Mädchen in Uniform (1931)

Directors:

Leontine Sagan
Carl Froelich

Writers:

Christa Winsloe (play)
Friedrich Dammann (adaptation)

Release Date:

27 November 1931 (Germany)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

AN UNUSUAL LOVE STORY! (USA ad - all caps)

Plot:

German film in which a sensitive girl is sent to an all-girls boarding school and develops a romantic attachment to one of her teachers...

Plot Keywords:

Discipline | Boarding School | Teenager | Student | Dressing Room

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Hertha Thiele	...	Manuela von Meinhardis
Dorothea Wieck	...	Erzieherin Fräulein von Bernburg
Emilia Unda	...	Fräulein von Nordeck zur Nidden - Oberin
Gertrud de Lalsky	...	Exzellenz von Ehrenhardt - Manuelas Tante
Marte Hein	...	Anstaltsprotektorin
Hedwig Schlichter	...	Erzieherin Fräulein von Kesten
Lene Berdolt	...	Erzieherin Fräulein von Gaerschner
Lisi Scheerbach	...	Erzieherin Mademoiselle Qeuillet
Margory Bodker	...	Erzieherin Miss Evans
Erika Mann	...	Erzieherin Fräulein von Atems
Else Ehser	...	Gardrobiere Elise
Ellen Schwanneke	...	Ilse von Westhagen (as Ellen Schwannecke)
Ilse Winter	...	Marga von Rasso
Charlotte Witthauer	...	Ilse von Treischke
Erika Biebrach	...	Lilli von Kattner

Also Known As:

Girls in Uniform
Maedchen in Uniform (USA)
Maidens in Uniform

Runtime:

88 min | USA:87 min

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Tobis-Klangfilm)

Certification:

USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany

Company:

Deutsche Film-Gemeinschaft

Trivia:

The movie was banned when first released in Germany and the United States. It wasn't until First Lady Roosevelt, Eleanor saw the importance of the movie that the ban was lifted.

Quotes:

Fraulein von Bernburg: You must come to your senses. You must recover, whatever it takes.
Manuela: Recover? From what?
Fraulein von Bernburg: You're not allowed to love me... so much.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Madchen's Uniform (2004)

Exceptional!

This was more than a gay classic, this film was a social commentary on the time period it was set in. We all now well know the views held on homosexuality by Hitler's socialist party which was coming into power during the time this movie was made. The entire film foreshadowed many of the things that would happen to people who were not seen as desirable in the eyes of the German government. One part especially, where the students and teachers were forbidden to have contact with Manuela, spoke of the public shunning of Jews and other so-called undesirables who were forbidden contact with other people. Of the three movies that Leontine Sagan directed this was the only one made in Germany. Given the fact that Sagan was of Jewish ancestry and the main theme of this movie was of love between women, it's not hard to see why her career in Germany was short lived.