''The Hamburg Syndrome'' (german: Die Hamburger Krankheit) is a 1979 West German-French

science fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstellar ...

directed by

Peter Fleischmann Peter Fleischmann (26 July 1937 – 11 August 2021) was a German film director, screenwriter and producer. He worked also as an actor, cutter, sound engineer, interviewer and speaker. Fleischmann belonged to the New German Cinema of the 1960s an ...

and starring

Helmut Griem Helmut Griem (6 April 1932 – 19 November 2004) was a German film, television and stage actor, and director. Biography Born in Hamburg, Griem was primarily a stage actor, appearing at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, the Deutsches Schauspielhaus ...

Fernando Arrabal Fernando Arrabal Terán (born August 11, 1932) is a Spanish playwright, screenwriter, film director, novelist, and poet. He was born in Melilla and settled in France in 1955. Regarding his nationality, Arrabal describes himself as "desterrado", ...

and Carline Seiser. The film is about an outbreak of an

epidemic An epidemic (from Ancient Greek, Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time. Epidemics ...

and

quarantine A quarantine is a restriction on the movement of people, animals and goods which is intended to prevent the spread of disease or pests. It is often used in connection to disease and illness, preventing the movement of those who may have been ...

. The film received attention again in 2020 during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Plot

A deadly epidemic breaks out in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. Out of the blue, victims fall dead in an embryonic posture. In one scene a doctor who autopsies the dead says: "Three days ago it was 12 odies the day before yesterday 57 and now we don't have any more space." Politicians and the military intervene, set up

stations and develop a

vaccine A vaccine is a biological Dosage form, preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease, infectious or cancer, malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verifie ...

, which carries high risks. People leave their home with face masks and protective suits. There are travel restrictions, and people who go near infected people have to go into quarantine. The search for the

index case The index case or patient zero is the first documented patient in a disease epidemic within a population, or the first documented patient included in an epidemiological study. It can also refer to the first case of a condition or syndrome (not n ...

(patient zero) takes place. Hamburg is cordoned off, and a small group of people wander across

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

, on the run. In doing so, they pass

Lüneburg Lüneburg (officially the ''Hanseatic City of Lüneburg'', German: ''Hansestadt Lüneburg'', , Low German ''Lümborg'', Latin ''Luneburgum'' or ''Lunaburgum'', Old High German ''Luneburc'', Old Saxon ''Hliuni'', Polabian ''Glain''), also calle ...

. The city is already cordoned off.

Fulda Fulda () (historically in English called Fuld) is a town in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district (''Kreis''). In 1990, the town hosted the 30th Hessentag state festival. History ...

becomes a collecting basin for the refugee movement. West Germany is in a state of emergency. The plague suddenly dies out and the "Hamburg disease" ends in

Southern Germany Southern Germany () is a region of Germany which has no exact boundary, but is generally taken to include the areas in which Upper German dialects are spoken, historically the stem duchies of Bavaria and Swabia or, in a modern context, Bavaria ...

Partial cast

as Sebastian *

as Ottokar * Carline Seiser as Ulrike *

Tilo Prückner Tilo Prückner (26 October 1940 – 2 July 2020Ulrich Wildgruber Ulrich Wildgruber (18 November 1937 – 30 November 1999) was a German actor. He started working on stage in 1963 and is best known for playing Othello in the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, ...

as Heribert *

Rainer Langhans Rainer Langhans (born June 19, 1940 in Oschersleben) is a German writer and filmmaker who is primarily known for his membership of Kommune 1 Kommune 1 or K1 was a politically motivated commune in Germany. It was created on 12 January 1967, ...

as Alexander *

Leopold Hainisch Leopold Hainisch (1891–1979) was an Austrian actor and film director.Mitchell p.148 Selected filmography Actor * ''Ulli und Marei'' (1948) * ''Viennese Girls'' (1949) – Karl Haslinger * ''Cabaret'' (1954) – Leopold Holzinger * ''Walking Bac ...

as Professor Placek *

Romy Haag Romy is a given name, often a diminutive form of names such as Rosemary or Roman or Romeo. https://nameberry.com/babyname/romy/boy People with the name include: Men *Romy Cachola, nickname of Romeo Munoz Cachola, Philippines-born Hawaiian polit ...

as Carola *

Evelyn Künneke Evelyn Künneke (15 December 1921 – 28 April 2001) was a German singer and stage, television and film actress. She was the daughter of the famous composer Eduard Künneke. Selected filmography * '' Goodbye, Franziska'' (1941) * ''Third from t ...

as Wirtin *

Peter von Zahn Peter von Zahn (29 January 1913 – 26 July 2001) was a German author, film maker, and journalist. Born in Chemnitz as a son of an officer, he grew up in Dresden and studied law, history, and philosophy. He was drafted at the beginning of Worl ...

as Senator *

Rosel Zech Rosalie Helga Lina Zech (7 July 1940 – 31 August 2011),Scott Roxboroug"'Veronica Voss' Actress Rosel Zech Dies of Cancer" ''The Hollywood Reporter'', 1 September 2011 known as Rosel Zech, was a German theater and film actress, especially with ...

as Dr. Hamm

Production

Fleischmann first conceived of the film after talking to an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

epidemiologist Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and risk factor, determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population. It is a cornerstone of public health, and shapes policy decision ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

in the 1970s, who was convinced that humans had only got to where they are today through catastrophes: "Imagine there is a plague of rats and a poison is used that kills all but two of the rats because they are more resilient. From these two a new race is born, which has made a huge leap forward compared to the old one. Without the catastrophe, the same development would have taken centuries." The film is a West German-French joint production by Hallelujah-Film Munich, Bioskop-Film Munich, Terra-Filmkunst Berlin, S.N.D. Paris and

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

. A conversation with

Luis Buñuel Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish-Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and m ...

's screenwriter

Jean-Claude Carrière Jean-Claude Carrière (; 17 September 1931 – 8 February 2021) was a French novelist, screenwriter and actor. He received an Academy Award for best short film for co-writing '' Heureux Anniversaire'' (1963), and was later conferred an Honorary ...

brought Fleischmann to the film concept years before. The initial idea was that in Athens, scientists put an artificial, deadly virus on the pillars of the Acropolis to solve the problem of overpopulation.

Release

The West German cinema premiere was on 23 November 1979. Two months before the cinema release, the film was shown in a rough version, approximately eight minutes longer, at the

Hamburg Film Festival FILMFEST HAMBURG is an international film festival in Hamburg, the third-largest of its kind in Germany (after Berlin and Munich). It shows national and international feature and documentary films in eleven sections. The range of the program stret ...

Reception

The film was not a commercial success in 1979. Hans C. Blumenberg wrote in 1979 in ''

Die Zeit ''Die Zeit'' (, "The Time") is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles. History The ...

'': "''The Hamburg Syndrome'' by Peter Fleischmann is a chaotic film about chaotic conditions, considerably more appealing, unusual and intelligent than the many reviews suggest," and "Fleischmann's staging is as eccentric as the cast of this apocalyptic farce between the

Reeperbahn The Reeperbahn () is a street and entertainment district in Hamburg's St. Pauli district, one of the two centres of Hamburg's nightlife (the other being Sternschanze) and also the city's major red-light district. In German, it is also nickn ...

and the Almhütte: a series of violent style breaks, without regard to aesthetic losses."

Hellmuth Karasek Hellmuth Karasek (4 January 1934 – 29 September 2015) was a German journalist, literary critic, novelist, and the author of many books on literature and film. He was one of Germany's best-known feuilletonists. Biography Karasek was born in t ...

wrote in 1979 in ''

Der Spiegel ''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

'': "The marginal figures show that Fleischmann wanted to oppose the lacquered and embellished New German reality with a kind of

Buñuel Buñuel is a town and municipality located in the province and autonomous community of Navarre, northern Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto ...

world of the sick, ailing and outcasts."

Deutsche Film- und Medienbewertung (FBW) The Deutsche Film- und Medienbewertung (FBW; formerly the ''Filmbewertungsstelle Wiesbaden'') is a German federal authority for evaluating and rating film and media, located at Biebrich Palace in Wiesbaden. It was founded by resolution on August 2 ...

: "The FBW jury shares this lumenberg'sopinion and above all points out the unleashed and exuberant staging of this "madhouse" positively and confirms the rating valuable. ()"

Filmfest Hamburg FILMFEST HAMBURG is an international film festival in Hamburg, the third-largest of its kind in Germany (after Berlin and Munich). It shows national and international feature and documentary films in eleven sections. The range of the program stret ...

2019: "Trashy, with a great cast and a soundtrack from the young

Jean-Michel Jarre Jean-Michel André Jarre (; born 24 August 1948) is a French composer, performer and record producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient and new-age genres, and is known for organising outdoor spectacles featuring his music, accompanie ...

: this cultish Utopian end-times drama has been comprehensively restored to mark the 40th anniversary of its original release." In 2020, when asked about the film's relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, Fleischmann said that "You know, if you dream up the improbable, there's a good chance it will become reality. Just the obvious, that never happens."

References

External links

* * (English subtitles) {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamburg Syndrome, The 1979 films West German films French science fiction films German science fiction films 1970s science fiction films 1970s German-language films Films directed by Peter Fleischmann Films set in Hamburg Films about viral outbreaks German disaster films 1970s French films 1970s German films