die welle experiment 1967

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The wave: a film of how a teacher carried out an experiment in fascism with his class.

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The wave: how a us classroom experiment influenced german cinema’s most terrifying lesson.

22 June, 2015 — by Ted Wilkes — 0

The Wave (Die Welle) was released in 2008 and translates a terrifying experiment to a suburban Germanic town. Here we take a look at its legacy.

Before I begin, a small prologue: I was lucky enough to go to Prague in summer 2013 with my girlfriend to see the sights, sample the local beer and spend some time away with her.

I am an unashamed political junkie and thankfully my patient travelling companion was willing to indulge this and take a tour around the underground Communist bunkers that were built in the city during the Cold War.

What stuck with me from the tour was the guide, a young Czech national who left me with these words [I slightly paraphrase here]: “Some people in my country would have Communism back tomorrow, but that would be the worst thing for my country.” After seeing what he had shown me across his city I couldn’t help but agree.

What does this have to do with 2008 German film The Wave (Die Welle) and Fascism? Let me explain with another tangent…

In the first week of April 1967 Ron Jones was fired from his job as a History teacher from Cubberly High School in Palo Alto, California. His crime? He taught his students about the evils of fascism. A rather straightforward idea one would think.

However, for five days in April, Mr Jones turned his classroom into his own totalitarian state without the children under his care realising. The most frightening lesson is that he was able to do it with surprising ease following the examples from some of the ‘greatest’ dictators from history.

The Wave translates Ron Jones’s experiment to a suburban Germanic town during the students’ enrichment week, where they are forced to take classes on various political systems. Teacher Rainer Wenger (Jurgen Vogel) is dismayed to find that he is unable to teach a class on his favourite subject (anarchism) and is forced to take the autocracy class, a subject he is sick of. His students are fed up of hearing about it too; German guilt is something they have been bombarded with since starting school.

Upon arrival in the class Wenger mocks the idea of autocracy, but when challenged by his students that a dictatorship would never be able to be established in modern Germany he begins Jones’s experiment to show them how easily it is to be manipulated into following an ideology you detest without even realising it.

He tells them how being one unit can improve the community as a whole, he also uses his charm, finds euphemistic language to disguise his true meaning and gives inspirational speeches.

Mimicking the beginnings of the Third Reich he dresses students in similar clothing, gives them simple principals to follow to “improve them” and a symbol to unite them under. Initially the group has only positive results: their grades improve, members reform their previous bad habits and they look out for one another and start to build a community around the class.

However, they also start to exhibit some of the traits of the Nazi SA (or brown shirts); alienating those who aren’t in The Wave, vandalising property and being violent. All things that Wenger did not anticipate, despite history having already written the narrative for him.

He was supposed to be a benevolent dictator and despite the bad that his students are now doing, Wegner refuses to confront what he has done and sees through their actions to only the good that he is doing for them. Wegner becomes Hitler without even realising it; just as he students become Nazis.

Parallels between Wenger and Hitler are easy to see. He is also a failure at his desired profession (teacher/artist), is looking for answers in another failed system (anarchism, and in Hitler’s case the Weimar Republic) and is a charismatic man who believes in himself and his abilities. He sees a better world if only people would be more like him.

No matter our knowledge of history and what the man will become, in the beginning of the film we are forced to identify with Wenger as our hero. He is the underdog who is being ‘repressed’ by the bureaucratic system above him and talked down to by his peers, all the trademarks of a stock Cinderella story. We have our man to root for and seemingly fall into the trap of doing so.

Wenger is framed at this point much like any other eccentric teacher in any other film where a mentor figure leads a group of disaffected youths to believe in themselves through the power of education. We see him as a character similar to John Keaton (Robin Williams) in Dead Poets Society, but this will change as Wegner’s attempts to alter their perceptions of the world will be in “Sieg Heil”s rather than the wholly more playful act of having students stand on their tables and read poetry in a cave with some local girls with fuzzy heads and lustful intentions.

The idea of mentor as a shape-shifter is nothing new in cinema, but it is often more overtly foreshadowed inside the text, one of the greatest sleight-of-hand tricks that the film plays on us. We never truly know what he will become.

This isn’t the only aesthetic that Director Dennis Gansel draws on for the film’s style. One of the largest and most sinister influences is the work of Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl. Just as in her most infamous work Triumph des Willens ( Triumph of the Will ) the desire for uniformity is celebrated through the fetishised straight lines and the establishment of German dominance is exerted through acutely low camera shots of typically Aryan people.

This particular technique is most noticeable during scenes with Wenger where the only time he is shot from above is when he too is looking down on people; allowing us the delicious taste of the power that he too is feeling at this moment. For that fleeting second we too are allowed to stand on a pulpit addressing a crowd without the anxiety of having to deliver any speech. Basking in the adoration of said crowd it is hard not to imagine how and why those who too find themselves there allow it to go to their heads.

The ending packs the film’s most powerful punch. With his students now radicalised Wenger can finally see the mistake he has made and decides to call the movement off in a town hall style meeting at the school. This setting is similar to the first gatherings of the newly mobilised Nazi party before the Munich Beer Hall Putch, the moment that the movement took its first steps towards power.

In the film though rather than Hitler/Wenger delivering a rallying cry for further action he decides to offer an apology for misleading his students/members, having them confront their own negative actions head on.

However, it turns out that his students aren’t ready to let go of the movement and one who is particularly hurt by the disbanding of the class creates a scene that causes Wenger to be arrested. A frightening glimpse into what may have become of the Nazis if Hitler were to have deserted the party at this key moment. If the hydra were to have its head cut off, it would simply grow two more.

In the final image we see Wenger in the back of a police car alone with his thoughts realising that his noble attempts to make the students better people have failed. In this we see our ‘Hitler’ as a normal man stripped of his title of ‘Fuhrer’ and deserted by the movement that he inspired.

He is now just a loner and a failure who was caught up in his own ideas of grandness and purpose. In this frightening alternative reality we are forced to confront the fact that not only are we capable of being conned into believing in radical ideas as the students were, but also that it might be possible for us to mistakenly become the instigators of radical ideas despite our good intentions for them.

This is a masterful stroke from Gansel offering not only an apology for a German public that was ‘brainwashed’, but shows us the haunting reality that dictators potentially aren’t the monsters we often like to see them depicted as on film, but flawed individuals who potentially began their movements with only honourable intentions.

He is not the mindless killing machine of Jaws , the monster who knows know better in Frankenstein or even the tortured Samara clawing her way out of the well in The Ring to hunt us down for our worshiping of technology (another article) but one of us.

Gansel has suggested that German students have grown tired of covering the Third Reich believing that because of the saturation of knowledge regarding the horrors of the Nazi regime they are immune to a potential resurgence of the hard right. He claims the youth of Germany are fed up of hearing about a period of history that they take no ownership of and are as disgusted at as the rest of the world.

However, with the resurgence of the hard right across most of Europe (the continent that should know better having witnessed first-hand the brutality of totalitarianism) there is more need for films like this brave enough to ask of us the most frightening questions. Ones that often by the time they are asked are too late to answer.

For more in-depth and slightly wayward film analysis, check out our movie features section including this look-back at Invasion of the Body Snatchers .

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• Everything Explained.Today
• A-Z Contents
• The Third Wave (experiment)

The Third Wave (experiment) explained

The Third Wave was an experimental movement created by the high school history teacher Ron Jones in 1967 to explain how the German population could have accepted the actions of the Nazi regime during the rise of the Third Reich and the Second World War . [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

While Jones taught his students about Nazi Germany during his senior level Contemporary World History class, Jones found it difficult to explain how the German people could have accepted the actions of the Nazis. He decided to create a fictional social movement as a demonstration of the appeal of fascism . Over the course of five days (or nine, according to student Sherry Toulsey), Jones, a member of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Cubberley United Student Movement sponsor [6] and Black Panthers supporter, [7] conducted a series of exercises in his classroom emphasizing discipline and community, intended to model certain characteristics of the Nazi movement.

As the movement grew outside his class and began to number in the hundreds, the experiment had spiralled out of control. He convinced the students to attend a rally where he claimed that the classroom project was part of a nationwide movement and that the announcement of a Third Wave presidential candidate would be televised. Upon their arrival, the students were presented with a blank channel. Jones told his students of the true nature of the movement as an experiment in fascism, and he presented to them a short film discussing the actions of Nazi Germany. [8]

The project was adapted into an American film, The Wave , in 1981, and a critically acclaimed German film, Die Welle , in 2008.

Background to the Third Wave experiment

The experiment took place at Cubberley High School in Palo Alto , California, during the first week of April 1967. Jones, finding himself unable to explain to his students how the German people could have claimed ignorance of The Holocaust , decided to demonstrate it to them instead. Jones started a movement called "The Third Wave" and told his students that the movement aimed to eliminate democracy . Jones postulated that democracy’s focus on individuality was against mankind’s “authoritarian” nature, which he aimed to emphasize with the movement’s motto: "Strength through discipline, strength through involvement."

Although the experiment was not well documented at the time, it was briefly mentioned in two issues of the Cubberley High School student newspaper, The Cubberley Catamount . [9] [10] A contemporary issue of the paper contains a more detailed account of the experiment, published just days after its conclusion. Jones wrote a full recollection of the experiment some nine years after its conclusion. Subsequent articles by other authors followed, some featuring interviews with Jones and the students involved.

The experiment began with simple alterations such as proper seating. He wrote "Strength Through Discipline" on the classroom's chalkboard, then enforced strict classroom discipline while speaking to the importance of discipline. The procedures were simple. Students were expected to sit at attention before the second bell, had to stand up to ask or answer questions and had to do so in three words or fewer, and were required to preface each remark with "Mr. Jones". He drilled them on their adherence to these rules. Jones intended only a one-day experiment.

Jones decided to continue the experiment after observing his students' strict adherence to the previous day's rules. He added "Strength Through Community" to the chalk board, and named his movement "the Third Wave". Jones based the name of his movement on the supposed fact that the third in a series of waves is the strongest. Jones created a salute involving a cupped hand reaching across the chest toward the opposite shoulder, resembling a Hitler salute . He ordered class members to salute each other both in and outside of the class. Jones then assigned each of his students an individual assignment, such as designing a Third Wave banner, stopping non-members from entering the class, or recruiting their friends to join the movement.

The experiment had now taken on a life of its own. Students from across the school joined in. Class expanded from its initial 30 students to a total of 43. Jones added "Strength Through Action" to the chalkboard. Students were issued a member card. Jones instructed the students on how to initiate new members. By the end of the day the movement had over 200 participants. Jones instructed three students to report to him when other members of the movement failed to abide by the rules. He was surprised when around twenty of the students made such reports. A student who expressed concern for Jones's safety volunteered to become his bodyguard.

Jones decided to terminate the movement, as it was slipping out of his control. The students had become more and more involved in the project. Jones announced to the class that this movement was a part of a nationwide movement and that on the next day a presidential candidate of the Third Wave would announce its existence to the public. He ordered students to attend a noon rally on Friday to witness the announcement. Jones also ordered four students to banish three dissenting students to the school library and to prevent them from attending the rally to emphasize loyalty to the movement's precepts.

Fifth and final day

The students all arrived at 11:50 a.m. Jones had convinced a number of his friends to pose as reporters, and asked the students to demonstrate what they had learned in the minutes before the televised address would supposedly begin. He then led them in shouting chants of "Strength through discipline! Strength through community! Strength through action!" He turned on the TV placed in the middle of the room. Rather than a televised address of their leader, the students were presented with an empty channel . After a few minutes of waiting, Jones announced that they had been a part of an experiment in fascism and that they all had willingly created a sense of superiority, much as German citizens had done in the period of Nazi Germany. He then apologized to them for how far it all had gone, and played them a film about the Nazi regime to conclude the experiment.

Documentaries

Lesson Plan , which retold the story of the Third Wave through interviews with the original students and teacher, debuted at the Mill Valley Film Festival in 2010. It debuted on October 10. [11] It was produced by Philip Neel and Mark Hancock, two of Jones's own former students.

A German documentary entitled The Invisible Line ( Die Geschichte der Welle ) debuted on television on December 19, 2019. This also featured interviews with Jones and former students.

Dramatizations

• The events of the experiment were adapted into a 1981 US TV special, The Wave . This formed the basis for the Young Adult novelization of the same name written by Todd Strasser , under the pseudonym of Morton Rhue. The special and novelization updated the setting to the modern day.
• It Can't Happen Here , the 86th book in the Sweet Valley Twins series, features a substitute teacher who conducts an experiment similar to The Third Wave. The title references a novel of the same name .
• In 2001, a musical adaptation written by Olaf Pyttlik premiered at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre in Canada.
• The 2008 German film Die Welle transferred the experiment to a modern-day German classroom. The film received critical acclaim.
• "The Pride of Lakewood", a 2010 episode of children's animated series Arthur , was loosely based on the Third Wave experiment. In it, students who form a community pride group become fascistic.
• In 2010, Jones staged a musical called The Wave , written with some of the students in the class. [12]
• The events were adapted into a non-musical stage play in 2011 by Joseph Robinette and Ron Jones.
• In 2020, a Netflix miniseries called We Are the Wave premiered in Germany. The show is about high school students, and their own activism. [13]
• Human experimentation in the United States
• Jane Elliott

Further reading

• Klink, Bill. April 21, 1967. "The Third Wave presents inside look at Fascism", The Cubberley Catamount , Volume 11, No. 14, Page 3. (News article in Cubberley student newspaper, following the Third Wave Rally, including details regarding the rally and names of some individuals involved.)
• Leler, Robin and Sakuma, Bernice. April 7, 1967. The Cubberley Catamount , Volume 11, No. 13, Page 2. Column entitled "Through the Tiger Eye". (Article in Cubberley student newspaper makes brief reference to the events of the "Third Wave".)
• Strasser, T. 1981. The Wave . New York: Dell Publishing Co.
• Williams, Sylvia Berry. 1970. Hassling . New York: Little, Brown. Page 51 in Chapter 7 ("A Bill of Particulars on the USM").

External links

• The original essay by Jones (1976)
• Lesson Plan – Third Wave documentary film, as told by the original Third Wave students and teacher
• – story history, FAQ and links by original Third Wave students
• "Nazis für fünf Tage" ("Nazis for five days") in Der Spiegel
• Web site: In 'The Wave,' ex-teacher Ron Jones looks back . Sam . Whiting . January 30, 2010 . San Francisco Chronicle . Hearst Corp . January 30, 2010.

Notes and References

• 'Third Wave' presents inside look into Fascism . Bill Klink . 11 . 14 . Cubberley Catamount . April 21, 1967 . Ellwood P. Cubberley High School . 2015-05-14.
• Web site: Leslie Weinfield . September 1991 . Remembering the 3rd Wave . Ron Jones Website . July 19, 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110719004549/http://www.ronjoneswriter.com/wave.html . July 19, 2011 .
• Web site: 2020-08-05 . Palo Alto student social experiment goes terribly wrong in 'Invisible Line' . 2022-05-17 . The Mercury News . en-US.
• Web site: Kirti . Kamna . 2021-06-23 . This Classroom Experiment Explains How Hitler Rose to Power & No One Protested . 2022-05-17 . The Collector . en.
• Web site: 2008-09-15 . Anthea Lipsett meets the teacher who carried out a terrifying experiment in fascism in the 1960s . 2022-05-17 . the Guardian . en.
• Web site: "Lesson Plan, the story of The Third Wave" . 2018-11-13.
• Web site: The Catamount: "Society is Sterile" -- R. Jones . 2018-11-13.
• Web site: 1972 . The Third Wave . dead . Jones . Ron . https://web.archive.org/web/20050224084643/http://www.vaniercollege.qc.ca/Auxiliary/Psychology/Frank/Thirdwave.html . 2005-02-24 . 2016-12-03 ., and Web site: The Third Wave . dead . Jones . Ron . 1976 . The Wave Home . https://web.archive.org/web/20150202082041/http://www.thewavehome.com/1976_The-Third-Wave_story.htm . 2015-02-02 . 2016-12-03 .
• Through the Tiger Eye . Bernice Sakuma . Cubberley Catamount . 11 . 13 . April 7, 1967 . amp . Robin Leler . Ellwood P. Cubberley High School . 2015-05-14.
• The Games People Play... . Charles Scott . Cubberley Catamount . 12 . 6 . December 8, 1967 . Ellwood P. Cubberley High School . 2015-05-14.
• Web site: Ducey. Patricia. Experiment in Fascism at an American High School: The Lesson Plan @ The Newport Beach Film Festival . Libertas Film Magazine. May 12, 2011.
• Web site: Whiting . Sam . In 'The Wave,' ex-teacher Ron Jones looks back . SFGate . January 30, 2010 . 2015-05-14.
• Web site: Garces . Isabella . 2019-12-07 . Netflix's 'We Are the Wave' Is Inspired By an Infamous '60s High School Experiment on Nazi Germany . 20 May 2020 . Esquire.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License . It uses material from the Wikipedia article " The Third Wave (experiment) ".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy .

• Die Welle
• „Die Welle“: Die wahre Begebenheit hinter dem Drama

„Die Welle“: Die wahre Begebenheit hinter dem Drama

„Die Welle“ beschreibt ein Experiment während einer Projektwoche in einer deutschen Schule. Welche wahre Geschichte dahintersteckt, erfahrt ihr hier.

Im Jahr 2008 lief der Film „Die Welle“ in den deutschen Kinos.  Jürgen Vogel  spielt den nonkonformen Lehrer Rainer Wenger, der während einer Projektwoche seinen Schüler*innen das Konzept der Autokratie erklären will. Bei dem Kinofilm handelt es sich um eine deutsche Neuverfilmung des amerikanischen Films  „Die Welle“  aus dem Jahr 1981. Im selben Jahr erschien auch der Roman von Morton Rhue  „The Wave“ . Inwieweit der Film auf wahren Hintergründen beruht, haben wir für euch recherchiert.

Dass die Realität mit grausamen Vorfällen das Kino nachhaltig beeinflussen kann, beweisen euch diese Filme nach wahren Begebenheiten im Video:

Wahre Begebenheit inspiriert „Die Welle“

Rainer Wenger ist nicht das, was man unter einem typischen Lehrer versteht. Als Alt-Punk ist er seinem Kleidungsstil und der Musik treu geblieben und unterhält eher ein freundschaftliches Verhältnis zu seinen Schüler*innen. Mit seiner schwangeren Frau Anke (Christiane Paul) wohnt er auf einem Hausboot. Als die Schule, in der er arbeitet, eine Projektwoche zum Thema verschiedener Staatsformen startet, muss er sich mit dem Thema Autokratie begnügen. Zunächst sind sich die Schüler*innen einig, dass ein Erstarken des Nazi-Regimes nicht noch einmal geschehen werde. Diese Überzeugungen veranlassen Wenger dazu, ein sozial-psychologisches Experiment zu starten: Sukzessive stellt er neue Regeln für seine Klasse auf, strukturiert die Sitzordnung, führt Hierarchien und einen Dresscode ein.

Die Schüler*innen erleben ein neues „Wir-Gefühl“. Wenger gibt direktive Anweisungen und proklamiert, dass es ihm nur um das Wohl der Schüler*innen gehe. Außenseiter wie Tim ( Frederik Lau ) finden ihren Platz und gehen in der neuen Ordnung völlig auf. Zunächst scheint es, als akzeptieren alle die strikten Regeln, doch auch unter den Schüler*innen finden sich kritische Geister. Bald separieren sich die „Insider“ von den „Outsidern“ und ein Spalt trennt die Klasse: Es wird gemobbt und auch vor Gewalt und Vandalismus nicht zurückgeschreckt. Rainer Wenger lässt es zum Eklat kommen. Er lädt alle Welle-Mitglieder in die Aula ein und hält propagandistische Reden. Die Gruppe kocht vor Euphorie und Hass. Anschließend verlangt er, einen „Kritiker der Welle“ auf die Bühne zu bringen, um ein Exempel zu statuieren. Die aufgepeitschten Schüler*innen zögern nicht lange und liefern den Opponenten ans Messer. Doch Wengers Reaktion sieht anders aus: Kritisch fragt er seine Anhänger*innen, ob sie ihm auch gefolgt wären, wenn er den Tod des Schülers angeordnet hätte und verkündet das Ende der „Welle“. Tim, der sich als loyaler Anhänger seines Führers versteht, reißt es den Boden unter den Füßen weg: Er zückt eine Pistole. Wenger gelingt es nicht, Tim zu überzeugen. Aus purer Verzweiflung richtet Tim die Waffe gegen sich und erschießt sich. Wenger wird aufgrund des außer Kontrolle geratenen Experiments von der Polizei festgenommen. 

Frederick Lau und seine Frau: Ist der Schauspieler verheiratet?

„die welle“: diese wahre begebenheit passierte wirklich.

Grundlage des Films und des Buches ist ein sozial-psychologisches Experiment, das 1967 an einer kalifornischen Highschool stattfand. Ron Jones unterrichtete Geschichte und behandelte das Thema „Drittes Reich“. Als ein Schüler fragte, wie die Deutschen damals sich derart blind und ahnungslos verhalten konnten, wuchs in ihm die Idee für ein Experiment: Die Schüler*innen sollten am eigenen Leib erfahren, wie blinder Gehorsam durch Angst und Manipulation entstehen kann. Philipp Neel, ein ehemaliger Schüler von Jones, berichtet im „Spiegel“ von seinen damaligen Erfahrungen. Es begann zunächst harmlos. Jones führte neue Regeln zur Sitzordnung ein und zum Verhalten im Unterricht. Die Schüler*innen begannen sich häufiger zu beteiligen, niemand stellte die neue Ordnung infrage. Es etablierte sich ein neues Gemeinschaftsgefühl und Jones führte einen Gruß ein, der eine Welle bedeutete. Die Gruppierung nannte er „The Third Wave“. Die Parallelen zum Dritten Reich fielen niemandem auf. 

Spezial-Karten wurden an drei ausgewählte Schüler*innen verteilt, die daraufhin die Aufgabe hatten, alle Regelbrecher*innen zu melden. Das Experiment verließ bald das Klassenzimmer, breitete sich in der Highschool aus. Aber auch in diesem Experiment gab es kritische Gemüter, die sich der Bewegung nicht anschlossen. Auch Jones selbst erkannte, dass sein Projekt langsam außer Kontrolle geriet. Er entschied, das Experiment zu beenden, in dem er ankündigte, dass am Freitag – am Montag hatte das Experiment erst begonnen – sich eine neue, nationale Jugendbewegung gründen werde, die sich für Veränderungen in Amerika einsetzen werde. Eingeladen wurden nur Mitglieder und treue Anhänger*innen von „The Third Wave“. Kritiker*innen wurden aus der Gemeinschaft ausgeschlossen.

Ebenso wie im Film versammelte Jones die Schüler*innen in der Aula. Alle begrüßten sich mit dem „Welle-Gruß“. Doch Jones hielt keine flammende Rede. Er begann einen Film über Nazi-Deutschland zu zeigen, der von Drill, Gehorsam und Gemeinschaftsgefühl erzählt und ebenfalls auf die Errichtung von Gaskammern einging. Die Schüler*innen waren fassungslos und beschämt. Jones habe mit den Worten geendet: „Wie den Deutschen, wird es euch schwerfallen zuzugeben, dass ihr zu weit gegangen seid. Ihr werdet nicht zugeben wollen, manipuliert worden zu sein. Ihr werdet nicht zugeben, bei diesem Irrsinn mitgemacht zu haben.“ 

„Die Welle“: Unterschiede und Gemeinsamkeiten zwischen Realität und Fiktion

Im Unterschied zum Film „Die Welle“ – auch in der 1981er-Version – endete das Experiment von Ron Jones weniger dramatisch. Gewalt, Angst und gegenseitiger Verrat waren dennoch an der Tagesordnung. Ron Jones war, wie sein fiktives Pendant Rainer Wenger, ein nonkonformer Alt-Punk. Beide unterhalten eher ein freundschaftliches Verhältnis zu ihren Schüler*innen. Während Wenger auf einem Hausboot lebt, wohnte Jones in einem Baumhaus. Auch Jones' sonstige Lehr-Methoden waren wenig konformistisch, wie der „Spiegel“ berichtet. Neben den vermutlich filmischen Ausschmückungen zur Handlung über das Privatleben der Schüler*innen und dem veränderten Handlungsort, hält sich der Film sehr nah an die wahre Geschichte. Uniform, Gruß und strenge Regeln haben sowohl das echte Experiment als auch der Film von Dennis Gansel gemeinsam. Weitere Fakten und Hintergründe zeigen, wie sehr sich das wahre Leben und die filmische Interpretation überschneiden.

Den Film „Die Welle“ von Dennis Gansel könnt ihr derzeit bei Netflix sehen. Noch weitere Einblicke gibt es in der passenden Serie „Wir sind die Welle“ , die es ebenfalls beim Streaminganbieter zu sehen gibt

Erkennt ihr die Schauspieler*innen anhand ihrer früheren Rollen? Beweist es im Quiz:

Quiz: Erkennst du diese Schauspieler anhand ihrer frühen Rollen?

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There are now six movies about or inspired by the Wave class: two documentaries about the original Third Wave class, one documentary around a Spanish theater Wave production, a re-enactment of the original class, a modern update version of the Wave story, and a miniseries “inspired” by the Wave story.

Here is a fun Die Welle trailer parody.

The Invisible Line at Miami Jewish Film Festival, April 15-29, 2021

The Invisible Line at Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, February 18-21

The Invisible Line at UNAFF, October 24

Redakcia Interview with Alexey Pivovarov, 9/3/20

Wave books and posters.

More Wave Books/Posters

Ron Jones “The Third Wave”

The wave musical, “l’onada” in barcelona, “lesson plan” the wave documentary trailer, mark hancock speaker, third wave quick links.

Original teacher Ron Jones website “Lesson Plan” documentary website “Invisible Line” documentary website Original student Philip Neel IMDB page Wave student Mark Hancock speaker

Wucht der Wellen

Man kann sie endlos betrachten oder auf ihnen reiten, mal sind sie sanft, mal gewaltig. Eine Würdigung des schönsten Auf und Abs, das die Natur zu bieten hat.

Gefährliche Strömung

Laut Definition ist eine Welle eine sich räumlich ausbreitende Erregung, die Energie transportiert, oft aufgrund einer Störung. Ein Stein fällt in den Teich – das Wasser beginnt, sich kreisförmig zu bewegen. Die Erdkruste unter einem Ozean kracht ein – ein Tsunami rollt an. Oder, im übertragenen Sinn: Ein Virus springt vom Tier auf den Menschen, eine Krankheit befällt in Wellen die Weltbevölkerung. In den 1980er-Jahren sorgte der Jugendroman „Die Welle“ für Furore. Er fußte auf einem Experiment des Lehrers Ron Jones, das er „The Third Wave“ nannte. Anhand einer Highschool-Klasse habe er 1967 bewiesen, dass Faschismus jederzeit möglich sei. Denn innerhalb weniger Tage sei mit von ihm angewandten Nazi-Parolen und -methoden aus friedfertigen Schülern und Schülerinnen ein willfähriger, gewaltbereiter Haufen geworden. Weil er eine Welle losgetreten hatte, mit einer gefährlichen Unterströmung, so die Botschaft. Ob das wirklich so war? Inzwischen häufen sich die Zweifel an den Schilderungen des Lehrers.

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