Professor Unrat

Professor Unrat, oder Das Ende eines Tyrannen (1905, trans. by Ernest Boyd as Small Town Tyrant), which translates as "Professor Garbage", is one of the most important works of Heinrich Mann, and has achieved notoriety through film adaptations, most notably Der blaue Engel with Marlene Dietrich. The book caricatures the middle and upper class educational system of Wilhelmine Germany and the double standards of the title character. In the United States, an abridgment of the English translation was published in 1932 under the title The Blue Angel. The novel starts with a reclusive school teacher in his late 50s. He has alienated his son, and he treats his students as foes. By reading a student's notebook, he discovers the existence of a local dancer and the apparent admiration of his students for her. He confronts her in her dressing room, he accuses her of corrupting the students, and he tries to intimidate her into fleeing the town. She manages to charm him into becoming a submissive lover and husband to her, ruining his career in the process.