Christa Winsloe

Christa Winsloe (23 December 1888 – 10 June 1944) was a 20th-century German-Hungarian novelist, playwright and sculptor, best known for her play Gestern und heute (known under several titles, see below), filmed in 1931 as Mädchen in Uniform and the 1958 remake.

She was born in Darmstadt. After her mother's early death, she was sent to the Kaiserin-Augusta-Stift, a very strict boarding school in Potsdam. In this institution, the girls of the aristocracy were drilled to learn discipline and submission. After leaving school, she married Baron Ludwig Hatvany (1880-1961), a rich Hungarian writer and landowner.

While married to Hatvany, Winsloe wrote Das Mädchen Manuela ("The Child Manuela"), a short novel based on her experiences at Kaiserin-Augusta. Soon after, her marriage broke up, but Hatvany made her a generous allowance after their divorce. That novel was released in 1933.

Winsloe was involved in a relationship with newspaper reporter Dorothy Thompson, probably before World War II when Thompson was reporting from Berlin.

Winsloe then wrote the stage play Gestern und heute (literally "Yesterday and Today").

The original title was rejected as too insipid, so the play was renamed Ritter Nérestan (literally: "Knight Nérestan") when it appeared in 1930 in Leipzig. When it was brought to Berlin, it was renamed again to Krankheit der Liebe (lit. "Sickness of Love").

In 1932, her play was performed as "Children in Uniform" (English adaptation by Barbara Burnham) at the Duchess Theatre in London with Cathleen Nesbitt and Jessica Tandy in the cast.

The play's success led to the production of the film Mädchen in Uniform (1931); Winsloe was one of the screenwriters. Mädchen in Uniform was a considerable success, both financially and critically. This was due to its ambitiously aesthetic form and the fact that only women performed in it. The lesbian aspect of the story was downplayed and depicted as an adolescent crush, even though Winsloe co-authored the script, and Leontine Sagan, who in the play had stressed the lesbian aspect, acted as director.

...
Wikipedia