Become a Nazi | Normal German boy

“The New German Reich will puke on you”: Verena Unbehaben as Bernd Photo: Filmgalerie 451 New in the cinema this week: “Bernd – Operation Germanenkind”. Fits shockingly well with the AfD's election victory in Saxony-Anhalt. In it, the main character Bernd says: "I want to become a completely normal German boy." Later she has visions and announces: "Me and my friend Adolf Hitler will rise up and the new German Reich will vomit on you." It even gets much worse (spoiler).

Cornelius Schwalm's film is about the production of a play that a more or less woke collective wants to perform in Peenemünde, where the Nazis developed their combat missiles. It is intended to show the transformation of a right-wing radical into his opposite, played by a person with a disability: Bernd. But he becomes a Nazi himself. Before that, however, the theater people finish him off. Christoph Schlingensief could have come up with this simple punchline, even in the last century.

But today it has a completely different impact. All appeals, wishes and demands never to vote for the AfD have had exactly the opposite effect. In Saxony-Anhalt it has now caught up with the NSDAP in percentage terms in the Reichstag election in March 1933.

At the end, Bernd (played by Verena Unbehaun) shouts: “Let’s murder and slaughter for freedom, against intolerance and against hatred!” Phew. Fascists don't want to discuss, they only know friend or foe. This is vividly shown here.

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