The True Story Behind Film The Wave
The American School That Inspired the German Movie Die Welle
Nov 14, 2008
The Wave poses the question what led to the rise of the Nazis, and could it happen again? It is a shocking story that has gripped several writers and film-makers. The latest rendition of this cautionary tale is the German film Die Welle from director Dennis Gansel.
Dennis Gansel's Die Welle (The Wave)
Die Welle is based in a German high school populated by affluent, intelligent students and staff. Both the teacher, a well liked Mr Rainer Wegner (played by Jurgen Vogel), and the pupils are yawning at the prospect of a lesson about fascist autocracy. “Yeah, we get it...the Nazis sucked” one student chimes in “We can't feel guilty forever”. This apathy encourages Wegner to devise an impromptu lesson plan that will demonstrate the practicalities of social conformity. It starts off, harmlessly it seems, with Wegner announcing a new experiment. For the next week pupils will stand up to speak in class, address him as Sir and answer all questions succinctly. He teaches them to sit up straight at their desks, to help each other out and to breathe correctly. Instead of rebelling, the pupils take to these new rules with gusto. By the end of the day the inclusiveness of group thinking has provided the pupils with a real feeling of empowerment.
The group quickly begins to grow. They name themselves 'The Wave', invent special greetings, logos and uniforms, and create a My Space page. New students, not part of the original class experiment, soon join The Wave, and before long the group spirals beyond the control of Mr Wegner, assuming an organic life of its own. The attraction of The Wave plays on many of the unwritten laws of the playground. The need to be a part of something, the psychological peer pressure to conform, the power of togetherness and common goals. What the students don't realise is how quickly they are mimicking mistakes of the past. Mistakes they all thought could never happen again. It's hinted at within Die Welle when two students who aren't members of The Wave pick on one who is. Before long other members of The Wave have rallied to the rescue. What's really frightening, of course, is how easily this situation could then reverse. This is what happened in California, where the original experiment actually took place. It's also, somewhat sinisterly, what's happening on an almost daily basis within the realms of reality TV shows such as Big Brother. Fascism has a dangerously seductive side.
The Truth Behind The Wave
The teacher, Rainer Wegner, is based on a real-life teacher called Ron Jones. Mr Jones taught at Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, California. In 1976 he devised an experiment which went terribly out of control. In response to the 'could it happen again?' question, raised during his world history class, Jones decided to explain fascism using a game. The initial set-up was, therefore, almost identical to the films that later followed. However, Ron Jones horror at the escalating power of The Wave led to the experiment being cut short well before the chaos eventually depicted in Die Welle took hold. Understandably, the film-makers took poetic licence in order to enhance the drama, but even in reality the shock was palpable. Ron Jones became a topic of national debate. His spur of the moment experiment has continued to haunt him for years, as he elaborates on his website:
“I'm not proud of The Wave but I can't escape it! It is like a calling that just gets louder! For me The Wave is a story of ghosts. What we can be. The allure of good and evil. Choices.....”
Ron wrote an account of his experience, The Third Wave, which was adapted by the author Todd Strasser. (Strasser also wrote the novel that teen romance Drive Me Crazy was based on, so he sure knows his way around high schools). The novel was then turned into a TV movie in 1981 and finally into a full blown movie Die Welle in 2008.
Further reading: Die Welle (The Wave) makes the list as one of the Best Foreign Films of 2008.
Sources: IMDb, thewave.tk, 'Follow the leader' published in The Guardian 13/09/08, ronjoneswriter.com
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