How Do We Talk About #MeToo Before #MeToo Existed?

Fräulein Else has a problem which for a long time had no name. There was no term for sexual harassment, sexualised violence or sexisms that would pin the problem down and thus give the impression that it existed: In Arthur Schnitzler’s novella, written 100 years ago, no one can say #MeToo to make a scandal out of behaviour in which the man uses his privilege as power to control the body of a young woman. Leonie Böhm’s production with Julia Riedler examines the material from a contemporary viewpoint, opening up a history to which Helke Sander’s 1989 film Die Deutschen und ihre Männer – Bericht aus Bonn also belongs: how do we talk about something that a patriarchal culture will openly question and hush up, reversing the roles of perpetrator and victim? Die Deutschen und ihre Männer – Bericht aus Bonn finds an extremely original form to do this. In searching for a solution, Sander’s film takes the problem to the people who cause it. Those who lack power have a sense of humour – and plunge the Bonn republic from Gerhart Baum (FDP) to Werner Sonne (ARD) into a public relations crisis.