Sabine Puhlfürst
Christa Winsloes "Mädchen in Uniform"
Theaterstück – Verfilmung – Romanfassung
Christa Winsloe's "Mädchen in Uniform"
Drama – Movie – Novel
English abstract
When in 1930 the previous hardly known author Christa Winsloe was writing a drama containing the subject of lesbian love, she could not have known that this was to bring about her literary break-through. As soon as 1931 the piece was made into a movie and the audience loved it. The uprising Nazism prevented the continuing of the literary career of Christa Winsloe. Her novel "Das Mädchen Manuela", based on the drama, was published in 1933 in an exile press already. The fate of the author, who died in 1944 in French exile, is like that of many other emigrants: her literary works were lost; Christa Winsloe was forgotten. Nevertheless, two phases of a rediscovery can be detected: In the 1950s, "Mädchen in Uniform" was made into a movie once again; in the 1970s new stages of the drama in Bochum and Berlin followed. But until today a comprehensive literature-scientific analysis of Christa Winsloe's works is yet to be accomplished. This essay first introduces the author Christa Winsloe and then sketches the different adaptations of "Mädchen in Uniform" in the media theater, movie and novel. The history of reception is a further focus.