Kehraus (1983)

On Shrove Monday, forklift driver Ferdinand Weitel is talked into taking out several largely unnecessary insurance policies by insurance agent Arno von Mehling, who has called on him at home. As soon as the agent leaves, Weitel comes to his senses: the premiums would cost him almost half his take-home pay. He calls the insurance company and learns from employee Annerose Waguscheit that, to cancel one or another of the contracts, he would have to come in person to the “6th floor” on a Tuesday or Thursday. But that Tuesday is Shrove Tuesday, and none of the employees has work on their minds. Mr. von Mehling, who is completely broke, does not want to lose his commissions, so he tries to avoid Weitel. No one on the 6th floor knows that the board has been watching the employees through surveillance cameras for some time and plans to dismiss quite a few of them to cut costs, since a number of employees are performing below the required level. By chance, Mr. Weitel—who has been sent “up to the 13th floor” to see the board as a joke by Mr. Deutelmoser—manages to get through the door secured by key cards and into the boardroom. There, while searching for Mr. von Mehling, he accidentally stumbles into a board meeting. The board members, coolly calculating, are watching black-and-white footage from the surveillance cameras on a screen. A security guard then escorts Ferdinand Weitel out of the executive offices. Weitel turns up again in Ms. Waguscheit’s office, visibly annoyed because he suspects von Mehling is hiding from him. From what Ferdinand Weitel has seen, Ms. Waguscheit is able to work out that there is a concealed camera in the office and where it is: they disable it with a half-eaten carnival doughnut. Out of sympathy, Ms. Waguscheit tells Mr. Weitel as she leaves that he can find von Mehling at a carnival ball that evening. But which one? A few hours later, another insurance agent, Rösner, who is every bit as pitiably unsuccessful, calls at Weitel’s apartment building. At least he tells Weitel that the ball is called “Dream Policy.” Without a ticket, Weitel is about to be turned away when he meets Ms. Waguscheit at the entrance. She promptly passes him off as “her husband, Personnel Director Dr. Berzelmeier,” who is “on the list,” and so he gets in after all. After a good deal of back and forth, the employees of the “6th floor,” together with Mr. Weitel, come face to face with the board, which is celebrating exuberantly and casually informs the employees that they have all been fired for “chronic lack of performance.” The employees are all shocked. Mr. von Mehling suffers a heart attack; Wandrey, an employee dressed as Zorro who has by now struck the audience as an eccentric with a penchant for Wehrmacht memorabilia, loses control and fires a live gun indiscriminately, causing the chandelier to fall. The guests flee the room in panic, bringing the event to an abrupt end. Ferdinand Weitel and Annerose Waguscheit discover that they are attracted to each other, and “Rosi,” instead of going to her mother’s, finally takes the tram home with “Ferdl,” to his place. She promises to make the paperwork for the insurance contracts he signed disappear the next day.