History Film / RosenFuerDenStaatsanwalt

* BasedOnAtrueStory & HilariousInHindsight: Scandals like these happened all the time back in the fifties, sixties, and even the seventies (particularly one that involved the head-teacher Ludwig Zind); not least due to the strong solidarity among high-ranking ex-Nazis and the simply startling amount of people who were, in one way or another, Nazi perpetrators, and avoided punishment by the allied forces in the late 1940s. Many people also fled Germany and got sentenced in absentia, just like that friend Schramm helped to flee the country for antisemetic remarks.

* DesignatedLoveInterest: There is a romance in plot in there, somewhere. It's not really given much focus, nor is it very important. It was mainly included to make the movie's rather crude main theme more digestable to the audiences of the time.

It's Dr Schramm, the man who had sentenced him to death back in 1945. He had evaded the de-nazification process after the war by lying about his role as a [[PoliticalOfficer military judge]], and has risen in the meantime to the highly-esteemed profession of chief prosecutor at the city court.
However, Schramm himself is still every inch the Nazi he was in the war, living off the fortune and the reputation garnered in WW2, helping fellow ex-Nazis and antisemites evade or escape prosecution, leading his family and household with a fascist fist, reading the ''Soldatenzeitung'' (the newspaper for those disconcerted with the fall of the Third Reich), calling foreign music "nigger music", and generally raving about the 'good old times'.

''Rosen für den Staatsanwalt'', ''Roses For The Prosecutor'' in English, is a 1959 German BlackComedy. It's set in post-war Germany, during the period when former Nazi party members and collaborators got reformed reinstitutionalised as civil servants in the young [[WestGermany German Federal Republic]]. It's one of the more German controversial satires of its time period commenting on just how often and easily Nazis, many of them war criminals and entirely unrepentant, got off the hook during the de-nazification process and got new government posts with a clean register.

[[spoiler: Rudi is close to giving up on Schramm, and thinks about leaving town. Then he walks by a sweets shop window, and sees ''Scho-ka-kola'' on offer. In a fit of rage, he smashes the window and takes two tins. Then he lets himself get arrested for theft and tried at the court where Schramm is working. The latter, scared that the peddler may give everything away in the courtroom, breaks into the evidence room and destroys Rudi's death warrant.]]

[[spoiler:In order to appease (and bribe) the peddler, Schramm himself decides to preside over the charges in the case, and clumsily downplays Rudi's intent of stealing the chocolate. During the cross-examination, he gets so nervous and wound-up in Rudi and the secret he's been keeping so far that he drifts off and receives a FlashBack of the military trial. When he is asked by the judge to propose an appropriate sentence, [[FreudianSlip he flounders and sentences Rudi to death...]] [[{{Irony}} again]].]]

[[spoiler:[[AccidentalPublicConfession Now that he himself has let the cat out of the bag]], [[HilarityEnsues Rudi breaks down in hysterical laughter, and the three acquaintances turn up to confirm the prosecutor's guilt. Schramm panics and storms out of the courtroom, discarding his robe on the steps of the building]].]]

[[spoiler:The entire affair is widely publicised ("Another Judiciary Scandal!"), Schramm is tried for his crimes and Rudi settles down with his girlfriend.]]

* BasedOnAtrueStory & HilariousInHindsight: Scandals like these happened all the time back in the fifties, sixties, and even the seventies (particularly that involving the head-teacher Ludwig Zind); not least due to the strong solidarity among high-ranking ex-Nazis and the simply startling amount of people who were, in one way or another, Nazi perpetrators, and avoided punishment by the allied forces in the late 1940s. Many people also fled Germany and got sentenced in absentia, just like that friend Schramm helped to flee the country for antisemetic remarks.
* CoolPeopleRebelAgainstAuthority: Schramm's elder (and adopted) son is a big Rock'n'Roll fan and thinks of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Schmeling Max Schmeling]] as one of the great figures of history. He also despises his father for what he implied to have done in the war.

* RebelliousTeenager: Schramm's elder (and adopted) son is a big Rock'n'Roll fan and thinks of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Schmeling Max Schmeling]] as one of the great figures of history. He also despises his father for what he did in the war.

* DesignatedLoveInterest: There is a romance in plot in there, somewhere. It's not really given much focus, nor is it very important. It was mainly included to mke the movie's rather crude main theme more digestable to the audiences of the time.

* DeadpanSnarker: Rudi himself gets a great deal, as he reacts surprisingly cynically to many of his misfortunes. For instance, in the beginning of the film, he snarks about how they took away his belt after they threw him in confinement, probably so he couldn't hang himself, but left him a clothesline nevertheless.

--> '''Schramm:''' A lot has to happen for something to happen to a prosecutor. *JumpCut to Rudi coming into town*

* LeitMotif: Schramm plays ''Entry Of The Gladiators'' by Julius Fucik (better known as [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B0CyOAO8y0 that Circus march]]) on the radio on the way to Rudi’s execution because he is bored, [EstablishingCharacterMoment just to show what a remorseless arsehole he actually is]]. This tune later comes back to haunt him, Rudi and the audience in many different variations. Also serves to point out just how [[RefugeInAudacity audacious]] his behaviour and his situation actually is.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Buy chocolate via questionable means --> get shot by firing squad. Sadly TruthInTelevision; death sentences were passed for lesser reasons in the Third Reich's final stages.

* LeitMotif: Schramm plays ''Entry Of The Gladiators'' by Julius Fucik (better known as [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B0CyOAO8y0 that Circus march]]) on the radio on the way to Rudi’s execution because he is bored, just to show what a remorseless arsehole he actually is. This tune later comes back to haunt him, Rudi and the audience in many different variations. Also serves to point out just how [[RefugeInAudacity audacious]] his behaviour and his situation actually is.

* LeitMotif: Schramm plays ''Entry Of The Gladiators'' by Julius Fucik (better known as [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B0CyOAO8y0 that Circus march]]) on a grammophone on the way to Rudi’s execution because he is bored, just to show what a remorseless arsehole he actually is. This tune later comes back to haunt him, Rudi and the audience in many different variations. Also serves to point out just how [[RefugeInAudacity audacious]] his behaviour and his situation actually is.

* ForWantOfANail: Schramm's "It's not about the chocolate!" rhetoric. As a matter of fact, it's about the integrity of the Reich's fighting forces and the defence of the homeland.

* TheGreaterGood: Schramm's "It's not about the chocolate!" rhetoric. As a matter of fact, it's about the integrity of the Reich's fighting forces and the defence of the homeland.

The [[NazisWithGnarlyWeapons Wehrmacht soldier]] Rudi Kleinschmidt is having a bad day. It's the final days of WW2, but because he has bought two tins of ''Scho-ka-kola'' (military-issued cola chocolate) off some black marketeers, he is put in front of a military tribunal, which is presided over by the rabidly Nazi military judge Dr Schramm. Because the judge considers him to be a traitor for tampering with army rationing, [[DisproportionateRetribution he immediately sentences him to death by firing squad]].

[[caption-width-right:150:Pictured: Irony.]]

[[caption-width-right:300:Pictured: Irony.]]

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/51PW2M505NL__SL500_AA300__1437.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:]]

Fourteen years later, Rudi struggles in post-war Germany by working as a poverty-stricken peddler, selling magic card games and ties. He hitches a ride to Hamburg, but gets off earlier on the way, deciding to stay in a particular town for a while to meet an old girlfriend of his who works as a landlady. During one of his street sales, he noticed a particularly familiar man standing in the onlooking crowd.

It's Dr Schramm, the man who had sentenced him to death back in 1945. He had evaded the de-nazification process after the war by lying about his role as a [[PoliticalOfficer military judge]], and has risen in the meantime to the highly-esteemed profession of chief prosecutor at the city court.

* ThoseWackyNazis: Schramm himself is a very obvious expy of not only many TWN stereotypes, but also for a bunch of real-life ex-Nazis; devotedly fascist, tight-assed, bureaucratic, smug, sleazy, ignorant, and, last but not least, cowardly.

[[spoiler: Rudi is close to giving up on Schramm, and thinks about leaving town. Then he walks by a sweets shop window, and sees ''Scho-ka-kola'' on offer. In a fit of rage, he smashes the window and takes two tins. Then he lets himself get arrested for theft and tried at the court where Schramm is working. The latter, scared that the peddler may give everything away in the courtroom, breaks into the evidence room and destroys Rudi's death warrant.]]

[[spoiler:In order to appease (and bribe) the peddler, Schramm himself decides to preside over the charges in the case, and clumsily downplays Rudi's intent of stealing the chocolate. During the cross-examination, he gets so nervous and wound-up in Rudi and the secret he's been keeping so far that he drifts off and receives a FlashBack of the military trial. When he is asked by the judge to propose an appropriate sentence, [[FreudianSlip he flounders and sentences Rudi to death...]] [[{{Irony}} again]].]]

[[spoiler:[[AccidentalPublicConfession Now that he himself has let the cat out of the bag]], [[HilarityEnsues Rudi breaks down in hysterical laughter, and the three acquaintances turn up to confirm the prosecutor's guilt. Schramm panics and storms out of the courtroom, discarding his robe on the steps of the building]].]]

[[spoiler:The entire affair is widely publicised ("Another Judiciary Scandal!"), Schramm is tried for his crimes and Rudi settles down with his girlfriend.]]