Students made banners, had membership cards, coerced others to join the movement, beat up those who wouldn't conform and voluntarily informed on each other.

When the movie was released the publisher Die Broschüre provided schools with material to help teachers "to prepare the visit to the movie theater“ as well as "reviewing it afterwards“.They hold parties to which only Wave members are invited and ostracise those few students who refuse to join.

Project week in a suburban high school entails them to study various forms of government and restriction. Jürgen Vogel playing the accused and victim of the wrong doing does well and few key students characters support him well. The way the different children reacted and how such a seemingly innocent experiment profoundly affected their lives was incredible and horrifying. If you haven't seen this movie, please don't bother; you can learn much more about the teenager's psyche by reading "Lord of the Flies" and "The Wasp Factory".When a young teacher, Reiner Wenger, decides to teach his students in autocracy, his experiment was to make his somewhat apathetic class to get more involved in a cause and to learn from previous mistakes. In Germany there has always existed the great misunderstanding that politics in the world of cinema were synonymous with boredom,” says Gansel.