Primanerliebe (1927)

A classic coming-of-age story in the style of the 1920s, with ominous signs and a confrontation with the moral attitudes and methods of upbringing of the time. A desperate student has committed suicide at a school. This has a profound impact on many people connected with the school and on the students’ families. The sensitive Rolf Karsten, ward of a gruff, domineering government building inspector, was a close friend of the dead boy and sees his desperate act as a possible blueprint for himself—a way to escape the confines of his own life and his guardian’s torment. The only thing holding him back is his first love, Ellen Frank, who herself suffers greatly under the relentless severity of her father, the hard-hearted senior teacher Frank, who constantly tries to subdue and break his students. Yet there are also a few adults who stand in contrast to the reactionary, rigid old guard and its ossified ideas about education, such as the understanding school principal, a kind-hearted teacher at a girls’ school, and a gentle judge. One day, Rolf finds himself facing the latter in court: he shot and felled a singer who had attacked him and Ellen, and as a result Rolf was sent to prison. The trial lays bare the misery of adolescence in those years, and the judge is the first to understand how difficult it must be, under such circumstances, to be a young person grappling with all the troubles typical of that age. He ultimately acquits Rolf so as not to ruin his life. At last, even old Karsten and Ellen’s father come to realize that something in their approach to upbringing must change.