Magical History Tour: Rebels with a Cause – Halbstarke at the cinema

Rebellious, ill-adjusted and cool – the attitude harbored by certain members of the younger generation in the US and other countries, including West Germany during the Adenauer era, clashed with a society that remained authoritarian some 10 years after the end of the war. A German term that dates back to the turn of the 20th century was used to label Germany's rebellious youths and later became the title of a film - DIE HALBSTARKEN (Teenage Wolfpack, Georg Tressler, BRD 1956). For some, the term was a snide insult; for others it was a compliment. Whether in Germany or in the US, the deviant youths indulged in criminal activity, created a disturbance and protested against traditional values. They were cool and into rock 'n' roll and motorbikes. Many films of the 1950s examine this social conflict, several wag a finger and some manage to depict precisely the daily realities of youth. The first charismatic heroes of this generation, which recognized itself in the unruly protagonists of THE WILD ONE (László Benedek, USA 1953) and REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (Nicholas Ray, USA 1955), were Marlon Brando and James Dean. In Germany, Horst Buchholz, the star of Tressler's DIE HALBSTARKEN became a hero. This month's Magical History Tour is dedicated to American and German teenage rebel classics as well as film representations of similarly-minded young rebels from earlier days, or different social and geographical contexts.