Sheriff Teddy (1957)

Thirteen-year-old Kalle lives in West Berlin, where he is the leader of the Teddy Gang. In his everyday life as “Sheriff Teddy,” he calls the shots and uses tests of courage and strength to stand up even to children who undermine his authority and want to become the gang’s leader themselves. One day, his parents move with him to East Berlin. The gang members tease Kalle, saying that now he will have to submit to the system and wear a neckerchief. In fact, Kalle has a hard time in his new class. He refuses to fit in: on his first day of school, he will not introduce himself, he questions the historical accuracy of teacher Freitag’s account of Frederick the Great’s reign, and his violent streak makes a bad impression on the other children. In the schoolyard, he carries a brass knuckle, intending to put Andreas, his most outspoken critic, in his place. Andreas knocks the weapon from his hand and takes it when a teacher appears. During class, the brass knuckle falls to the floor, and teacher Freitag confronts Andreas. Andreas claims he found it and was going to hand it in anyway. Kalle, however, accuses him of lying, since the brass knuckle belongs to him. Teacher Freitag keeps Kalle behind for a private talk. Later, Kalle and Andreas get into a fight after Kalle has handed out adventure stories in the schoolyard. Teacher Freitag then visits Kalle’s parents and speaks with his father. His father also blames Kalle’s older brother Robbi, who stayed in the Western sector and keeps himself afloat with semi-legal dealings. Later, Kalle’s father forces his son to tear up all the adventure stories. Kalle wants revenge on Andreas and rallies the Teddy Gang. Together, they plan to ambush Andreas in the evening, tie him up, and hide him in a ruin. To humiliate him especially, Kalle suggests cutting off the seat of Andreas’s trousers. The gang agrees, but Andreas is not at home on the evening they plan to take revenge. Kalle, who was supposed to get him out onto the street, is instead invited in for a meal by Andreas’s mother, but leaves in a hurry after a while. The gang members call him a liar, since Kalle had been at Andreas’s long enough to warn him. The gang turns on Kalle, when Andreas suddenly appears. He stands up for Kalle and drives the gang members away. One of the boys does manage to smash the glass in the front door, however. Kalle is angry with Andreas and runs off. The next day, Kalle no longer wants to sit beside Andreas at school. But both boys are bruised from the fight, and this gives them something in common that eventually makes them allies. They start meeting after school and talking about things including bicycles. Andreas is a big fan of bicycle races and has a bike of his own, which only needs a decent speedometer. He had saved up the money for it, but had to spend it instead on replacing the broken glass in the door. Kalle is ashamed, especially since Andreas helps him find parts for his planned “zonal bike.” Kalle wants to buy Andreas a speedometer with his own money, but he does not have enough. So he steals the speedometer on display in the school’s teaching-aids cabinet and gives it to Andreas. The deception is discovered, and Kalle is publicly humiliated in front of the class. At home, his outraged father is waiting for him and cannot believe that his son is a thief. Kalle takes some money and runs away to his brother in West Berlin. A few days earlier, his brother had approached him in the street and offered him work. Now Kalle tries in vain to buy smuggled goods for his brother. His brother sends him away, but then changes his mind. Kalle is to help him and his accomplices break into an East Berlin factory that makes optical equipment. Only Kalle, because of his size, can get inside the building. Andreas overhears the plan and alerts his friends, whom he eventually meets at the factory. They confront Kalle as he is about to break in. Together, they also confront Kalle’s brother and his two accomplices and alert the police. The police arrest Robbi and his accomplices. Andreas speaks up for Kalle, since Kalle knocked down his own brother when he attacked Andreas. A little later, Kalle and Andreas meet again. Andreas has brought the finished bicycle for Kalle, having managed to find the last parts it needed. Kalle proudly takes a ride on his very own bike and is thrilled.