Alfred Balthoff
In Spring of 1945, the Wehrmacht forces are weary from retreat, while the Allies are closing in. A single Austrian captain attempts to guide what is left of his platoon behind the Russian lines to surrender to the Americans. They take under their wing a young man with a severe disability. As the loyalty of his men is brought to the test, the captain grows closer to the boy who evokes a deep secret from his past in the Nazi Reich.
East Berlin, shortly after the construction of the Berlin Wall. Kurt Schröder and his family dig a tunnel to escape to West Berlin as they struggle to overcome the obstacles blocking their underground path to freedom.
Dorothea Angermann the daughter of a clergyman is accused of the murder of her husband, a brutal man that she was obliged to marry because she was pregnant and he was the father of the baby.
After a line of mischief Philip Gale, an American sailor, is lured into hiring on the "Yorikke", a tramp cargo, by Lawski, a stoker from Poland. Still, the two become friends within the motley crew of losers from all nations. Gale and his new companion soon are more than disillusioned: the "Yorikke" is far from seaworthy and more of a coffin than a ship, work is close to slavery, and treatment by the officers and their subalterns is harsh and cynical. One day they make an alarming discovery in a tin of plum butter they have procured from the ship's cargo... Written by Anonymous
Karin (Eva Bartok) is a brilliant student whose good looks give her an added advantage in assuming the role of a prostitute and exploring Berlin's thriving sex industry. Hired posthaste by nefarious Madame Clavius, the pretty blonde sets about gathering information for her thesis when she discovers that her old friend Madeline has been financing her luxurious lifestyle by working as a call girl in the very same brothel. The situation turns sinister when Madeline reveals to Karin that she has fallen in love and longs to start a new life, but any girl who tries to leave Madame Clavius soon turns up dead. When Madeline admits to considering suicide, Karin hatches a plan for both of them to make a clean break from the brothel and avoid Madame Clavius' deadly wrath.
Shortly after WWII, the DEFA Studios produced a series of operas and operettas which belonged to the classical German musical heritage. This enchanting film, the very first opera production of DEFA, stands out because of its lavish decor and costumes, its outstanding actors and their masterful voices of that time.
A story about a family after the Second World War. The petty bourgeois cashier Karl Weber of Berlin observes from a distance how his son Ernst participates in the building of a new socialist society. Karl does not understand Ernst's visions, instead he confides in his other son Harry. However, Harry becomes involved in illicit business and Karl quickly realizes that it would be best to join his son Ernst in the citizen-owned factory.
Set during the rise of the Nazi regime, Elisabeth Maurer and Hans Wieland enjoy successful careers as actors in Berlin. Confident in her career, Elisabeth, who is Jewish, ignores the advice of a colleague to leave Germany in the face of increasing anti-Semitism. Believing that he can protect her if she becomes his wife, Hans convinces Elisabeth to marry him. In the following years, as Hans's career thrives, Elisabeth awaits the end of the Nazi terror which bars her from public life. When the situation worsens in 1938 with the Kristallnacht pogrom, Elisabeth decides to leave the country, but Hans, who still believes he can protect her, convinces her to stay with him.
