Hurra, die Schule brennt!
(1969)

Country: West Germany

Genre: Comedy, Musical

Synopsis

Gifted schoolteacher Dr. Peter Bach has come to love his easy life in the relaxed village of Tuttelbach, where he lives blissfully with his orphaned cousin Jan. When the school where he teaches burns down as a result of administrator von Schnorr accidentally dropping his cigar into a classroom's waste paper basket, he is forced to start at a different school, where the staff are plagued by the pranks and unruly behavior of the students, led by Pepe. Dr. Bach's easy-going and frank personality soon gains the pupils' genuine sympathy and respect. However Dr. Taft, the disciplinarian head of the school, disapproves of Dr. Bach's approach, and, together with the majority of the teaching staff, he decides to get rid of him as quickly as possible. When Pepe and his friends learn about this, they begin to fight to keep Dr. Bach at their school in a battle of wits which culminates in a school play in which Dr. Bach, Jan and the students present a very liberal re-interpretation of Schiller's 'William Tell'.

Notes

• The film features nine songs, including the immortal "Geh Deinen Weg" ("Follow Your Way") in a scene where Heintje sings whilst taking a shower under a watering can. This scene is available to view on YouTube.
• This film was the fourth in a series of seven school comedy films under the collective title "Die L?mmel von der ersten Bank" ("The Brats from the Front Row"), all of them starring Hansi Kraus and Theo Lingen. The entire collection, including "Hurra, die Schule brennt!", has been issued on a Region 2 DVD set, though without subtitles.