Immer Ärger mit den Paukern (1968)

Student Peter Hartung is persuaded by his friend Hans Werner to attend school in his place for several weeks. Werner has already failed his final year twice and is far more interested in writing an important report. Once it has been successfully published, even his father, the consul, will no longer be able to oppose his ambitions. Peter, whose younger brother Paul also attends the boarding school, agrees to swap places after meeting the beautiful Christa at a guesthouse; she is on her way to the school. What Peter doesn’t know is that Christa is a member of the school staff and is engaged to senior teacher Dr. Berger. They have had a quarrel and broken up because of his passion for fishing. The start of the school year does not go as planned. Paul has secretly sent the entire staff a telegram saying that, because of construction work, school will not start until a few days later. So on the first day, only Dr. Berger turns up; absorbed in fishing, he has ignored all his mail. He and Headmaster Schwabmann now divide up all the classes, but Paul and his friends repeatedly thwart their efforts. They target Schwabmann, who is fond of animals and children, less than they target Miss von Ebendorf, whom Schwabmann is persistently courting. They dye her tomatoes and put pickles in her honey jars. Meanwhile, Dr. Berger makes life difficult for Peter. He has seen Peter dancing with Christa and, after looking at Hans Werner’s report cards, is convinced that Peter is a failure. When Dr. Berger overhears Peter and Paul talking, and Paul calls his brother by his real name, Dr. Berger promptly puts Peter under house arrest, knowing that Hans Werner’s father, the consul, is expected to arrive in the next few days. Peter and Paul get back at Dr. Berger by installing a microphone in a mailbox and making him think Peter is hiding inside it. But before the police can take Dr. Berger, who is babbling incoherently, to a mental institution, Christa clears things up. She had seen Paul with the listening device, and now tells Peter that she is engaged to Dr. Berger. She suspects that Peter isn’t actually in love with her either, but with the cheeky Dagmar, who once made him give her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Peter’s identity remains a secret, since the consul has already been let in on everything by Hans Werner and now greets Peter as his son—a further instance of Dr. Berger ending up looking like a liar. Paul is satisfied too: in one last prank, he and a friend flood the boarding school’s assembly hall and hang tin cans from Peter’s car.