Das Wunder von Bern

This 2003 Sönke Wortmann and Rochus Hahn film is already a staple in many German classrooms. Teachers cite the slow pace and focus on soccer and family as top reasons to show this in class.

Johanna Gastdorf plays the mother. She may look familiar to us – she’s also been in Die Welle, Sophie Scholl, Fritz Lang, Unsere Mütter Unsere Väter, and of course many other films and TV episodes.

Another actor from Unsere Mütter Unsere Väter joins us here – Lucas Gregorowicz. Born in the UK and of Polish descent, Gregorowicz went to theater school in Germany and has been in a wide variety of roles over the years. Soul Kitchen, Lommbock, Lammbock, Wir sind das Volk – Liebe kennt keine Grenzen, and Solino just to name a few!

Simon Verhoeven is another player with many varying roles. Männerherzen and 1 1/2 Ritter are among his more well known films as an actor, but since 2011, Verhoeven hasn’t acted much. He began directing with Männerherzen and went on to direct several other films, including Willkommen bei den Hartmanns. He’s also written several screenplays, including these three.

There is an interesting linguistic conversation about 45 minutes in which explicitly discusses the differences in slang and proverbs between Germany and Switzerland. Beyond language, there are many useful scenes of family dynamics, generational issues, private and public identity, and other topics of interest for our classes.

While there are moments of implied nudity and over-drinking, camera angles and scene clips seem to solve any of these potential obstacles for classroom use.