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.
Acting
Uwe Ochsenknecht's descent from schlub to 'Hitler' is *chef's kiss*
Writing
Satire so sharp it made actual journalists sue
Direction
Dietl weaponizes German discomfort into pure comedy gold
Director
Helmut Dietl
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
Rosemarie Fendel
Karl Lentz's Wife
Wolfgang Menge
German Graphologist
Hark Bohm
Priest
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The real Stern journalist sued for defamation—and lost, because the court agreed he really was that incompetent.
Released before Schindler's List, this was radical: Germans laughing at their own denial before Hollywood sanctioned it.
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