Frauen sind Männersache (1976)

Margit Köhler is stressed and annoyed at constantly having to pick up after her husband and grown-up children. She wants to take a little break from her everyday life as a housewife over the weekend. She asks her brother, Walter Riedel, to look after her apartment and family while she is away. But housework is a foreign concept to Margit’s husband, Gerhard, and he refuses to believe what his brother-in-law tells him. Until that moment, he had been in such a good mood—and now this: no dinner ready. The three children are a little more understanding, but they have no desire to spend time in the kitchen either. To Gerhard’s annoyance, the refrigerator is empty, and he can’t even find his beloved after-work beer in it. But going shopping himself on a Friday is beneath him. Besides, he has to repair the television for his neighbor, Reuter. Walter now moves into his brother-in-law’s apartment, unintentionally disrupting his children’s love lives. Since Margit has only moved in with a friend in the neighboring building, she secretly checks on things at home several times. Walter had given her a list of tasks for her husband to work through. For the time being, though, he doesn’t get to it, because now it’s not just Reuter’s television that is broken, but his car as well. Gerhard is able to help quickly, since Reuter had simply forgotten to turn on the fuel tap on his new Trabant. So now he has no excuse not to go shopping. Off he goes. Meanwhile, Margit drops by again and tells her brother that Werner’s parents are invited for Saturday, something she completely forgot to put on the list. Now Maria is already standing at Gerhard’s door with her father, and nothing has been prepared. Luckily, his guest doesn’t want anything to drink and soon takes his leave. Gerhard could now get on with the list, but somehow he just never gets around to it. His children are no help either, because they are occupied with their love lives. Margit’s free weekend is drawing to a close, so Walter explains to his brother-in-law that his wife didn’t go away to attend a course after all; she only wanted to see how her husband would collapse under the burden of the housework. Strangely, Gerhard isn’t angry at all, but he isn’t willing to let his wife get away with humiliating him, so he pretends that he isn’t happy to have Margit back at last. Deep down, though, he is more than glad and has come to appreciate everything his wife has taken care of for him in everyday life.