Schtonk

Schtonk is a farce of the actual events of 1983 when Germanys 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 reallife forger Konrad Kujau supports himself by faking and selling Nazi memorabilia When Knobel writes and sells a volume of Hitlers nonexistent diaries he thinks its 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