Lessons of a Dream | |
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German | Der ganz große Traum |
Directed by | Sebastian Grobler |
Screenplay by | Philipp Roth |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Martin Langer |
Edited by | Dirk Grau |
Music by | Ingo Frenzel |
Distributed by | Senator Film Verleih |
Release date |
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Running time | 113 minutes |
Country | Germany |
Language | German |
Budget | €5.5 million [1] |
Lessons of a Dream (German : Der ganz große Traum) is a German drama film directed by Sebastian Grobler, loosely based on the life of late-19th-century football pioneer Konrad Koch. In the film, Koch is one of the first English teachers in the German Empire, in Braunschweig. He introduces his students to the new sport of soccer, completely unknown outside of England at the time, to get them interested in English culture and language. In the film, Koch's liberal teaching methods upset his conservative colleagues, the students' parents, and local dignitaries. [2]
In 1874, fresh Oxford graduate Konrad Koch is hired by headmaster Prof. Gustav Merfeld to teach English at the strictly run German boys school of Braunschweig. Everything the boys know about England and its culture are common prejudices handed down from their teachers and parents. The boys, led by class prefect Felix, habitually bully the diminutive Joost, whose mother is a proletarian, a social class deemed unfit for secondary education.
During an evening event, the chairman of the school board and Felix's father, Richard Hartung, chides Konrad for not raising children using strict Prussian discipline. In order to stir up enthusiasm for English, a subject resented by the students, Konrad, an adherent of Thomas Arnold's educational methods, decides to introduce the boys to football.
All the students except Felix embrace the new sport, and Konrad broadens the boys' vocabulary by incorporating football strategy into his teaching. Camaraderie between the students grows, and a sense of teamwork emerges for the first time, to the dismay of Felix, who is jealous of Joost's newfound recognition. The school board find out about Konrad's unorthodox educational strategy and bans it. Instead, Konrad initiates after-school and weekend practices, so that the boys can continue to play a game they have become fond of.
After they are informed of Konrad's initiative by Felix, the school board takes serious action. Konrad voluntarily resigns, and the students are placed in solitary confinement as punishment. Felix, feeling guilty about his deviousness, launches a plan with his classmates to escalate the matter to a visiting imperial delegation, with the help of the school secretary. The delegation lifts the ban and approves football's inclusion in the school curriculum. The students resume their practices under Konrad's guidance, despite continued opposition from the school board. A match is held between Konrad's students and a young English football team, and the German boys come out victorious, to the cheers of the delegation, teachers, parents, and the public.
The real-life Konrad Koch was a teacher of German, Ancient Greek, and Latin in Braunschweig. He wrote the first German version of the rules of football and organized the arguably first-ever soccer match in Germany in 1874, between pupils of his school, the Martino-Katharineum. [3] [4] However, unlike in the film, Koch's original version of the rules of football, published in 1875, still closely resembled those of rugby football. In addition, Koch was actually a conservative himself and did not get into trouble with the authorities. [5]
Braunschweig or Brunswick is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser. In 2016, it had a population of 250,704.
Bruno Ganz was a Swiss actor whose career in German stage, television and film productions spanned nearly 60 years. He was known for his collaborations with the directors Werner Herzog, Éric Rohmer, Francis Ford Coppola, and Wim Wenders, earning widespread recognition with his roles as Jonathan Zimmerman in The American Friend (1977), Jonathan Harker in Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) and Damiel the Angel in Wings of Desire (1987).
Christine Nöstlinger was an Austrian writer best known for children's books. She received one of two inaugural Astrid Lindgren Memorial Awards from the Swedish Arts Council in 2003, the biggest prize in children's literature, for her career contribution to "children's and young adult literature in the broadest sense." She received the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for "lasting contribution to children's literature" in 1984 and was one of three people through 2012 to win both of these major international awards.
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Theo Trebs is a German actor, best known for his feature film roles as Ferdinand in the World War I period film The White Ribbon (2009), and as Felix in the dramatic soccer film Lessons of a Dream (2011).
The Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was a subdivision of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, whose history was characterised by numerous divisions and reunifications. It had an area of 3,828 square kilometres in the mid 17th century. Various dynastic lines of the House of Welf ruled Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel until the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. As a result of the Congress of Vienna, its successor state, the Duchy of Brunswick, was created in 1815.
The Beggar Student is a 1956 West German musical film directed by Werner Jacobs and starring Gerhard Riedmann, Waltraut Haas and Elma Karlowa. It is based on the operetta Der Bettelstudent by Karl Millöcker, and is part of the operetta film tradition. It was shot at the Bavaria Studios and the Carlton Studios in Munich. The film's sets were designed by the art director Felix Smetana.
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Nicola Beer is a German lawyer and politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2019, and as one of its Vice-Presidents.
Wilhelm Carl Johann Conrad Koch, commonly known as Konrad Koch was a German teacher and football pioneer.
Christian Georg Kohlrausch re-discovered the Discus - see Discus throw. Since the end of the Ancient Olympic Games, the discus was only known from sculpture like the Discobolus and drawings. The exact dimensions (shape), weight and the technique of throwing had not been recorded and handed down.
Schloss Wolfenbüttel is a castle in Wolfenbüttel, Lower Saxony, Germany. An extensive four-wing complex, it originated as a moated castle (Wasserburg). It is the second-largest surviving schloss in Lower Saxony and served as the main residence of the rulers of the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel from 1432 to 1753. It now houses a gymnasium secondary school, the Federal Academy of Arts Education, and a museum with its historic rooms on display. Its immediate vicinity is home to several historically significant buildings including the Herzog August Bibliothek, the Lessinghaus, the Zeughaus, and the Kleines Schloss.
Friedrich Konrad Griepenkerl was a German Germanist, pedagogue, musicologist and conductor.
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