Mädchen in Uniform
Director: Leontine Sagan, Carl Froelich
Writer: Christa Winsloe, Friedrich Dammann
Based on: Christa Winsloe’s play
Cast: Hertha Thiele, Ellen Schwanneke, Emilia Unda, Dorothea Wieck, Hedy Krilla
Seen on: 10.10.2023

Content Note: (critical treatment of) queermisia

Plot:
Manuela (Hertha Thiele) is sent to a girls’ boarding school after her mother’s death. Manuela is a shy girl, but finds some solace in the girls’ favorite teacher, Ms von Bernburg (Dorothea Wieck). The warmth she finds there quickly turns to more for her in the overall cold and strict school climate.

Mädchen in Uniform is a queer classic that I finally got around to. And I am glad I did because it is definitely still a film worth seeing.

That Mädchen in Uniform is still considered a classic is definitely not just due to the fact that it is an early example of queer cinema. It is also due to the fact that it was, and sadly somewhat still is revolutionary for the fact that Manuela survives the film. It is way too often the case that queer characters die in the end, especially when the film in question is a drama. Not so here – even though the film does get rather close to it.

I also loved that the film includes that many girls have crushes on Ms von Bernburg, but their admiration for her is not quite lesbianism. Manuela’s feelings for her are a little different from everybody else’s. It’s an interesting choice for the film to make, and one that allows it to explore the often rather difficult decision even for the person having the feelings whether they are already romantic. Of course, that very same choice could also lead to people reading Manuela’s attractions to her teacher as less queer and more overwrought infatuation, but to me this would be selling the film short.

The Prussian school leadership and the philosophies it embodies are also rather foreboding of the fascism that would hit Germany only a few years after the film was made. This surprised me a little (although maybe it shouldn’t have), but it certainly speaks to how this insistence on propriety and strictness goes hand in hand with queermisia and is an important building stone of a fascist society where everybody has to fit a certain mould.

It is certainly and unfortunately still a timely film that still speaks to social circumstances today. As long as that is the case, it definitely deserves to be watched, but even beyond that, it is a worthwhile piece of cinema.

Summarizing: watch it.