Schloss Einstein is a German Soap Opera for kids and teenagers, about life at the titular boarding school (the Albert-Einstein-Gymnasium, or "Schloss Einstein" for short). The first episode was broadcast in 1998; as of 2024, the show is in its twentyseventh season, making it the longest-running children's series in Germany. From 1998 to 2007, the series was set in the fictional village of Seelitz near Potsdam. After the production company changed, the series was re-located to Erfurt. The stories most commonly feature things like first love, roommate drama, and students struggling with exams and grades.
This show provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Martin isn't very physically abusive, but can be extremely possessive of Oliver.
- Amateur Film-Making Plot: Noah, Julia, Colin and Ava try to shoot a horror film for Colin and Joel's project.
- Amicable Exes: Pawel and Sibel
- Artifact Title: The name Schloss Einstein comes from the fact that the boarding school was originally located in a former castle. This is no longer the case since episode 846.
- Better as Friends: Julia and Colin date for a while in season 25 but quickly find out they're not romantically attracted to each other.
- Big Brother Instinct: Charlotte became very protective of Leon after he was diagnosed with diabetes, much to his dismay.
- Boarding School: The primary setting of the show.
- The Bus Came Back: Heinz Sirius Pasulke, the baby of Paulina and Lucky born in season 12, returns in season 25 as a student.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Heinz Pasulke disappeared from the show without an explanation and his actor died soon after. Also applies to some other major characters whose sudden disappearance from the cast was never explained.
- Circus Brat: The Freytag sisters grew up in their family's circus but had to go to boarding school after their parents ran into financial difficulties and had to close the circus.
- Coming Of Age Queer Romance: Leni and Cäcilia
- Covered in Gunge: Joel gets this from Annika and Nesrin after he accidentally foiled one of their pranks.
- Covered in Mud: Happens to Reena after falling down a slope during the cross country run in episode 999.
- Daddy Didn't Show: Joyce's mother is released from prison on her daughter's birthday and promises to visit her so they can celebrate it together. Joyce waits for hours but her mother doesn't show up.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Petra's parents died in a diving accident during a family vacation. Her brother, who's also her legal guardian, went to prison after the events of season 19.
- Darker and Edgier: When the series moved to Erfurt (Season 11 and on), the average age of the kids increased and the show started dealing with more serious issues more often. The plots that served to provide edutainment about science practically disappeared, and the fact that Schloss Einstein was a sort of natural-science magnet school was downplayed.
- "Dear John" Letter: Liz breaks up with Adrian this way
- Descent into Addiction: Feli starts taking drugs to cope with her parents' divorce and becomes addicted to them.
- Disowned Parent: Joyce after finding out her mother abandoned her on purpose because she cared more about the money from a fraud scheme she was involved in.
- Drama Club: The main theme of season 25.
- Egg Sitting: With a baby doll that made crying noises in the middle of the night and had an electronic scoring system.
- Eloquent in My Native Tongue: Mary invokes this as a form of Obfuscating Stupidity, telling Coco that she didn't mean to say something mean about Magda – she just mistranslated an English idiom into German! Coco sees through it, though.
- Ensemble Cast: Of around 17 to 20 main characters per season.
- Enter Stage Window: Noah after secretly sneaking out to take care of his dog Freddy in episode 1031.
- From Roommates to Romance: All three gay romance storylines so far (Karla and Marie Luise, Leni and Cäcilia, and Noah and Colin) started out this way.
- Gym Class Rope Climb: Not a literal climbing rope, but the gymnastics exercise on the bar is the moral equivalent of this for Magda.
- High-School Sweethearts: In season 24 it is revealed that Pippi and David have since gotten married.
- Hot for Teacher: Antje (season 1), Franziska (season 6), Mia (season 11), Hubertus (season 16), Lotta (season 18) and Viktor (season 23) each suffer from this at one point.
- Internet Safety Aesop: Daphne meets up with someone she met on the Internet and gets kidnapped.
- Introductory Opening Credits: Except for season 17 and 18
- "L" Is for "Dyslexia": Tim and Finja
- Long-Distance Relationship: Reena and Gustav after Gustav decides to go to a dancing school between season 25 and 26.
- Long-Lost Relative:
- Phillip and Berti are half-siblings.
- Serena and Miriam are fraternal twins.
- Julia Schnabel finds out that her late father had an affair and she has a half-brother called Aaron Zuckmayer.
- Long-Runners: On air since 1998 and the longest-running fictional children's television series with child actors.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Lara Zöllner pretends to be a journalist who wants to write an article about Roxy but later reveals that she is her biological mother.
- Luke, You Are My Father:
- Pascal Merten attends the school under a fake name to meet his father Dr. Stollberg.
- Tatjana Jonas was adopted as a child and wants to get revenge on her biological mother Dr. Steiner.
- Anton Busch cheats to get a scholarship to attend the school to meet his father Sascha Hauser who has no idea he has a son.
- Love Triangle: A very common trope on the show.
- Season 8: Leon/Tessa/Valentin and Lars/Sue/David
- Season 9: Kai/Konny/Anton
- Season 10: Konny/Anton/Marie-Sophie, Konny/René/Sue and Billi/Lukas/Verena
- Season 11: Coco/Manuel/Layla
- Season 12: Karla/Marie Luise/Freddy Lennox
- Season 14: Ronja/Justus/Bruno
- Season 15: Bella/Sándor/Jo
- Season 16: Tobias/Liz/Adrian
- Season 17: Hubertus/Constanze/Tommy
- Season 21: Olivia/Lennard/Paul
- Season 23: Kasimir/Martha/Till
- Season 24: Rosa/Bela/Anton
- Make Up or Break Up: Reena and Gustav have to decide if they want to continue their long-distance relationship in season 26.
- Middle Name Basis: Heinz Sirius Pasulke goes by his middle name once he returns as a student in season 25.
- Military School: Sándor is briefly threatened with one.
- Missed the Bus:
- Pit misses the bus to the new boarding school in the first episode of season 22.
- Chiara and Ms Stocker miss the bus to the forest in episode 981.
- Mistaken for Murderer: Joel believes Noah is up to no good at the start of season 26 because he keeps sneaking out at night and Joel found a bone and a shoe in the woods after following Noah.
- Mistaken for Romance: Massuda believes Julia and Colin are a couple when she first meets them.
- Moment Killer: Noah and Colin sitting in their room, exchanging a Longing Look but then Joel knocks on the door.
- "Near and Dear" Baby Naming: Heinz Sirius was named after his great-uncle Heinz Pasulke who his mother lived with.
- Odd Name Out: Leni Freytag is the only member of her family whose name doesn't start with an F.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. While no characters with the same name appeared at the same time, old names are regularly reused, like Annika (Schubert, Schneeberger and Barry) or Julia (Popke, Schnabel and Sponer).
- Passed-Over Promotion: After Dr. Berger's promotion, vice principal Dr. Zech thinks he's going to be the new principal. Instead it's new hire Jong Hi Chung.
- The Prankster: Hermann & Jona and Nesrin & Annika.
- Pre-Meeting: Chui's disastrous first encounter with Herr Berger.
- Previously on…: From episode 2 to episode 792 when the show aired once a week instead of five days a week.
- Put on a Bus: How the show deals with an actor leaving. Usually ends up being a Long Bus Trip.
- Put on a Prison Bus: Ole after he set fire to the boarding school building.
- Rearrange the Song: From season 20 onwards, the theme song was rearranged from rock to electronic and sung by a female singer instead of a male singer.
- Retcon: Episode 876 shows the students moving into the new boarding school building in August 2015. Episode 900 states the move took place in September 2016, meaning that all episodes are set Next Sunday A.D., one school year later than their airdate rather than in the same school year as previously established.
- School Newspaper News Hound: Nino. Also, most of the staff of Kurz und Kleinstein in earlier seasons.
- Secret Pet Plot: Noah secretly brought his dog with him because his parents were going to give it to the shelter.
- Secret Relationship: Hubertus and Pippi
- Separated at Birth: Serena and Miriam are fraternal twins who were separated when their parents divorced.
- The Show Must Go On: Lilly replacing Alex in the School Play, Die Räuber.
- Significant Anagram: Remo Vage is an anagram of Game Over
- Sneaking Out at Night: Noah sneaks out at night to take care of his dog Freddy.
- Soft Reboot: After episode 480, the production company changed and the setting of the series was changed to the Albert-Einstein-Gymnasium in Erfurt. In-Universe, this was explained with Heinz Pasulke getting a call from his sister, telling him to move to Erfurt to take care of his niece Paulina. He, Mark Lachmann and Michael Berger are the only characters who appeared in both Seelitz and Erfurt.
- Spoiler Opening: Ronja can't have left Schloss Einstein for good – she's in the title sequence!
- Stern Teacher: Dr Zech
- The Stoic: Oliver's father, Martin, who is a typical carefree manly dad.
- Students' Secret Society: The Geheimer Zirkel (Secret Circle) in season 20.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Hubertus
- The Teaser: Replaced the Previously on… segments after episode 792 when the show went from airing weekly with 52 episodes per year to airing five days a week with 26 episodes per year.
- Teen Pregnancy: Happens to Paulina in season 12. Subverted with Franziska in season 8 whose pregnancy turned out to be a false alarm.
- The Unreveal: The students speculate who the father of Miss Bräuning's twins is, but it's only revealed that it's not Alexander Fischer or Heinz Pasulke.
- With a Foot on the Bus: Friedrich was supposed to go on a boarding school for soccer players but got off the bus to stay at Schloss Einstein.
- Young Entrepreneur: Joel owns a fennel juice start-up and later founds a pranks-on-demand startup with Nesrin and Annika.
