Wir Wunderkinder is a 1958 West German comedy film directed by Kurt Hoffmann and starring Hansjörg Felmy and Robert Graf.

The film recounts the lives of two schoolmates, Hans Boeckel and Bruno Tiches from the fictional town of Neustadt an der Nitze, against the backdrop of German history in the first half of the 20th century.

Through their presentation and discussion of events in the film these two provide a running commentary on political and social issues between the acts of the movie and link them together with explanations and songs.

On the anniversary of the Völkerschlacht in 1913, the two boys, Hans and Bruno, rush a balloon that is supposed to travel to Leipzig and carry a laurel wreath to Emperor William II.

This marks a trend for the future: While hard-working Hans has to work struggle for everything in life, carefree Bruno is lucky and seems to succeed without even trying.

Bruno calls on him and asks for some food and money, having quit his job as a "slave of the Jewish capital" to join up with the Bewegung of Adolf Hitler.

Hans promises to talk to Bruno, who is now in a position of authority in the party and lives in a large house confiscated from a Jewish doctor.

The lot of the Boeckel family only improves when Siegfried Stein, now a member of the occupation forces, gets Hans a job at a newspaper in Munich.

At Bruno's funeral, the attending political and economic leaders are shown to have previously been involved with the Nazi party as well, and while they vow to "continue onwards in his spirit", the film closes with a zoom on the letters ENDE of graveyard inscription, "Wir mahnen die Lebenden" ("We admonish the living/the survivors").

The Verband der Deutschen Filmkritik (Association of German Film Critics) awarded its prize for Best Actress to Johanna von Koczian for her role in this movie.

[1] More recently, Wir Wunderkinder was selected by academics and critics as one of the "Most Important German Movies", for which a total of 132 films from the period 1895 to 2008 have been chosen.