Der Biberpelz (The Beaver Coat) is a comedy-drama film directed by Jürgen von Alten, based on Gerhart Hauptmann's 1893 play that satirizes bureaucratic incompetence and social hypocrisy. The story centers on Mother Wolff, a cunning washerwoman who steals a valuable beaver coat to improve her financial situation, while easily outsmarting a pompous, narrow-minded local official, Baron von Wehrhahn, who ignores her crimes to pursue imaginary political agitators.