performative forms; from theatre to the theatricality of uniformed movements...
revolving around the passionate love of a fourteen-year-old (Thiele) for her teacher (Dorothea Wieck
Dorothea Wieck
Dorothea Wieck was a German theatre and film actress.- Career :Wieck made her debut in 1926 and appeared in several silent films...
); and thirdly for its co-operative and profit-sharing financial arrangements (although in practice these ultimately failed).
During an interview about the film decades later, Thiele said:
The whole of Mädchen in Uniform was set in the Empress Augusta boarding school, where WinsloeChrista WinsloeChrista Winsloe was a 20th century German-Hungarian novelist, playwright and sculptor, best known for her play Gestern und heute, filmed in 1931 as Mädchen in Uniform and the 1958 remake.- Biography :...
was educated. Actually there really was a Manuela, who remained lame all of her life after she threw herself down the stairs. She came to the premiere of the film. I saw her from a distance, and at the time Winsloe told me, "The experience is one which I had to write from my heart." Winsloe was a lesbian.
Thiele also said, "However, I really don't want to make a great deal of […] or account for a film about lesbianism here. That's far from my mind, because the whole thing of course is also a revolt against the cruel Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n education system."
After many screen tests, Winsloe had insisted that her friend Thiele play the lead role. Director Sagan would have preferred Gina Falckenberg who had done the role on stage in Berlin, but along with having played Manuela in Leipzig, Thiele had already played a young lesbian in Ferdinand Bruckner
Ferdinand Bruckner
Ferdinand Bruckner was an Austrian-German writer and theater manager.-Life:...
's stage play Die Kreatur (The Creature) and although twenty-three years old when filming began, she was considered to be more capable of portraying a fourteen-year-old.
Reaction
The film had some impact in the Berlin lesbian clubs, but was largely eclipsed by the ongoing cult success of Der blaue Engel (1930). The film did however generate large amounts of fan-mail to the stars from all over Germany and was considered a success throughout much of Europe. The goodnight kiss Thiele received from Wieck was especially popular: one distributor even asked for more footage of other kisses like it to splice into prints of the film.From its premiere at the Capitol cinema in Berlin until 1934 the film is said to have grossed some RM6,000,000. Despite the collective nature of the filming for which cast and crew received only a quarter of the normal wage, none saw a share of the 6,000,000 marks and Thiele later hinted that the profits had been mostly retained by the producers.
The film was distributed outside Germany and was a huge success in Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
. During a 1980 interview Thiele said the school play scene caused a "longstockings and kissing" cult when the film was first shown there. It was also distributed in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(where it was first banned, then released in a heavily cut version), England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
Mädchen in Uniform won the audience referendum for Best Technical Perfection at the Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
in 1932 and received the Japanese Kinema Junpo Award for Best Foreign Language Film (Tokyo, 1934).
Later, an alternate ending which subtly pandered to pro-Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
ideals enabled continued screening in German cinemas, but eventually even this version of the film was banned as 'decadent' by the Nazi regime, which reportedly attempted to burn all of the existing prints, but by then several had been dispersed around the world. Sagan and many others associated with the film fled Germany soon after the banning. Many of the cast and crew were Jewish, and those who could not escape from Germany died in the camps. "You were only first aware that they were Jewish when fascism was there and you lost your friends," said Thiele, who left Germany in 1937. Assistant director Walter Supper killed himself when it became clear his Jewish wife would be arrested.
Despite its later banning, Mädchen in Uniform was followed by several German films about intimate relationships among women, such as Acht Mädels im Boot (Eight Girls in a Boat, 1932) and Anna and Elisabeth (1933), which also starred Wieck and Thiele but was banned by the Nazis soon after its opening night, along with Ich für dich, du für mich (Me for You, You for Me, 1934).
The film is said to have inspired the 1949 novel Olivia by Dorothy Bussy
Dorothy Bussy
Dorothy Bussy was an English novelist and translator.-Family background and childhood:Dorothy Bussy was a member of the Strachey family, one of ten children of Jane Strachey and the great British Empire soldier and administrator Lt-Gen Sir Richard Strachey...
, which treats very similar themes. There was a German remake in 1958
Mädchen in Uniform (1958 film)
Mädchen in Uniform is a 1958 German drama film directed by Géza von Radványi. It was entered into the 8th Berlin International Film Festival...
, directed by Géza von Radványi and starring Lilli Palmer
Lilli Palmer
Lilli Palmer , born Lilli Marie Peiser, was a German actress. She won the Volpi Cup, the Deutscher Filmpreis three times, and was nominated twice for a Golden Globe Award.-Life and career:...
, Romy Schneider
Romy Schneider
Romy Schneider was an Austrian-born German film actress who also held French citizenship.-Early life:Schneider was born Rosemarie Magdalena Albach in Nazi-era Vienna, six months after the Anschluss, into a family of actors that included her paternal grandmother Rosa Albach-Retty, her Austrian...
, Therese Giehse
Therese Giehse
Therese Giehse , born Therese Gift, was a distinguished German actress. Born in Munich to German-Jewish parents, she first appeared on the stage in 1920. She became a major star on stage, in films, and in political cabaret...
.
Surviving version
The film survived the war but was heavily censoredCensorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
until the 1970s and was not shown again in Germany until 1977 when it was screened on television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
there. It was later released in its surviving form as a videotape
Videotape
A videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...
(with English subtitles
Subtitle (captioning)
Subtitles are textual versions of the dialog in films and television programs, usually displayed at the bottom of the screen. They can either be a form of written translation of a dialog in a foreign language, or a written rendering of the dialog in the same language, with or without added...
) in the US (1994) and the UK (2000) by the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
. Even this version likely lacks some scenes and for a full understanding of what may have been censored, a viewing of the film might be followed with a reading of the original novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Christa Winsloe (The Child Manuela. Virago Press, 1994)
Quotation from the film
- "What you call sin, I call the great spirit of love, which takes a thousand forms." (Spoken in reference to the boycott.)
Cultural references
- In the novel The Acceptance WorldThe Acceptance WorldThe Acceptance World is the third book of Anthony Powell's twelve novel sequence, A Dance to the Music of Time. Nick Jenkins continues the narration of his life and encounters with many friends and acquaintances in London between 1931 and 33....
(1955), the narrator, Nick Jenkins, is re-united with his first major love, Jean Templer, after Jean and her sister-in-law, Mona, have returned to the Ritz (London) on New Year's Eve 1931, following a screening of the film. Nick is mildly mocked by his old schoolfriend, Peter (husband of Mona, brother of Jean) for saying that the film is not primarily about lesbians. - In the film Henry & JuneHenry & JuneHenry & June is a 1990 American film directed by Philip Kaufman and stars Fred Ward, Maria de Medeiros, and Uma Thurman. It is loosely based on the book of the same name by the French author Anaïs Nin, and tells the story of Nin's relationship with Henry Miller and his wife, June.-Plot:The story...
(1990), this is one of the films shown in the small art-house theater frequented by the main characters. - The film Loving AnnabelleLoving AnnabelleLoving Annabelle is a 2006 film directed by Katherine Brooks. Based on Mädchen in Uniform, it tells the story of a boarding school student who falls in love with her teacher. It was filmed at Marymount High School in Los Angeles.-Plot:...
(2006) was reportedly inspired by Mädchen in Uniform.
See also
- List of German films 1919–1933
- German ExpressionismGerman ExpressionismGerman Expressionism refers to a number of related creative movements beginning in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin, during the 1920s...
- List of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender-related films
Further reading
- Sara Gwenllian Jones. "Mädchen in Uniform: the story of a film". PerVersions: the international journal of gay and lesbian studies, issue 6, Winter 1995/96.
- B. Ruby RichB. Ruby RichB. Ruby Rich is an American scholar, critic of independent, Latin American, documentary and gay films, and a professor of Film & Digital Media and Social Documentation also known as "SocDoc" at UC Santa Cruz. She has also taught documentary film and queer studies during spring semesters at UC...
. "From Repressive Tolerance to Erotic Liberation: Maedchen in Uniform", Jump CutJump Cut (journal)Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media is a refereed journal devoted to the analysis of film, television, video and related media. Its stated goal is to approach its subject from a "nonsectarian left, feminist, and anti-imperialist" perspective...
, no. 24/25, March 1981 and Radical AmericaRadical AmericaRadical America was a left wing political magazine in the United States established in 1967. The magazine was founded by Paul Buhle and Mary Jo Buhle, activists in Students for a Democratic Society and served during its first few years of existence as an unofficial theoretical journal of that...
, Vol. 15, no. 6, 1982; and also reprinted with additional material in B. Ruby Rich, Chick Flicks: Theories and Memories of the Feminist Film Movement (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1998) - Loren Kruger, Lights and Shadows: The Autobiography of Leontine Sagan (Johannesburg, South Africa: Witwatersand University Press, 1996)