1951: “Fist punch in the face of every decent German woman” | EUROtoday

Hardly something says as a lot in regards to the state of a society because the anatomy of a scandal. Nevertheless, rarely has a scandal dropped at mild as a lot as the joy surrounding Willy Forst’s movie “The Sinner”, through which Hildegard Knef performed the main function. The flick could seem cute in at this time’s age of ubiquitous pornography, however in 1951 the sight of the actress’ naked again was decidedly an excessive amount of for the viewers’s eyes.

Film producer Erich Pommer in all probability supplied probably the most sensible abstract: “In a film they start revolutions, but not in gas chambers.” The sentence is related as a result of it factors to a primary reality of the post-war years: the doggedness with which German residents hushed up National Socialism was mixed with a sexual morality that primarily consisted of prohibitions. Many individuals had been unable to endure the psychological strain that resulted from this – and placing somebody down in such a state of affairs for breaking a taboo might have relieved the souls of some Germans significantly.

Hildegard Knef seems in “The Sinner” because the prostitute Marina; their lives include betrayal, violence and sickness. The mom had cheated on her stepfather throughout the battle and ended up in Gestapo jail for it. In addition, Marina is seduced by her stepbrother, who’s then clearly killed by the stepfather. Then the principle actress falls in love with the failed painter Alexander, whose mind is affected by a tumor: Gustav Fröhlich portrayed him.

In order to get the cash for an operation, Marina needs to work as a whore once more, however fails, however finds somebody who will deal with her companion with out pay. The finish of the story offers with euthanasia and suicide, two different taboo subjects of the time: After a part of restoration, Alexander goes blind as a result of mind tumor and turns into uninterested in life. Marina offers him a glass with an overdose of the sleeping tablet Veronal, he drinks it, and Marina kills herself too.

Willy Forst personally wrote in WELT what he needed to precise with the movie: “In my opinion, our time is not wrongly called the ‘era of fear of life’. Many of your works of art are outgrowths of this fear: condensed nightmares, apocalyptic visions like those written by Kafka, Orwell, Green, Sartre and Wilder.” And he continued: “In its wide-ranging arc, from the highest heights to the lowest depths that are conceivable for a human life, through the openness of its presentation and the unreservedness of its confession, this woman’s fate – I hope – speaks to each of us.”

Forst didn’t hope in useless, however he was incorrect in assuming that the “sinner” can be handled with understanding within the cinema halls. What occurred after the movie’s premiere on January 18, 1951 would have overwhelmed anybody. It ought to come as no shock to anybody {that a} 25-year-old actress like Hildegard Knef, who had beforehand spent a number of years within the USA with out appearing, had little to do with the assaults.

The “Westfälische Rundschau” was one of many friendliest: “The film is artistically inconsequential and its effect is pernicious, in fact it is a textbook example of the attitude in which profit-seeking is hidden behind feigned seriousness,” was the decision of the paper. Those politicians who distributed leaflets that spoke of a “punch in the face of every decent German woman”, of a “threat to our people’s sense of respectability” or of the truth that the movie mocked the “most elementary rules of human decency” took a harder strategy.

As Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Josef Frings even devoted his personal sermon to the “sinner” and known as for self-help. Catholic youth demonstrated. In Munich, unknown individuals let white mice right into a cinema as a result of they needed to trigger panic at a efficiency. Hildegard Knef described what this life as a leper felt like in her memoirs “The Gift Horse”.

Initially she was completely happy in regards to the many posters together with her title among the many rubble, however that was solely short-lived: “People who were fainting and half-trampled could be found at every other theater box office. Wherever I went, people were shouting: ‘The sinner’. If I ran, it was said: ‘Now she’s up, child’. If I walked slowly: ‘Here she is creeping vampishly’. I laughed: ‘She’s got nerve’. Didn’t I laugh: ‘Repentance comes too late’. They shouted and spat, and the film moved from judge’s table to judge’s table.”

It needs to be added that the producer Erich Pommer, quoted at first, had warned the actress in regards to the function: “You will be labeled and you will be pushed in the wrong direction. The press is against you. People will attack you.” The man knew what he was speaking about, as he had helped Marlene Dietrich obtain world fame in 1930 with the movie “The Blue Angel”, which she would by no means have achieved with out her lascivious poses.

Two million Germans stormed the cinemas the place “The Sinner” was proven within the first three weeks. If he weren’t so unhappy, one may chortle on the contradiction {that a} work that everybody rejected had such success. This did not assist Hildegard Knef; she was pressured out of enterprise in Germany for the subsequent few years and started a profession as a musical star on New York’s Broadway.

The textual content that Forst revealed in WELT ended with the phrases: “Each of us will recognize a small part of our own life here and there, be it just a vague resemblance or a brief moment of reflection.” That was nonetheless not possible in 1951. But Hildegard Knef has change into an emblem of the Federal Republic: When the Bundeswehr band performed her “For me it should rain red roses” at Angela Merkel’s farewell to the Federal Chancellery in 2021, it was an unmistakable signal that instances have essentially modified for the reason that premiere of “The Sinner”.

It may very well be {that a} naked again may very well be a scandal Philip Cassier as a toddler of the Seventies, I not perceive it. Nevertheless, he devoured Hildegard Knef’s autobiography “The Gift Horse”. For him, the quantity is among the greatest the style has to supply.