Hans Röckle und der Teufel (1974)

The puppeteer and inventor Hans Röckle returns to his village from a journey. Shortly afterwards, he is visited in person by the devil, Flammfuß. The devil wants to make a deal with him, hoping to win the soul of the clever Röckle. In return, he gives Röckle magical power in his head and hands, allowing him to invent anything he can imagine. However, he may create each thing only once, may not create money, and must regularly invent new things. If he can no longer think of anything new, or loses the desire to invent, and consequently creates nothing new for seven times seven hours, his soul will belong to the devil, according to the contract. Just before the contract is signed, the devil stipulates one additional condition: from time to time, he wants to be allowed to take things Röckle has created for his formidable grandmother, the Ellermutter. Röckle signs the contract. At first, Röckle creates nothing for himself, but wants to do good for those around him. For Luisa, an impecunious seamstress who sews white linen, he creates a sewing box that sews clothes by itself when activated with a magic spell. For her friend Jacob, he creates a flute that brings rain when played. Luisa soon attracts attention with her new clothes and becomes much sought-after as a seamstress in the village. The devil soon discovers Luisa’s secret too, and, as the contract allows, takes the box for the Ellermutter. In Hell, he knows a spell to make the sewing box work, but not Röckle’s spell to make it stop sewing. Before long, Hell is overflowing with fabric pouring endlessly from the box, and, in utter desperation, the devil magics it back to Hans Röckle. But in time, the sewing box brings Luisa no good fortune either. Because she sews white linen faster than anyone else, her employer, Reichenbach, thinks the workload must be too light and the prices for the laundry too high. He now wants to pay all the seamstresses less. Jacob, meanwhile, takes his flute from village to village, playing rain down on the farmers’ parched fields. Although the crops will now ripen, he too gets into trouble: the wealthy landowner wants to buy his flute so that, from then on, he can make it rain only on his own fields. When Jacob refuses to give him the flute, a bounty is put on his head—something several farmers could use the money from. The devil also wants the flute as a gift for his grandmother, but after stealing it, he cannot play it properly. One note brings rain, another brings a storm, and a third, which is covered, brings a tempest. The devil suspects that the covered hole hides a “rain of money,” which would mean Röckle has breached the contract. He uncovers it and causes a storm in Hell that even extinguishes the hellfire. Frustrated, the devil sends the flute back to Hans Röckle. Röckle has seen that the things he created with his magical powers have caused those around him more suffering than help. Out of frustration, he has therefore created nothing new for quite some time. The devil rejoices, since according to the contract Röckle will soon be his. Röckle, in turn, creates a pair of “time boots” that are supposed to take him to the Lands of Tomorrow and the Day After Tomorrow, much like seven-league boots. He escapes from the devil, who nonetheless blackmails him into returning to his house and takes the boots for himself. But the spell the devil knows does not relate to the destination; it is for bringing the wearer back to his point of origin. So the devil now runs backwards. He does manage to take off the boots and send them back to Röckle. Exasperated, the devil tears up his contract with Hans Röckle. Röckle is already on his way to the next village with his little theater wagon, Luisa, and Jacob, to perform his puppet shows there and, as he puts it, to seek the Lands of Tomorrow and the Day After Tomorrow. The boots eventually catch up with the wagon—confirming that he has won his contest with the devil.