The movie first introduces several side plots of different passengers of the tram, who happen to take it on the same time; a black hipster, who takes leave of his (white) pal to drive home with the tram; an old lady with some very outdated and offensive views about foreigners in general; a young businessman whose motorbike has broken down, forcing him to take the tram without a ticket (the real Schwarzfahrer of the story); two white teenage girls, who start flirting with two Turkish teens at the tram station; a (white) mother with a rather hyperactive child who wanted to 'wash his hands' in a (symbolically) dirty black puddle; an man about the same age as the old lady; a (white) punk, who startles some other passengers.
The black guy enters the tram, and sits on a free seat next to an old lady. The old lady, who first chose to ignore him when he asked if he could take the seat in the first place, starts to insult and berate him, berating him on taking the seat 'just like that'.
She proceeds to go into a vociferous tantrum about how his 'mannerisms' are a product of his race. She seems to talk less to the black and more to the passengers who happen to sit around them. The mother and child, for instance, sit across from them.
The old lady complains about that "they all came here in the first place", and "that nobody invited them" (which is not true in the historical sense; foreign workers, including countless Africans, were systematically engaged in post-WW2 Germany). Throughout her ravings, hardly any other passenger reacts to her complaints as they try to ignore her, except another, equally aged passenger, and one of the turkish teens, who tries to shut her up. When she later states that those foreigners are lumpy, lazy, and rude, the (white) punk ironically enters the tram. Some of the guests notice him, the old lady notwithstanding.
She goes on and on about how horrible blacks and others are ("...They should at least have their names changed when they come over here, or else you can't tell them apart at all. What's more, they smell awful. But there is no law against that!").
After a while of that, a conductor gets on to check tickets, much to the displeasure of the fare dodger. But first he passes the old lady and the black man. At this point, the black man, who has tried hard to ignore the old lady, seizes an opportunity; he takes away her tickets and gulps them down. The old lady is hysterical by the time the conductor arrives ("That nigger just ate my tickets") Naturally, he doesn't believe her blatantly racist story ("That's the stupidest excuse I have ever heard!"), and takes her off.
Once again, none of the other passengers, all of whom had been silently listening to her antics, intervenes (except for the little child, who starts grinning). Apart from that, the African's action saved the real fare dodger as well.
