| The Heathens of Kummerow | |
| Director: | Werner Jacobs |
| Producer: | Kurt Hahne Walter Koppel |
| Starring: | Paul Dahlke Ralf Wolter Fritz Tillmann |
| Cinematography: | Günter Haubold |
| Editing: | Monika Schindler |
| Music: | Rolf Alexander Wilhelm |
| Studio: | DEFA Neue Deutsche Filmgesellschaft Neue Real Film W. Koppel |
| Runtime: | 94 minutes |
| Country: | East Germany West Germany |
| Language: | German |
The Heathens of Kummerow (German: Die Heiden von Kummerow und ihre lustigen Streiche|lit=The Heathens of Kummerow and Their Funny Pranks) is a 1967 East German-West German family comedy film directed by Werner Jacobs and starring Paul Dahlke, Ralf Wolter and Fritz Tillmann. It is an adaptation of the novel of the same name, written by Ehm Welk and published in 1937.
The film's sets were designed by the art directors Senta Ochs and Alfred Tolle. Location shooting took place around Rügen.
It is the era before World War I and short before Easter in the village of Kummerow in Pomerania, and a group of boys revive a custom of "heathen baptism". It is said that the villagers had resisted Christianization by remaining in the water during the baptism, which lived on as a traditional contest where boys will stand in the cold water, and the one who endures the longest is crowned "heathen king". This practice is not appreciated by the local pastor, although when the pastor and the illegally employed cowherd Krischan get into trouble with the miller Düker, the boys' talent for playing pranks comes in handy.
The film is based on the 1937 novel The Heathens of Kummerow by Ehm Welk. The book was the third best selling novel written in Nazi Germany, and along with other novels by the apolitical humourist Welk, it became a modern classic in East Germany.[1] The film adaptation was the first film co-produced by East and West Germany.[2]