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Professor Niemeyer (Emil Jannings) is known to his students as "Traumulus," or "The Dreamer," in referring to his easygoing nature. Hoping to cushion his charges from the harsh realities of life, Niemeyer allows them to run roughshod over him, refusing to impose any sort of discipline in his classroom. But when his best student commits suicide after getting mixed up in a local scandal, Niemeyer realizes that he's done a disservice to his boys by letting them get away with murder. Without sacrificing his essential decency or humanity, Niemeyer vows to be a stricter taskmaster from this day forward. Keeping his tendency to overact in check, Emil Jannings delivers one of his best and subtlest performances in this film.