Die gestohlene Schlacht (1972)

The year is 1757. In the second year of the Seven Years’ War, the Prussian king Frederick II stands before Prague. What was planned as a swift capture has become a lengthy affair: several weeks have passed, and the king has still not managed to storm the city. With funds running low and an Austrian relief army hurrying to aid the besieged Austrian Karl von Lothringen inside the city, swift action is needed. The Prussian king sends for the master thief Käsebier, whom he had only recently sentenced to life imprisonment. Käsebier is to sneak into the city and open its gates from within. In return, the king would grant him his freedom. Käsebier initially agrees, and manages to enter the city in disguise. Before Karl von Lothringen, he poses as a Prussian soldier who says that he, like other regiments, wants to defect to Karl. He is to open the city gates the next morning and wait inside for Frederick II and his soldiers. Then Prussian troops will defect to him, leaving Frederick’s forces trapped. Lothringen, suffering from food shortages in the city and homesickness, agrees to the plan. Käsebier returns to the Prussian camp through a secret passage that the Czechs use to supply the people of Prague with food inside the city. There he learns that, once the city is captured, the king actually intends to imprison him and sentence him to death. Käsebier manages to alter the troops’ orders for the following morning. When the city gates are opened and the king rides toward the city walls, his men do not follow him, because the written order says they must not follow the king under any circumstances. Frederick II initially calls off the assault on the city, especially since the soldiers have also turned up unarmed in response to the written order. While the people of Prague slowly dig through the secret passage toward the Prussians’ arsenal, Frederick II makes a second attempt to storm Prague. As he tries to compose himself one last time in a boat on a lake, accompanied by flute music, Käsebier sneaks aboard, and the boat drifts away. With no oars, the king cannot get ashore. Nothing happens on the battlefield either, because the king is missing. Once again, the planned battle descends into chaos, and Karl von Lothringen is surprised, since the Prussians are usually disciplined and organised. Meanwhile, Käsebier is arrested by hussars in the king’s boat. He is to be hanged, but the execution is delayed because Käsebier insists that all his crimes be read out. By the time the executioner has finished reading, the people of Prague have reached the ammunition depot. The underground and aboveground stores explode, and the battlefield before Prague is reduced to rubble. Frederick II now calls off the siege and withdraws. Unnoticed, Käsebier has also sneaked into one of the wagons and travels toward Berlin.