QUEER ADOLESCENCE IN MÄDCHEN IN UNIFORM

Abstract

Most critics have examined Leontine Sagan's Mädchen in Uniform (1931) within one of two frameworks: either the film depicts Germany's authoritarian nature or it is a ground-breaking work of lesbian filmmaking. This article considers an alternative possibility, namely, that the film illustrates the queerness of adolescence and society's efforts to repress it. To support this claim, it engages with the developmental theories of Charlotte Bühler (1893–1974) that circulated in the period when this film was produced. The psychologist argued that adolescent girls experience a phase of ‘Schwärmerei’, a word that evoked irrationality, an excess of emotion, and fleeting same-sex desire. Bühler's theories naturalised heterosexuality and played down the queerness of adolescence. Accordingly, Manuela's infatuation with the teacher could be considered a phase on her path towards marriage and motherhood. This analysis of the film, however, allows us to imagine a possibility in which Manuela resists the heterosexist norms enforced by the school and follows a queer path.