Das Schilfrohr

Shortly before the end of WWII: While he is fighting at the Eastern front, private Werner Holt looks back on his still young life – especially his long-time friendship with former classmate Gilbert Wolzow, who is now Werner′s commanding officer. Both men used to be fanatic Nazi followers, but since Holt witnessed a massacre conducted by SS troops and the execution of a friend, he has begun to question the regime. He saves a Slovakian woman who is to be executed, and finally openly opposes Wolzow.

Post-war Germany: Like so many other women, Gerda Krause has lost her husband during the war and has to fend for herself and her two children. She finds work as a seamstress but refuses the offering of her department chief Zimmermann to upgrade her qualifications. One day she meets Uschi, an old friend of hers, whom she has helped with schoolwork before the war and subsequently lost track of. The reunion reminds Gerda of her childhood dream: to become a teacher. Thus, she decides to enroll at university to make her dream come true.

In this German drama, Brock (Albert Hetterle), a railroad inspector, witnesses a robbery at a train depot. He recognizes the thief, but turning the man in would mean acknowledging he knows him, thus revealing his own complicity with the Nazi war machine. When Brock's daughter (Annekathrin Bürger) and her boyfriend (Horst Jonischkan) begin to question him about the incident, will the secret he's kept for nearly 20 years finally be exposed?

The film consists of four episodes that, when seen together, serve as a contemporary document for the post-war period of 1945 until the end of the 1960s.

A depiction of class conflicts in Germany between 1918 and 1945. The Spartacist Erwin is shot by officers in 1918, and his pregant working-class bride Marie begins a new relationship with social democrat Geschke. Erwin's son Hans grows up to be a communist like his father, leading to bitter hatred between him and his Nazi step-brother, while Geschke becomes increasingly resigned to the political situation in Germany. The three aristocratic officers who shot Erwin many years ago meet again during the Kapp Putsch, but their support for the Third Reich eventually leads each to their deaths.