DEFA

This is the directorial debut of Artur Pohl and tells the story of war refugees as they try to settle in a small town in Germany.

In the ruins of post-WWII Berlin, a twelve-year-old boy is left to his own devices in order to help provide for his family.

After WWII, Berlin lies in ruins. For Gustav, Willi and their friends the rubble provides an adventurous, dangerous playground. Especially for Gustav, it helps pass the time, as he longs for his father's return from a POW camp. One day a stranger arrives, looking helpless and hopeless.

Berlin, shortly after World War II. Five parentless siblings, led by the oldest sister Inge Kuckert, search for a place to stay and a basis of existence in the destroyed city. A bombed villa in the Grunewald seems to be the right "cuckoo's nest", but an alleged authorised disposal tries to drive the siblings out of the building. Fortunately, the friendly neighbor can help.

After World War II, scores of refugees leave in search of a new home. They now stand in the hall of a large mansion, waiting to receive their deeds of ownership for sections of land that the lord of the manor had left behind after he fled. Among them is young Jeruscheit who, during her travels, had to bury one of her own children. Her husband has been declared missing, and up until now she has had little purpose in life. But then she discovers it: to work, to build, and to help others. And maybe someday Jeruscheit will find her family.

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.

Shortages in postwar Berlin have created a blooming black market, and the goods rounded up during a major police raid all seem to come from the same source. The trail leads Commissioner Naumann to the Alibaba Cabarett, but he is unable to find conclusive evidence to convict its owner Goll.

The film centres around the young woman Erika, desperately seeking for love and escape from the depression of the times, drifting, and in the end becoming involved with a circle of rich people who sell goods for sexual favours.

Post-war Germany 1945: Two rival gangs of uprooted boys fight each other in the ruins of Berlin, whose business is the black market out of necessity in order to survive. Their respective leaders are Gerhard and Dietrich. A pretty young circus artist named Corona comes to the destroyed city with a traveling circus. She immediately caught the boys' attention. When the latter notice that the circus director is abusing the girl, the two gangs join forces and plot an act of revenge against the tyrant. But with the hustle and bustle caused by this, Corona falls from the trapeze and is seriously injured. When the circus moves on, the boys organize a doctor for the sick artist who has been left behind. Their collectively concern for the blonde beauty makes them forget their enmity. This welds the troops closer together and sets the course for a common, meaningful future.

While an anatomy seminar prepares to examine the cadaver of Franz Wozzeck in the name of scientific progress, medical student Büchner excoriates humanity for having allowed Wozzeck’s fate. The tragic story unfolds in flashbacks, as Büchner narrates.

Anne Treibel owns a small house that is home to four women and one man, Martin, a badly injured war veteran. All the women are interested in Martin, but he knows that only Anne truly loves him. When Helga asks him to get a surgery that could save his life, he does it for Anne. Fortunately, the attention of the other three amorous women is diverted when three suitable men happen to show up!

Dr. Blum, a Jewish manufacturer, is falsely accused of a murder. Even when the real killer’s identity becomes evident, the state prosecutor refuses to accept Blum’s innocence.

The mechanic Behnke wants to join the Nazi party to secure a good living. However, after his Jewish neighbors have been taken away, he changes his views. Trying to remain "a non-political man," he withdraws from reality and becomes a Nazis laborer.

During the global economic crisis, "Morgenrot" mine is due to be closed due to unprofitable results. With the use of a machine forbidden for security reasons, the mates try to work more effectively and thus save their jobs. A serious accident happens.

While on leave in Berlin during the Second World War, a soldier named Hans meets a young woman named Monika. They fall in love and make plans for a future together after the war. Yet their later attempts to find an apartment and get married are hindered by the housing shortage and they have to stay separately with relatives.

A decent small-town citizen named Fridolin Biedermann travels to Berlin and wants to finally experience something. And he succeeds. First he falls into the hands of a couple of crooks who rip him off terribly, and - back home - the law...

Boys are usually busy playing "Indians", but when their uncle decides to rent part of their home to a Doctor Höflin, they took an oath to cast him out with a series of pranks.

In 1948, students from Berlin University take part in the filming of a movie about the 1848 revolution as extras. A dispute arises between Else and Heinz, who tends to dismiss the revolution as a comical affair. Two fiercely opposing camps form at the university. But Heinz begins to reflect, and reading about a young student who lost his life in the turbulent days a hundred years earlier slowly changes his attitude. The conclusion of the filming at the Wartburg also reunites him with Else.

A chemist and his assistant make a groundbreaking discovery. They manage to make butter directly from pasture grass without having to deal with either the cow or the use of dairy products. An industrialist attempts to seize the invention.

After returning from a concentration camp, Susanne finds a traumatized ex-soldier living in her apartment in bombed out Berlin. Together the two try to move past their experiences during WWII.