Rescreening Erich Kästner after the Wall: Film Adaptations in the Berlin Republic

Abstract

In the early 1950s, four films based on stories by Erich Kästner were released in quick succession: Das doppelte Lottchen (1950), Pünktchen und Anton (1953), Das fliegende Klassenzimmer (1954), and Emil und die Detektive (1954). Since unification all four have been re-adapted in live-action versions for the cinema. This article examines the post-1990 films’ attempts at ‘modernization’, the way they establish continuity with the earlier adaptations, and the ways in which they negotiate recent German history and contemporary society. The films offer a dual perspective at a time of national change: they look to the uncharted future, but they also refer to texts and films from earlier transitional periods. The article suggests that despite the films’ engagement with the contemporary context, they unwittingly reinforce some of the more conservative aspects of Kästner's original narratives, ultimately offering an affirmative and future-oriented narrative in which the past can be recuperated.