While an anatomy seminar prepares to examine the cadaver of Franz Wozzeck in the name of scientific progress, medical student Büchner excoriates humanity for having allowed Wozzeck’s fate. The tragic story unfolds in flashbacks, as Büchner narrates.
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.
Old Meiseken, a gingerbread baker, has been dead for three years, but his bosses don’t know that. They’ve been paying him his pension all this time, unaware that his former landlords have been cashing the checks. When, one day, the assistant head of the bakery, Tony, pays a visit to Meiseken’s place to get a hold of an old recipe, someone’s got to play the part of Meiseken! The fraud blows up in the landlords’ faces; but in the end, Tony gets the recipe book and even a new bride.
