Jürgen von Alten

After 50 years of service, the district usher Johann Peter Neusigl is supposed to get awarded a Royal-Bavarian medal of merit. Since government director Steinbeißl has announced that he wants to witness the awarding ceremony in person, district magistrate Kranzeder decided to splash out. He organises, with his wife Amalie, a banquet in their parlour, although both of them rather begrudge Neusigl the award. But after all, it is necessary to cut a good figure for the dignitaries. As the government director arrives, after a few incidents during his journey, belated, the event, however, has already degenerated into a boozy carousal which culminates in a scuffle.

Eine Ziege hatte sieben junge Geißlein, die sie liebte, wie eine Mutter ihre Kinder nur lieben kann. Als sie eines Tages ein paar Besorgungen zu machen hatte, mussten die Kleinen ihr fest versprechen, niemandem die Tür zu öffnen. Kaum war die Mutter aus dem Haus, klopfte auch schon der böse Wolf. Doch die klugen sieben Geißlein ließen ihn nicht herein, wie ihre Mutter es ihnen aufgetragen hatte. Aber so leicht gab der Wolf nicht auf und heckte sogleich einen schlauen Plan aus, mit dem er die Geißlein überlisten und in das Haus eindringen wollte.

Once upon a time, there had been a tailor who send his three sons out into the world, so that they might find fortune and learn something proper. The oldest went to a carpenter and was gifted a small table at the end of his apprenticeship. It set itself with all kinds of delicacies when ordered to. When he visits a hostelry, however, he gets cheated from the table by the innkeeper. The second son became the apprentice to a miller and received a donkey as a parting gift which could spew gold. But he as well got cheated out of the wages of his apprenticeship by the criminal innkeeper. The third son received from his lathe worker master conveniently a club as a parting gift. Spontaneously, he helps his brothers to their right and the thievish innkeeper experiences a bad surprise.

On account of a bet, the painter Menzinger and his friend Schratt decide to travel the country as unemployed bums (no doubt, because there were so few unemployed and homeless people in Germany just a few years earlier). For two weeks, they wander around Germany; then they're confused with some robbers and they land in jail. How does it feel to imitate the homeless now, guys?

The beautiful Evelyne Schratt, who has many admirerers, and whose two husbands both died under mysterious circumstances, is giving a reception. When one of her admirers is found stabbed to death in a room upstairs, the police detains everyone in the house and begins an interrogation (oh goody: does dinner come with this mystery theatre, too?). Evelyne admits, that the murdered man tried to blackmail about some information he had about the death of the two husbands.

In a district of a small, German principality, things are going haywire. And this, even though Baron von Wehrhahn, who is loyal to the prince, does everything possible to make “his Highness” popular. The only problem is, he’s always using his zeal on the wrong crowd. He always seems to see free-thinkers or revolutionaries in the harmless of citizens; but the really bad ones get to go on their way unmolested! For example, the old woman Wolff: she steals everything that isn’t nailed down, while her husband pursues unhampered poaching.

Renate Hubricht finds her uncle, the money broker Theodor Hubricht, murdered in his villa. That very night, the banker Lorik is arrested, who was last seen in Hubricht’s house. Renate, who doesn’t wish to live alone in the eerie estate lodges with the lawyer Dr. Birk. She doesn’t tell him, that her lover, the musician Robert Wendland, had an argument with her uncle on the evening of the murder. When Lorik is sentenced to 10 years prison, Renate is thrown into a quandary. She believes she’s protecting the real culprit with her silence.