Betragen ungenügend (1972)

In a flashback, senior school principal Dr. Gottlieb Taft recalls the pranks he got up to when he was a student. His memories lead him to make allowances for his pupils’ mischief, particularly that of class 13a. The reactionary senior teachers Dr. Knörz and Blaumeier take advantage of this to use the Ministry of Education to force Principal Taft into early retirement with a formal dismissal notice, on the grounds that he is mentally incompetent. Pepe Nietnagel exposes the plot by Dr. Knörz and Blaumeier, who are both trying to advance their careers at Dr. Taft’s expense, and promptly tells him about it. Taft then helps class 13a with its schemes to sabotage the especially difficult class tests. The keyholes clogged the night before cause chaos, and Pepe organizes a demonstration calling for lessons to be held, under the slogan “We want to learn.” During it, Dr. Taft’s successor, Knörz, disparages the students first as a “herd of animals” and then as “pigs.” Pepe replies that Knörz did not say that for nothing. In revenge for the insult, the whole class 13a places a menagerie of farm animals in the classrooms of Mommsen High School overnight. As luck would have it, two officials from the Ministry of Education inspect the school the next morning and find only pigs, cattle, chickens, and so on instead of students. They conclude that Knörz, Taft’s successor, is not up to the job. One of the officials is Dr. Taft’s son-in-law. He visits Taft and, in a friendly manner, asks him to take up his post again. But Taft firmly refuses because of the Ministry’s brusque treatment of him. Only at his farewell ceremony, accompanied by a Brahms concert—which the students sabotage by singing the words “We want our old, nice principal back” to the tune of the Fehrbelliner Reitermarsch—does Taft show that he is moved and grant his pupils’ wish. He promises to stay on as principal for a few more years, much to the relief of “Principal” Knörz in particular.