Eine demokratische Gesprächsrunde zu festgelegten Zeiten

The Munich elementary school on Thelottstraße is located in the multicultural district of Hasenbergl. The difficult financial situation many families and the language deficits of most of the children clearly affect the demands on the teachers' work. The film focuses on a fourth grade class and their young teacher, who instituted a 'class council' according to the Freinet pedagogy. The 9- to 11-year-olds are to learn successively to communicate according to democratic rules. Children who yell at each other or fight are to acquire language skills that show them alternative courses of action. The acute problem, presented by Marco, is: "I never want to play dodgeball again!" The teacher's role is demanding and complex. She has to intervene when the argumentation lacks any logic. Nevertheless, she wants to leave as much personal responsibility as possible to the children, so that they learn to take responsibility for their social life. But "what to do?" when her educational beliefs conflict with the decision of the class council? The film tells the story of the sensitivity, effort and also ambivalence with which the "democratic" idea is introduced by the committed teacher into a society of children with very different family and cultural backgrounds.

The short film is part of the episodic film DEUTSCHLAND 09 - 13 KURZE FILME ZUR LAGE DER NATION (Germany ′09 – 13 Short Films About the State of the Nation). The film was inspired by the episodic film DEUTSCHLAND IM HERBST (Germany in Autumn), for which Alexander Kluge brought together twelve German filmmakers in 1977/78 to react to the "German Autumn".