The Germans and Their Men

“I’m looking for a man!”, echoes from the Drachenfels across the Rhine. The Lorelei named “Lieschen Müller” from Austria has to vie for attention if she wants to be noticed by the men of the West German capital, Bonn. But in the end, tourists and visiting businessmen, as well as a haberdasher, are just as happy to talk to her about their preference in ties, as a taxi driver and Renish cabaret artists are about bordello visits. Members of the political class are somewhat more tight-lipped when questioned by academics such as tie-wearing feminist linguist Luise F. Pusch. After all, the questions concern not only their self-perceptions as men and Germans, but also their feelings of shame in the face of the colonial crimes committed by their fellow men in the modern age… In her cinematic tour d’horizon, Helke Sander put not only party and media representatives, but also the “little man on the street” (as it says in the credits) well and truly in a pickle. Confronted by both historical and future male violence, one or another talked themselves into a rage – and a national conservative knight’s cross bearer into a risky position.