SOURCE: "The Lost Honor of Kathryn Beck: A German Story on American Television," in Literature/Film Quarterly, Vol. 13, No. 4, 1985, pp. 240-44.

In the following essay, Helmetag examines the American television adaptation of Heinrich Böll's Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum (1974) as The Lost Honor of Kathryn Beck (1984).

Heinrich Böll's story Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum was published in German in 1974.¹ According to the author, the book was inspired by the treatment of Peter Brückner, a professor in Hannover, because of his alleged association with the Baader-Meinhof group.² An English translation by Leila Vennewitz appeared in 1975.³ The work gained an even wider audience with the release of Volker Schlöndorff's film adaptation that same year.⁴ The Schlöndorff film has been the subject of several scholarly articles.⁵ On Tuesday, January 24, 1984 The Lost Honor of Kathryn Beck, an American adaptation made expressly for television, was shown...