"You have to create something new"

The press booklet for the German lesson says that the novel is one of the most important you have ever read. Can you tell us why?

Christian Schwochow: I read the novel for the first time 12 years ago - and it has stayed with me ever since. I found it extraordinary how Lenz tells the story of a boy who is torn between two father figures. A war story in which two men become enemies. I was in the third year of my film studies and thought: "This has to become a feature film". By chance, I then met the film's current Executive Producers Jutta Lieck-Klenke and Dietrich Kluge - they were in the process of securing the rights to film the material. Five years later, I got a call and they asked me if I was still interested in filming "The German Lesson". Of course, I immediately said "yes".

How do you go about writing a screenplay and how do the book and film differ?

Heide Schwochow: When I write an adaptation of a novel, I first think about a concept. You have to agree on a core story and decide which perspective you want to tell it from. That was clear to us relatively quickly - and then I look at which characters I want to change. Gudrun, for example, is so abysmally evil in the novel, I didn't want to have a female character like that in the film. The painter has also been given completely different facets. He wants to teach Siggi how to paint and puts him in danger. He later betrays him. In the end, both men stand there and take Siggi into custody.

Another long process is condensing the novel, because of course you can't put just 600 pages on the screen. Sometimes it's also grief work. If you really like a novel, you almost inevitably fall in love with it in the course of the work. Christian realised very quickly that it had to be a more stringent story - but I liked the opulence. We then progressed bit by bit towards a parable-like story. It's like a journey.

Christian Schwochow: No scene from the novel was adopted 1:1. Everything changes in the course of the process. And at some point, you no longer have the novel next to you when writing the screenplay.

Heide Schwochow: Exactly, and that is absolutely necessary. The novel is a template, but you have to create something new. The spirit of the original book should, of course, be retained.

Christian Schwochow: The Script Writer has, as it were, written the first version of the screenplay for you through his novel, which you then continue to work on. Even with original material, the first version is usually very different from the final script.

Have you ever thought about producing "Deutschstunde" for television?

Christian Schwochow: No, never. And I also said straight away that I wouldn't make it for television. Right from the start, we had the film in our heads with such powerful images and sound - television can't reproduce that in this form, as many people don't have the appropriate technology at home.

Did you have the two main actors Tobias Moretti and Ulrich Noethen in mind early on in the writing process?

Christian Schwochow: We didn't talk about the cast until relatively late in the German lesson - about a year before we started filming. I had already shot "Bad Banks" with Tobias Moretti and "The Invisible Woman" with Ulrich Noethen. For me, it was the only constellation of actors that I had even thought about. It was clear that it had to be two acting forces of nature. Two actors who are equals. I sent them both the script on the same day - and they both said yes within 24 hours. In the past, I've stopped thinking about casting early on, as characters sometimes change massively in the course of script work. If you commit too early, it can also block you. And for the lead role of the young Siggi Jepsen, we couldn't start casting until very late because children change very quickly at that age. When I meet him at the premiere today, he may already be in the process of breaking his voice.