Kopf hoch, Johannes! (1941)

The German von Redel family has lived separately for ten years. The mother lives in Argentina with her son Johannes as a German expatriate, while the father is a landed estate owner near Berlin. Johannes, whom everyone in his new home calls Juan, grows up in comfortable circumstances and in his mother’s relaxed way of life. After her sudden death, his aunt Julieta Merck fulfills her sister’s final wish and brings the boy, now 15, back to Germany to live with his father. Johannes once again struggles with his embittered father’s strictness—the same strictness that had led to his parents’ separation—and rejects his new surroundings. He asks his aunt, who is helping his father settle Johannes in, to return to Argentina with him. His resistance reaches a peak after a quarrel with the local children, during which a large stack of straw in a field catches fire. The neighbor boy Wilhelm Panse had wanted revenge for being made a target for a slingshot, but after a brief discussion with his father, Johannes takes the blame, hoping this will get him sent back to Argentina. That same evening, however, Wilhelm tells his father that he and the other boys had only meant to frighten Johannes with a firework, and that the straw caught fire by accident. Father Panse reports this to von Redel and says that, as punishment, his son Wilhelm is not allowed to attend the National Political Educational Institute (NPEA) at Oranienstein. He encourages von Redel to send Johannes there instead. But Johannes also has trouble fitting in at the NPEA. He fails to connect with his fellow cadets and the instructors, and faces expulsion. Only the platoon leader, Dr. Angermann, recognizes his passion for music and believes that, in time, he can bring Johannes closer to the value system of the new National Socialist Germany. First, Johannes is to lead the band, which initially sparks a fresh conflict with his fellow cadets, since he displaces the unmusical senior dormitory student, Vorwerk, as bandmaster. But his self-composed march wins over everyone involved and becomes the institute’s anthem. During a visit from his aunt Julieta and his Argentinian guardian, Don Pedro, who wants to persuade him to return to Argentina, Johannes rejects the suggestion. Gradually, Johannes comes to understand the meaning of true comradeship among young people. This culminates in a moment when he and the senior dormitory student address each other informally in the shower, and Karl offers Johannes the soap. Meanwhile, Wilhelm Panse is also allowed to attend the National Political Educational Institute. During a test of courage in which the boys are supposed to jump into the water from a diving board, Wilhelm backs out. Johannes, who has been watching, explains to the platoon leader that Wilhelm once saw his older brother drown in the village pond. Encouraged by his earlier successes at the NPEA, Johannes wants to surprise the head of the institute by teaching Wilhelm to swim, even though Wilhelm has been explicitly forbidden to go into the water because of his trauma. The swimming lesson gets out of control, and Wilhelm has to be taken to the infirmary because of hallucinations caused by the shock. Johannes’s renewed breach of discipline forces the head of the institute to consider whether he should expel him. In the end, however, Johannes is forgiven because his remorse is clear. His fellow cadets arrange themselves in the institute’s garden so that they spell out the words “CHIN UP / JOHANNES / !” for him. During the institute’s summer maneuvers, Johannes proves himself a military tactician. As a commendation, he is given a knife and allowed to recite the pledge. During the holidays, Johannes and his father finally grow close, as his father is freed from his bitterness with Julieta at his side.