6 h 39 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 6 h 39 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when a man who lives to punish others steps into a world he cannot control?
In Heinrich Mann’s Professor Filth, Professor Raat rules his classroom through discipline and fear. His pupils answer with a cruel nickname: Unrat, meaning rubbish or filth. When he suspects that Lohmann and other boys lead a secret life beyond school, he sets out to catch them.
His search takes him through dark streets to the Blue Angel tavern, where Rosa Fröhlich sings. Practical and good natured, she treats the lonely teacher kindly. As his need for control gives way to obsession, Mann exposes a small town that rewards cruelty while fiercely guarding its respectable name.
What you’ll discover
- A classroom at war Meet a teacher who turns lessons into a daily struggle to catch and punish his pupils.
- Beyond the school gates Follow Raat into the tavern world that draws his pupils away from his authority.
- Kindness unsettles the tyrant Discover Rosa Fröhlich, whose practical warmth disrupts a life built on rules and punishment.
- Respectability under scrutiny See how a town condemns scandal while allowing a schoolmaster to misuse his power.
- Laughter with a sting Enjoy Mann’s cool irony as he neither excuses Raat nor simply dismisses him with hatred.
Who will love it
For readers who love satire, sharp character studies and stories about power and hypocrisy in a small community.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A tyrant teacher fights a daily war
- The boys follow a singer to the Blue Angel
- The hunter becomes the captive
- A scandal opens the way to revenge
- The book is about power and hypocrisy
- Grotesque comedy and a famous afterlife
Who’s who
- Professor RaatA stern, lonely schoolmaster nicknamed Unrat by his pupils, who lives for discipline and punishment and is determined to catch his students out.
- Rosa FröhlichA cabaret singer at the Blue Angel tavern, practical and good natured, who wants comfort and security and treats the professor kindly.
- LohmannA clever, confident senior pupil and one of the boys Raat most wants to punish, drawn to the world of the tavern.
- KieselackA sly, rebellious pupil in Raat's class, always ready to mock the teacher and to slip away to the singer's stage.
- Von ErtzumAn aristocratic schoolboy among the group Raat watches, proud and carefree and fond of the Blue Angel.
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- Audiobook
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- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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Le Professeur Unrat
by Heinrich Mann · 1905
A feared schoolmaster enters the Blue Angel to catch his pupils, but a cabaret singer unsettles his life of control.
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In short
Professor Filth is a short German novel by Heinrich Mann, first published in 1905 under the title Professor Unrat. Unrat is a German word for rubbish or filth, and it is a cruel nickname that the pupils of a town school have bent out of the teacher's real name, Raat.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A tyrant teacher fights a daily war
The story opens in a gymnasium, a German secondary school, in a small northern town. Professor Raat teaches the senior classes. Everyone calls him Unrat behind his back, and he knows it. He has spent many years trying to find out who gave him the name and to make every pupil pay for it.
Raat is an old widower with a stiff body and a thin, sour face. He lives alone and has no friends worth the name. His one real passion is hatred, and it gives his days a strange order. He sees each class as an enemy army, and he sees himself as the one man who guards discipline against a mob of lazy, sneering boys.
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What is Professor Filth about?
It is about a tyrannical schoolmaster, nicknamed Unrat by his pupils, who goes to a tavern to catch his students and falls under the spell of a cabaret singer. The story follows his fall and his revenge on the town.
Why is the professor called Unrat?
Unrat is German for rubbish or filth. The pupils bend the teacher's real name, Raat, into this insult. In English the book is called Professor Filth, and sometimes Small Town Tyrant.
Is Professor Filth the same as The Blue Angel?
The 1930 film The Blue Angel is based on this novel, with Marlene Dietrich as the singer. The film changes the teacher's name and softens the story, while the book is more satirical and political.
The author
Heinrich Mann
1871–1950 · German novelist
Heinrich Mann was a German writer born in Lübeck in 1871. He wrote novels and essays, including Professor Unrat (1905) and Der Untertan (1918). He left Germany in 1933 and lived in France before moving to the United States in 1940. He died in Santa Monica, California, in 1950.
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