Mädchen in Uniform

Leontine Sagan’s Mädchen in Uniform (1931) is a groundbreaking German film that showcases women’s agency and desire behind and in front of the camera.

Adapted from Christa Winsloe’s lesbian play, the story follows Manuela, an orphan in a boarding school for impoverished Prussian nobility. When she declares her love with her female teacher, the oppressive principal punishes her, leading to a desperate suicide attempt.

Barbara Mennel’s compelling study firmly establishes Mädchen in the Weimar cinema canon. Mennel contextualises the film in 1920s theories of sexuality and the conventions of modernist cinema. She contrasts its international success to the extensive censorship battles that surrounded it. The film’s unique transnational and fragmented history results from the exile of many of its makers during the Nazi regime. By attending to the many remakes throughout the 20th and 21st century, Mennel underscores the film’s timeless impact that continues to resonate with contemporary audiences.

Barbara Mennelis the Rothman Chair and Director of the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere at the University of Florida, USA. She is the author of Women at Work in Twenty-First-Century European Cinema (2019) and a revised edition of Cities and Cinema (2019)