{ "id": "epvypatxb0", "slug": "odipussi", "title": "Ödipussi", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance", "label": "Comedy and romantic films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1980s", "label": "Comedies of the 1980s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1980s" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1980s.satirical-black-and-parody-comedies-of-t", "label": "Satirical, black, and parody comedies of the 1980s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1980s.satirical-black-and-parody-comedies-of-t" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1980s", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: Comedies of the 1980s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1980s", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance", "label": "Comedy and romantic films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1980s", "label": "Comedies of the 1980s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1980s" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Ödipussi (Loriots Ödipussi) is Loriot's 1988 West German comedy debut, starring Loriot and Evelyn Hamann as a 56-year-old mama's boy and a psychologist; it premiered simultaneously in East and West Berlin and drew 4.6 million admissions.", "snippet": "Ödipussi (Loriots Ödipussi) is Loriot's 1988 West German comedy debut, starring Loriot and Evelyn Hamann as a 56-year-old mama's boy and a psychologist; it premiered simultaneously in East and West Berlin and drew 4.6 million admissions.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1980s.satirical-black-and-parody-comedies-of-t", "markdown": "# Ödipussi\n\n**Ödipussi** (also known as *Loriots Ödipussi*) is a West German comedy from 1987/88, the first feature film of the cartoonist, comedian, and filmmaker Loriot (Vicco von Bülow), who wrote it, directed it, and played the male lead opposite Evelyn Hamann. The film tells of a 56-year-old bachelor, Paul Winkelmann, who runs his family's furniture business while living under the thumb of his dominant 78-year-old mother, and who falls in love late in life with the psychologist Margarethe Tietze.[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/oedipussi_228f9ebf8ab84108b69c32f6f9aa6cec) • [2](https://www.fbw-filmbewertung.com/film/oedipussi)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Premiere | 9 March 1988, simultaneously at the Kosmos-Kino in East Berlin and the Gloria-Palast in West Berlin; nationwide release 10 March 1988[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/oedipussi_228f9ebf8ab84108b69c32f6f9aa6cec) |\n| East–West first | The first West German film in 30 years to run simultaneously in the Federal Republic and the GDR[3](https://www.presseportal.de/pm/7841/245898) |\n| Box office | About 4.6 million admissions in West Germany; the second-biggest German box-office hit of 1988[4](https://www.filmstarts.de/nachrichten/1000131662.html) |\n| Budget | 7.5 million DM, with producer Horst Wendlandt[3](https://www.presseportal.de/pm/7841/245898) |\n| Key crew | Camera Xaver Schwarzenberger, music Rolf Wilhelm, editing Dagmar Hirtz, production design Rolf Zehetbauer[2](https://www.fbw-filmbewertung.com/film/oedipussi) • [3](https://www.presseportal.de/pm/7841/245898) |\n| Rating | FBW Prädikat \"wertvoll\", awarded unanimously[2](https://www.fbw-filmbewertung.com/film/oedipussi) |\n| TV premiere | 30 September 1990 on ARD, watched by more than 16 million viewers[5](https://www.n-tv.de/leute/Sag-nicht-immer-Pussi-zu-mir-article10269391.html) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nPaul Winkelmann (Loriot) has run the family furniture and interior-decoration business for three years, but he is not truly independent: he is 56, unmarried, and still lives with his 78-year-old, energetic, and dominant mother, who calls him by his pet name \"Pussi\", irons his shirts, and expects him home for mashed potatoes in the evening.[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/oedipussi_228f9ebf8ab84108b69c32f6f9aa6cec) • [6](https://www.filmreporter.de/kino/32422-Oedipussi) The title points to the [Oedipus complex](https://www.edgepedia.org/oedipus-complex) the first scene makes explicit in Paul's attachment to his mother.[6](https://www.filmreporter.de/kino/32422-Oedipussi)\n\nPaul's ordered life changes when he meets the single psychologist Margarethe Tietze (Evelyn Hamann), who comes to his shop to have her practice chairs reupholstered. She too is no longer young and has never fully cut herself loose from her parents.[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/oedipussi_228f9ebf8ab84108b69c32f6f9aa6cec) Paul persuades her to join him on a business trip to Italy to look for new fabrics; when his mother learns of it, she is jealous and even moves another young man into Paul's childhood room.[7](https://www.degeto.de/film/loriots-oedipussi/) A meeting of the two families over coffee and Hefezopf turns into a catastrophe of awkward pauses and misunderstandings, but Paul and Margarethe find each other despite all obstacles.[6](https://www.filmreporter.de/kino/32422-Oedipussi) • [8](https://www.kinogrid.com/film/oedipussi/)\n\n## Production\n\nLoriot, born in 1923 and known above all for his television sketches and cartoons, made his feature-film debut at age 64.[9](https://michaelalthen.de/texte/textformen/bericht/odipussi-drehbericht/) Producer Horst Wendlandt had spent five years persuading the popular satirist to try the cinema.[3](https://www.presseportal.de/pm/7841/245898) Loriot wrote the screenplay, directed, and took the male lead; Evelyn Hamann, his longtime sketch partner, played the female lead, as she would again in his second feature, *Pappa ante portas* (1991).[3](https://www.presseportal.de/pm/7841/245898) • [10](https://www.bpb.de/medien/146707/PuF_U_16_Loriot.pdf?download=1)\n\nFilming ran from September to November 1987 in [West Berlin](https://www.edgepedia.org/west-berlin), Italy, and Munich, with studio work at Bavaria Studios in Geiselgasteig.[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/oedipussi_228f9ebf8ab84108b69c32f6f9aa6cec) • [11](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094407/) The production was a cooperation of Bavaria Film, Rialto Film, and Südwestfunk, with the FFA and Südwestfunk providing funding, including 1,250,000 DM from Südwestfunk.[1](https://www.filmportal.de/film/oedipussi_228f9ebf8ab84108b69c32f6f9aa6cec) The German Film and Media Rating Board (FBW) awarded the film the Prädikat \"wertvoll\" unanimously, praising the camera work, the sets, and the casting, while noting that dramaturgical imbalances kept it from the higher rating.[2](https://www.fbw-filmbewertung.com/film/oedipussi)\n\n## Premiere in a divided Berlin\n\nThe film premiered on 9 March 1988 at 5 p.m. in the Kosmos-Kino in [East Berlin](https://www.edgepedia.org/east-berlin) and three hours later in the Gloria-Palast in West Berlin, with Loriot present at both.[12](https://public.kika-dresden.de/film17052_oedipussi.html) • [13](https://www.shotinberlin.de/de/katalog/film/1996/) It was the first and, as later accounts note, the only feature film whose premiere took place on the same day in both halves of divided Berlin.[5](https://www.n-tv.de/leute/Sag-nicht-immer-Pussi-zu-mir-article10269391.html) At a press conference in East Berlin, Loriot spoke of a \"feeling of happiness\" at the near-simultaneous premieres in both parts of the city.[5](https://www.n-tv.de/leute/Sag-nicht-immer-Pussi-zu-mir-article10269391.html)\n\n## Reception and legacy\n\nWith about 4.6 million tickets sold in [West Germany](https://www.edgepedia.org/west-germany), *Ödipussi* was the second-biggest German box-office success of 1988.[4](https://www.filmstarts.de/nachrichten/1000131662.html) In 1988 it received the Ernst Lubitsch Prize as the best German-language film comedy of the year.[10](https://www.bpb.de/medien/146707/PuF_U_16_Loriot.pdf?download=1) Critics praised the acting, the level of the gags, and the precisely worked-out comic situations, while several noted that the film does not reach the density of Loriot's television sketches, since the loose plot serves largely as a frame for self-contained comic set pieces such as the group therapy session, the sofa scene, and the club meeting.[2](https://www.fbw-filmbewertung.com/film/oedipussi) • [14](https://www.best-movie.de/komoedien-klassiker-kult-modern/oedipussi/)\n\nThe film has remained a fixture of German popular culture. The first television broadcast on ARD in September 1990 drew more than 16 million viewers, and the film is regularly rerun and streamed on German public television.[5](https://www.n-tv.de/leute/Sag-nicht-immer-Pussi-zu-mir-article10269391.html) • [8](https://www.kinogrid.com/film/oedipussi/) A short reappearance of Winkelmann and his mother followed in *Otto – Der Außerfriesische* (1989).[15](https://www.tvtoday.de/filme/oedipussi_1329169.html) Film scholars have placed the film within the tradition of German conformist comedy, noting that its happy ending leaves the mother, literally and figuratively, in the driver's seat.[16](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9781911239413_A39237390/preview-9781911239413_A39237390.pdf)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Ödipussi, filmportal.de](https://www.filmportal.de/film/oedipussi_228f9ebf8ab84108b69c32f6f9aa6cec)\n2. [Ödipussi, Deutsche Filmbewertung und Medienbewertung (FBW)](https://www.fbw-filmbewertung.com/film/oedipussi)\n3. [Loriot und Evelyn Hamann in: \"Ödipussi\", Kabel Eins via Presseportal](https://www.presseportal.de/pm/7841/245898)\n4. [Über 4,6 Millionen Menschen haben diesen Kultklassiker im Kino gesehen, FILMSTARTS.de](https://www.filmstarts.de/nachrichten/1000131662.html)\n5. [25 Jahre Loriots \"Ödipussi\": \"Sag nicht immer Pussi zu mir\", n-tv.de](https://www.n-tv.de/leute/Sag-nicht-immer-Pussi-zu-mir-article10269391.html)\n6. [Ödipussi, Filmreporter.de](https://www.filmreporter.de/kino/32422-Oedipussi)\n7. [Loriots Ödipussi, ARD Degeto Film GmbH](https://www.degeto.de/film/loriots-oedipussi/)\n8. [Ödipussi Stream, KinoGrid](https://www.kinogrid.com/film/oedipussi/)\n9. [Ödipussi Drehbericht, Michael Althen](https://michaelalthen.de/texte/textformen/bericht/odipussi-drehbericht/)\n10. [Loriot timeline, Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung](https://www.bpb.de/medien/146707/PuF_U_16_Loriot.pdf?download=1)\n11. [Ödipussi (1988), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094407/)\n12. [Ödipussi, Kinokalender Dresden](https://public.kika-dresden.de/film17052_oedipussi.html)\n13. [Ödipussi, Shot in Berlin](https://www.shotinberlin.de/de/katalog/film/1996/)\n14. [Ödipussi (1988), best-movie.de](https://www.best-movie.de/komoedien-klassiker-kult-modern/oedipussi/)\n15. [Ödipussi, TV Today](https://www.tvtoday.de/filme/oedipussi_1329169.html)\n16. [Jan-Christopher Horak, German Film Comedy](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9781911239413_A39237390/preview-9781911239413_A39237390.pdf)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of the 1980s › Satirical, black, and parody comedies of the 1980s*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/odipussi", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/odipussi.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Ödipussi\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/odipussi. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Ödipussi](https://www.edgepedia.org/odipussi)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/odipussi](https://www.edgepedia.org/odipussi). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Ödipussi\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/odipussi. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Ödipussi is Loriot's 1988 West German comedy debut, starring Loriot and Evelyn Hamann as a 56-year-old mama's boy and a psychologist; it premiered simultaneously in East and West Berlin and drew 4.6 million admissions." }