Schoolgirl Report

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Schoolgirl Report is the title of a book by Günther Hunold published in 1970 that presented interviews with twelve girls and young women between the ages of 14 and 20 about their sexuality. The film adaptation of the same name by producer Wolf C. Hartwig , which was released in West German cinemas in the same year, was so successful that twelve sequels were produced by 1980. The films, translated into 38 languages, are considered to be the most successful German cinema production to date with 100 million viewers. The first part was one of the five most successful German films with around six million viewers.

The book

The schoolgirl report was - at least in its title - the successor to other "reports" by z. B. Kinsey ( Kinsey Report ) and Masters / Johnson , who caused a sensation in Germany in the 1960s. It became the most successful book by the author Günther Hunold, who also wrote many other titles on the subject of people and sexuality , including in the so-called series by Heyne Verlag .

According to the foreword, the author's intention for the publication of the book was a truthful representation of the sexual behavior of “modern young girls” in the (then) present. According to his statements, he conducted interviews in Munich in 1969 with 36 schoolgirls aged 14 to 20 from secondary schools and grammar schools. The criteria by which he selected his interlocutors are not named; a representative selection does not seem to have been sought. The respondents were asked 157 individual questions on “groups of questions” such as portrait, milieu , teacher, dreams, masturbation , defloration , sex life , contraception , homosexuality and others. Twelve of the “most remarkable” interviews were ultimately included in the book. Hunold emphasized that these were individual cases that did not describe the behavior of the general public of the students.

The book became very famous because of the extremely successful film adaptation that same year. The criticism is varied and starts with the title, which uses the word schoolgirl instead of the more neutral schoolgirl . The scientific intention and credibility of both the author and the work were questioned, certainly not entirely without good reason, since the book also met the demand for sexually oriented “educational literature” and entertainment. Enlightenment intentions cannot be denied to the author.

Hunold himself did not believe in the success of the upcoming film version of his book. Instead of a percentage share in the box office earnings, he therefore received a fixed amount paid in advance for the film rights.

The movies

The film producer Wolf C. Hartwig came across the book Hunolds, for which he paid 30,000 DM for the rights (according to his information in an interview in 2000). He describes the film as the "business idea of ​​my life". The film, shot in a few days for DM 220,000, was released in West German cinemas on October 23, 1970 and was so successful with over six million viewers that the producer immediately launched a sequel. A total of 13 episodes were released by 1980. The audience numbers decreased after the success of the first part, but even part 13 still had 1.2 million viewers. The series received three golden canvases and had over 100 million viewers worldwide. It was produced by Rapid Film GmbH and distributed by Constantin Film GmbH . The directors were Ernst Hofbauer (episodes 1-8 and 11) and Walter Boos (episodes 9-10 and 12-13), the theme music was by Gert Wilden . The FSK released films from the age of 18, the last episode from 16. One episode was shot in an average of 18 days. It was turned silently; the sound was later dubbed .

The great success of the series can be explained by the fact that sexuality at that time represented a kind of " terra incognita " and there was great curiosity about sexual details that are common knowledge in German society in the early 21st century. The first schoolgirl report was followed by a real wave of report films , such as the housewives report , the training girls report , the dance lessons report , etc. From 1975, with the release of pornography in West Germany and the advent of sex cinemas , this subsided Wave off again. Further episodes of the schoolgirl report came into the cinemas until 1980, when the producer no longer considered another continuation of the series sensible or profitable.

The generally unknown young actresses who mimed the “schoolgirls” of the title were not the “girls from middle schools and high schools and their friends” indicated by the film poster as “contributors”, but rather, according to Hartwig, initially mainly department store saleswomen at the age of 16 to 19 years of age who were offered a daily wage of 500  DM (with an approximate monthly salary of 600 to 800 DM in the department store). As the number of sequels increased, the fee rose, producer Hartwig, for example, mentions 1,000 instead of 500 DM.

Only a few contributors, such as B. Ingrid Steeger or Rinaldo Talamonti , already had film experience. Since a number of new actresses were needed for each episode, it became more difficult to hire enough young women, which is why somewhat older women were also used in later episodes. In addition to the Steeger and Talamonti already mentioned, the schoolgirl reports also contain some actors who later became known, for example: B. Friedrich von Thun , who conducted street interviews in the first three episodes, Lisa Fitz , Sascha Hehn , Cleo Kretschmer , Andrea L'Arronge , Heiner Lauterbach , Jutta Speidel , Katja Bienert and Annemarie Wendl .

The 90-minute-long films were episode films that linked the individual episodes through a framework plot. Reason to tell the individual stories could e.g. It could be a parenting council meeting, a court hearing, or a group of friends talking. The producer took the ideas for the individual episodes, for example, from newspaper reports or overheard conversations of schoolgirls in the tram. Due to the large number of individual episodes, some basic types of scenes were varied again and again. Frequent constellations were e.g. For example: a schoolgirl and a much older man (from 35 years), a young couple in love, the “first time”, incest with the (step) father, brother or grandfather or a rape . The scenes are accompanied by comments with a “scientific gesture” (Annette Miersch), either spoken off- screen or by “experts” of all kinds, such as psychologists, doctors or clergy, shown in the framework. According to the producer, these comments should on the one hand "give the film a certain message", on the other hand, to soften the drastic nature of the images and thus help reduce the risk of censorship by the FSK.

criticism

Criticism of the schoolgirl report films is mainly based on these hypocritical, scholarly comments, which regularly claim that the scenes shown are typical, while a caricature is actually shown, according to which all girls over the age of 12 are "sexually horny "Sluts" who always wanted to and are constantly looking for sexual adventures. A “smeary film made of uptight double standards” lies on top of the films (A. Miersch). The Catholic Film Service also came to a negative verdict: “ Interview and episode film about sexual practices and first experiences of girls between 14 and 20 years old in the style of pseudo authenticity. No scientific investigation, but only a manipulated propagation of ' free love ', whereby speculative graphic drama mixes with hidden polemics against Christian moral conceptions. - We advise against it. "(1971, p. 273)

Producer Wolf C. Hartwig, on the other hand, answered in 2000 when asked what his films had to do with the reality of the time: “ I claim that everything I showed occurred in everyday life, everything. "Miersch, in turn, came to the conclusion :" The sociosexual reality scenario can be characterized as a petty-bourgeois, patriarchal male and old-man fantasy. "

In 2010 Jürgen Kniep analyzed in his book “Keine Jugendfreigabe!” Some editions of the FSK . By removing essential scenes, it was precisely these that contributed to the character of the films: “ It was only through the requirements of the FSK that the woman moaning with relish became a visual symbol for sex in the schoolgirl report. "

Filmography

Epigones

Schoolgirl Report inspired several epigones . Erwin C. Dietrich was particularly successful with his production Blutjunge Verfuhrinnen (1971), which, like the model, triggered severe criticism. In 1972 Blood Young Seductresses 2 and Blood Young Seductresses 3 followed .

literature

  • Günther Hunold: Schoolgirl Report: Sex Protocols. Munich: Kindler, 1970 (Original edition of the schoolgirl report. Various paperback editions followed, including 1971 by Heyne Verlag.)
  • Annette Miersch: Schoolgirl Report: the German sex film of the 70s. Berlin: Bertz + Fischer Verlag , 2003, ISBN 3-929470-12-8 (study on the topic, with interviews, bibliography)
  • Klaus Schmeh : David versus Goliath - 33 surprising company successes . Redline Wirtschaft bei Ueberreuter, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-832-31057-6 (about the economic success of the film series)
  • Stefan Rechmeier: The somewhat humorous lexicon of German erotic films. Where the torrent rushes through your panties . MPW, Hille 2005, ISBN 3-931608-66-2 . Pp. 151-163.
  • Peter Osteried: Schoolgirl Report. Unvarnished and uncensored . MPW, Hille 2007, ISBN 978-3-931608-81-1
  • Christian Keßler : The big reports report. Part 1: What movie buffs don't think is possible . In: Splatting Image . No. 81 , March 2010, p. 5-10 .
  • Dieter Wolfgang Weißbach: Imaginations of collective puberty. The schoolgirl reports. Prejudice and judgment . In: Medienwitz 19, 1995, issue 1, pp. 29–32.
  • Jürgen Kniep: “No youth release!” Film censorship in West Germany 1949–1990. Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-8353-0638-7

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 40 years of the Frankfurter Rundschau schoolgirl report from October 26, 2010
  2. ↑ Miersch, p. 130
  3. ↑ Miersch, p. 19, interview of November 4, 2000
  4. ↑ Miersch, p. 207
  5. ↑ Jürgen Kniep: “No youth release!” , P. 235