At stake in Haneke's undertaking is nothing less than an elucidation of what it might mean to be German in the modern period. This brings us back to the model character of Haneke's film. While Haneke commented in an early sketch that he did not want to create a treatise (Abhandlung) about the predisposition of the populace toward fascism, it is hard to avoid this impression. Not only do exemplary figures represent their professions and social classes, but foreshortened scenes limit understanding of different personalities and abrogate emotional investment. With the exceptions of the pastor's small son Gustl (Thibault Serie) and the doctor's youngster Rudi (Miljan Chatelain), even the children remain rather schematic. The film comes across as an abstract reflection on the internalization of power, the performance of authority, and the suppression of others in the name of perverted ideals.

In his early synopsis, Haneke describes an “Ordnungssystem”— meaning both a “system of order” and an “ordering system”—underpinning the children's behavior. “I would like to show,” he writes, “a group of young people who, situated in a seemingly secure [festgefügt] system of order, make the principles of this order absolute in their childish idealism; in this way they become the guardians of these ideals and therefore judges over those who fail in front of them, and thus they demonstrate in an exemplary fashion the complete perversion of those very ideals.” A syllogistic logic reigns in this firmly joined world: “He has the power who is instituted as the stronger thanks to (performed) authority [(Spiel-)Autorität]. He who has power must be obeyed. He who does not obey is bad. He who is bad must be punished.” The children in the film operate according to these unquestioned premises and unleash chain reactions (if a, then b). The children witness the performance of authority but also play (spielen) at being authoritative and authoritarian. They inadvertently uphold the system that subordinates them because they do not question the grounds on which it is based. Not only are they unable to distinguish between game and reality, the totalizing nature of the system does not reveal a gap (it is “festgefügt”) where they can assert their autonomy. They perpetuate the corrupted Christian ideals that employ brutality as a deterrent, retrospectively justifying their own punishment in the name of that closed system.