Bürgermeister Anna (1950)

In 1948, Jupp Ucker returns home after being a prisoner of war in France, where he had been forced to work as a laborer on a farm. His father comes to collect him in a horse-drawn cart. While they are still traveling through a forest, Jupp learns that his father had to pay three hundredweight of potatoes to Lehmkuhl, the horse’s owner, a large-scale farmer and former mayor, for the use of the horse. Along the way, they meet several village children who are making the six-kilometer journey home to Kleiersdorf from school, and they give them a lift. Jupp also learns that his girlfriend, Anne Drews—whom everyone calls Anne—no longer works as the mayor’s secretary: she is now the mayor herself. So his first stop is the mayor’s office, where the recently concluded council meeting has approved building a school of its own for the village children. There he also meets his sister Ursel, who now works there as a secretary, and his mother, who is a member of the council. Once the office door is closed, Anne and Jupp fall into each other’s arms, but they have to part when Anne leaves for an appointment at the district administrator’s office. She does not return until the middle of the night. The next day, Jupp visits Anne at the office and tells her that all the trouble she has as mayor will soon be over, since the two of them are going to get married. But Anne insists on remaining mayor, so Jupp leaves the office in anger. Jupp makes another attempt to talk to Anne, but it ends in another argument, after which Anne goes to the district administrator to submit the application for the new school. He has no time for her, but says there will be no problem with the project, although he will not be able to provide the materials. A year later, another council meeting is held, at which Jupp Ucker is welcomed as a new member. The construction of the school is then placed on the agenda: the shell of the building is complete, apart from the roof structure. The timber requested for the roof has not yet arrived. Jupp offers to sort the matter out with the district administrator. After the meeting, Anne asks the school project’s planner, Ohm Willem, to stay behind and explains that the timber for the roof will not be delivered because the entire construction project was never approved. She has not dared tell everyone, because that means the building shell already completed is an unauthorized construction. On his way home, Ohm Willem spots the timber for the new barn roof at Jupp’s farm and asks him to lend it for a year. But when Jupp finds out that Anne will be dismissed as mayor if the truth comes out, he withdraws the offer he had already made, since he and Anne are still at odds. So Ohm Willem takes the timber without Jupp’s permission, and construction can continue. The village children are looking for a playground because they have not gone to school, owing to misinformation spread by Grete Drews. They discover farmer Lehmkuhl’s barn, which is crammed with things he has swindled out of townspeople in exchange for farm produce. There is also a vat of foul-smelling liquid, and the grain soaking in it is thrown outside the barn. When the village policeman comes by, the children quickly disappear, but he finds a fermentation vat, equipment needed to make alcohol, and a number of drunken chickens. He goes straight to the mayor to report what he has found. In the meantime, farmer Lehmkuhl realizes his hiding place has been discovered and removes the evidence. When he goes to the mayor’s office to complain about the police inspection, he happens to hear that the children were supposedly absent from school on Anne’s instructions. He immediately drives to the district administrator to report it. The district administrator does not believe the story about a school strike and is furious that construction of the school began without approval, so he sets off for Kleiersdorf at once. His conversation with the mayor ends with Anne’s suspension. Since the district administrator is now pressed for time, Anne offers to show him a shortcut, though it is in very poor condition. When the car gets stuck as well and the district administrator becomes very angry, Anne explains that the village children use this road twice a day to get to school. This convinces him: he rescinds the suspension he had just issued, and they return to the village, where he promises the children they will get their new school. Farmer Lehmkuhl, who witnessed the mayor’s dismissal from the anteroom, is already celebrating in his cellar with some of his loyal followers and home-distilled schnapps, expecting to be reinstated as mayor. But then Jupp arrives and tells him that Anne is keeping her position after all. When his followers hear this, they leave one by one, since they can no longer expect to benefit from Lehmkuhl. He takes one of the stockpiled, full gasoline cans, goes to the shell of the new school, and sets it on fire. The whole village now helps put out the blaze, and succeeds before any major damage is done. Farmer Lehmkuhl is exposed as the arsonist while the new building is still burning and is arrested. Anne signs Jupp’s official deregistration from the village, since he officially plans to spend his future in Berlin: he sees no point in continuing to live with Anne. On the back of the form, however, she writes that he is a fool if he leaves. Jupp takes the form and slips it into his pocket without reading it. After the fire, at Anne’s urging, Jupp reads the back of the form and has to admit that he really was a fool. They make up, and embrace.