“Da stelle ma uns mal janz dumm”

Who wouldn’t know the cinematic movie Die Feuerzangenbowle (1944) with Heinz Rühmann? Characters such as Professor Crey (Schnauz), Professor Bömmel, Dr. Brett and Professor Knauer depict teacher types that can still make the audience smile today. This film is an integral part of popular culture in Germany. In this contribution, the most important media in this multimedia network will be analysed and compared: the novel, Die Feuerzangenbowle (1933) by Heinrich Spoerl (and Hans Reimann); his first film version So ein Flegel (1934); the second film adaptation Die Feuerzangenbowle (1944); and the third adaptation Die Feuerzangenbowle (1970, directed by Helmut Käutner). The theoretical basis for the analysis of this multimedia collection is the media as a compact concept term of Siegfried J. Schmidt. It justifies taking into account the production contexts, in particular those people involved in the production and their interests, and evaluating media on a theoretical basis. This allows uncovering the dynamics of the exponential spread of the material, which allows to explain how Die Feuerzangebowle became a cultural treasure and how values, norms and ideologies were passed on. Schmidt’s central thesis is that the results of the process incorporate the conditions of the particular media system as specific characteristics – and that this can be shown in this particular example of a media collection. The second film, in particular, came into the world like the head of Janus. On the one hand, this film is a masterpiece in the media collection. On the other hand, one must ask oneself to what extent this film, which came into existence during the Nazi dictatorship, is really as innocent as it appears.