The first 11 minutes of the film, showing people gathered around an old-fashioned Feuerzangenbowle. Heinz Rühmann enters after a few minutes.
Inspired by his own school days and his son’s pranks at school in Düsseldorf, in his first novel Spoerl tells the story of a famous playwright named Johannes (Hans) Pfeiffer going undercover as a pupil at a small town Gymnasium (secondary school) after sitting around a bowl of fire-tongs punch with friends and hearing them tell him that he missed out on the best part of growing up by being privately tutored at home. Intrigued by the idea, Pfeiffer cuts his hair and shaves off his mustache to assume the identity of a high school student at an all-boys school in the sleepy town of Babenberg. The novel is set during the later years of the Weimar Republic (1918-1933) in Germany, and takes its title from the opening fire-tongs punch chapter. Things get complicated when Pfeiffer’s girlfriend Marion learns of his stunt and travels from Berlin to Babenberg in an effort to persuade him to give up his crazy masquerade. Hans by chance meets the lovely young daughter of the school’s headmaster. And the story continues from there, with classic school prank scenes and more.
Besides being a popular hot beverage that warms your body and soul in the chill of winter, Feuerzangenbowle, also known as Krambambuli, is featured at German Christmas markets, and has a long Germanic university student tradition that dates back to the 18th century. This hot winter drink has served as the inspiration for songs, literary works, several films, and even a musical.
Feuerzangenbowle (FOY-er-tsangen-BOH-luh) is a famous German drink that few non-German-speakers have ever heard of. Fire-tongs punch is a seasonal, hard-to-pronounce alcoholic hot beverage, but it’s based on a much better known winter drink called Glühwein (hot mulled wine).
"Krambambuli" or "Der Krambambulist" is a German student song that sings the praises of the eponymous Krambambuli beverage. The version you can listen to here was composed by Christoph Friedrich Wedekind in 1745.
The German author Heinrich Spoerl (1887-1955) published the novel entitled "Die Feuerzangenbowle: Eine Lausbüberei in der Kleinstadt in 1933". The novel was popular and ultimately led to three movies (1934, 1944, 1970), the most famous of which was released in 1944 during the final days of a war the Nazis were on their way to losing. Read the book online at www.archive.org (if you can read German; if not, why not?)
This most famous version was produced by the Ufa Studios (Terra Film division) in Potsdam-Babelsberg near Berlin. Filming began in March 1943, and was extended to take longer than normal by shooting and reshooting scenes to perfection in an attempt to save the younger actors from being drafted into the war. Filming ended in June 1943. By the time the film was released in 1944, the German Wehrmacht had suffered massive casualties and some of the actors had been killed in battle despite these efforts.
In the opening credits, just before the now famous opening Feuerzangenbowle scene, a slightly adapted quotation from the book is displayed: "Dieser Film ist ein Loblied auf die Schule, aber es ist möglich, daß die Schule es nicht merkt." ("This film is in praise of schools, but it is possible that schools may not recognise it as such.")
The film’s setting is a somewhat nebulous "olden days" (early 1900s), evident in the old-fashioned school uniforms and caps that had already disappeared by the time the movie was in production. The clothing and styles in general also evoke an earlier time period. In part this was to avoid comparisons to the Nazi era and any potential political/cultural problems.
Today the 1944 film enjoys cult status in Germany. Since the 1980s, the film has inspired party-like screenings in university auditoriums and open-air cinemas around Christmas and New Year's Eve. For example, the audience will ring alarm clocks whenever an alarm clock rings in the movie and use flashlights to mimic certain scenes. At various times in the past, more than 10,000 students have participated in the Feuerzangenbowle film tradition at the university in Göttingen.
Before I sit down and enjoy a mug or two of Feuerzangenbowle, I should mention that this movie is of special significance to me because Heinz Rühmann was my Patenonkel (godfather) in Stendal in September 1945. It was the aftermath of the war but we were still relatively well-off 'landed gentry' in what would soon after become Soviet-occupied East Germany, and Heinz Rühmann and his wife Hertha Feiler and some of his fellow-actors lived with us in Stendal for a while.
Years later we all ended up as refugees in West Germany where Heinz Rühmann became rich and famous again while we remained poor.
