Professor Unrat

Professor Unrat (1905, trans. by Ernest Boyd as Small Town Tyrant), which translates as "Professor Garbage," is one of the most important works of Heinrich Mann and has achieved notoriety through film adaptations, most notably Der blaue Engel with Marlene Dietrich. The book caricatures the middle and upper class educational system of Wilhelmine Germany and the double standards of the title character. In the United States, an abridgment of the English translation was published in 1932 under the title The Blue Angel.

Plot summary

The protagonist is Raat, a 57-year-old reclusive, widowed school teacher who is estranged from his son because of the son's academic laxity and scandalous trysts with women. Even though everyone around is either a former student of his or a descendant thereof, Raat is not held in high regard by his students. He takes the nickname "Unrat" (literally meaning garbage) to be a personal affront, and treats every school-day as a battle against his foes, the students, and uses impossible assignments as his means of achieving victory.