Eckhard Theophil

Max and Moritz are two young brothers living an adventurous life of petty crime in Hamburg, Germany. After the two boys steal a car and get into an accident, with the adolescent daughter of a Hamburg Senator sitting in the passenger seat, the two scoundrels are packed up and sent to a boot camp. This military-style camp is run by Axel and Henry, two former East German soldiers who still strongly believe in Communism but are secretly gay lovers. Max and Moritz steal another car...a red Ferrari owned by small-town pimp Murder-Hanne. The nationalistic sadist teaches the boys a painful lesson, but Max and Moritz wouldn’t be Max and Moritz if they let this weekend-fascist get them down... and when they acquire the key to their military school’s ordinance depot, things start to change.

The second film begins in early April with Tarkan's return. He wanted to go back to Hamburg with the stolen 800 marks. The next night, Christian is gone. The group travels on to Lisbon to start investigating Christian's whereabouts. At the same time, school starts again. Christian has once again been caught by the police stealing a car. Three days later, he is back with the group. An educational attempt at clarification begins: Why did he run away? Why did he steal? Why the cars?

Christian's participation in this trip was only made possible through close cooperation between his probation officer, the public prosecutor, and the educators at the Johannes Petersen Home. It was conceived and implemented as a last attempt to influence his socially disadvantaged circumstances. Christian is only allowed to be picked up from the Hamburg remand prison immediately before departure. After two months, Christian is back in prison, this time in Portugal. For stealing radios and wristwatches. "Scandal! Bizarre therapy for difficult youths. Seven months of dream travel at the taxpayer's expense!" reads the newspaper. Bauer Publishing sends two reporters to southern Portugal. A clash ensues. The decision not to punish "criminal" children is the target of attacks by right-wing politicians and their press. The Youth Welfare Office considers discontinuing the project. But this is no time for self-pity – the group continues its work.

Experiential education is centuries old and remains controversial to this day. When two social educators from the Johannes Petersen Home in Hamburg and a teacher traveled to southern Portugal in March 1984 with "criminally conspicuous" children and adolescents, it was a unique educational experiment for the Federal Republic of Germany at the time. The boys were to live together in tents for three months, learning and improving their social behavior.