A film to be shown on German television tomorrow marks the end of a taboo that has held sway for more than half a century. The film deals with the Third Reich. And it is a comedy.
Goebbels und Geduldig — to be broadcast in prime time on the publicly-funded channel ARD — is full of swastikas, and men and women giving the straight-arm salute. One of the characters is Adolf Hitler. Part of it is set in a concentration camp. Yet its intention is to make its audience laugh.
Non-German directors in a long line that stretches from Charlie Chaplin to Roberto Benigni may have dug humour from beneath the horror-strewn surfaces of Nazism and fascism. But for Germans themselves, ”the catastrophe”, as it is often called, has been too painful to be seen as anything but a tragedy.
”Goebbels and Geduldig” may be a sign that their sensibilities are falling into line with those of the rest of the world, but it is nonetheless the outcome of a great deal of agonised soul-searching.
”All the time, while we were shooting and even while we were cutting, we had these discussions over where the limits lie, where the humour runs out,” said the director, Kai Wessel.
His film was ready two years ago. Since then, it has been shown at festivals around the world as a way of gauging audience reaction, as TV bosses back in Germany pondered whether they dared to screen it. In Britain,the film was put on at the Brighton Jewish Film Festival.
”When the film finally came back to Germany, we felt as if a burden had to some extent been lifted from our shoulders,” said Mr Wessel.
Goebbels und Geduldig centres on a Jewish cabaret artiste, Harry Geduldig (his name means ”patient”), who is the double of Hitler’s propaganda chief. When Goebbels visits the camp where he is being held, Geduldig succeeds in taking his place — and leaves the Nazi bigwig behind, protesting in vain that a terrible mistake has been made.
Playing what Wessel calls ”the greatest role of his life”, the Jewish comedian goes on to address a Nuremburg rally, before being summoned to meet the Fuhrer at his mountain retreat at Berchtesgaden.
”That was really difficult,” said Wessel. ”How do you deal with Hitler?” In the event, the film portrays him as a mercurial hysteric — amusing and terrifying in more or less equal measure.
But Wessel and his team still face an uphill struggle to persuade their fellow Germans that it is all right to chuckle at the Fuhrer and his henchmen.
Sensitivities were underlined only last week when a row erupted over the use of a song in a ceremony in parliament to commemorate Germany’s war dead. The words were written in 1809, and have nothing to do with Nazism. But the song was used by Goebbels after the defeat at Stalingrad — and for some, including leading politicians, that made it unacceptable.
A recent survey, by the Ipsos polling firm, further found that 59% of those questioned thought a comedy film about Goebbels was inappropriate. — Guardian Unlimited (c) Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001