Norbert Christian

Mecklenburg, 19th century. For generations, the Brand family of farmers has worked a piece of land as tenants of the baron, who owns almost all of the village's land. The baron himself comes from a family of farmers who became rich through corruption and were ennobled. He is the absolute potentate, no one dares to contradict him, he takes what he wants and stops at nothing in his excesses. At the same time, he is the center of petty bourgeois, bigoted social life. Johann, the stable boy, wants to marry Mariken Brand and asks the baron for a piece of land so that he can build a life of his own. But the lord is harsh, not only refusing him the land, but also increasing the rent. Johann rebels, trying to rouse the farmers in the village from their lethargy—in vain. Only when Mariken dies does the mood change. A peasant uprising breaks out, and Johann kills the baron.

A short biography of Arnold Zweig, through the lens of East Germany state media.

In a Russian POW camp, four Germans determined to end WWII agree to pose as Red Army soldiers. Are they patriots or traitors, heroes or opportunists? Although they go to the frontlines, their new Russian comrades are initially unsure whether to trust them. Three of them then accept a mission behind German lines, but they are unprepared to fire upon their countrymen and it ends up costing the life of a Russian soldier. In the meantime, the fourth man has fallen in love with Russian radio operator Svetlana. After being criticized by the other Russians, he too agrees to participate in the mission..

Under political pressure, a West German radio station stages a radio play about a Russian invasion of West Germany. A handsome fee convinced the unemployed Anton Wiesel to take on the direction. At the same time, the driver Harry Kyritz received an inheritance: a decrepit barge with which he intends to become an entrepreneur. His acquaintance with Madeleine Müller, the daughter of a coal wholesaler, comes at just the right time. But so does Mr. Müller, because he is broke. So he throws a big party to sell his daughter as his last profitable asset. Harry has a good chance when the radio plays a radio play about a Russian robbery. The guests take it as a factual report and flee to the cellar. Harry reveals his true financial situation, but Müller accepts him anyway - as a model worker for the Russians. But when the mistake is revealed, Harry is out of the running in favor of a wealthier son-in-law.

Documentary film about the Spanish Civil War.

The young lady Lisa Gau probably took her own life at Seilergasse 8 in Rostock, at least that's what it looks like. Captain Schirding, who has been assigned to the case, sees things differently. Together with forensic scientist Kurt Lisowski, he investigates the case and soon discovers that Lisa was poisoned and is shocked when all the evidence points to his...

Young seminary student Franziskus has been ceremonially ordained. He wants to escape the harshness and injustice of the world and devote himself to the service of God in the quiet seclusion of a monastery. He is also hoping to forget the beautiful lady Aurelie, whose life he saved in a flooded brook and with whom he spent an amorous night. He knows that her father would never allow her to marry him. But the devil dressed in a monk's habit and under the name Viktorin intervenes in Franziskus's destiny and attempts to lead him astray. To do so he first uses the diabolical elixirs kept at the monastery as a rare relic. When the young monk gets expelled from the monastery, Viktorin prepares another trap with the help of Aurelie's stepmother Euphemie.

October 1918: Karl Liebknecht is released from prison and Berlin workers celebrate his release. Although WWI is almost over, the German Kaiserreich in vain sends its last reserves to the slaughter. The working class is in a rebellious mood; the uprising of Kiel’s sailors against war and militarism sets off a call for revolution led by Liebknecht. On November 9, Liebknecht declares the Free Socialist Republic of Germany. But pro-Kaiser military and right wing Social Democrats oppose him.

Paul Pospischiel loses his job in the great colliery collapse in the Ruhr, retrains and builds a new life for himself. One day, he receives a letter from his mother, which tears him from his comfort zone and triggers a serious conflict. She has discovered the man who sent his father to a concentration camp decades ago and is therefore responsible for his death. The mother demands accountability from this man. Paul decides to confront the suspected informer and murderer...

It’s the spring of 1945 in a small resort town on the Baltic. Günter is 16 and firmly believes that the Germans will win the war. During the hunt for a forced labourer who is on the run, Günter catches him and watches as he is shot to death. He proudly accepts the award of an Iron Cross before being shipped to the nearby front as part of the last contingent of troops. He is quickly captured by Soviet soldiers, but manages to escape and return home. When the town is occupied by the Red Army, Günter is arrested for the murder of the forced labourer. The film was banned in 1968 before it was completed, and a large portion of the negative was later destroyed.

A musician seeks a peaceful vacation in a Vogtland village but is soon overwhelmed by requests for a symphonic composition and a pop song for a local dance band, leaving him with no time to relax.

This is part one of a two-part biopic about Karl Liebknecht. In 1914, Germany is arming itself for war. Karl Liebknecht, left-wing revolutionary Social Democrat, workers’ leader and a virulent antimilitarist, is one among 110 SPD members of Parliament who vote against approving war loans. From then on, he is considered un-German and a traitor to the fatherland, and his own party’s leadership turns against him. Despite threats, Liebknecht speaks up against the war and writes the manifesto “The Main Enemy Is at Home.” Even when he is arrested and charged with treason, he does not surrender.

After meeting the woman on the train Erwin Retzmann kills her in the forest.

Dagny Juell was the doctors daughter who left Kongsvinger for Berlin to study music, and became famous painter Edvard Munchs mistress and model. Than she ran into August Strindberg. They had a brief affair but after a couple of weeks Dagny left him for Stanisław Przybyszewski.

World-famous geneticist Professor Hülsenbeck is a man of integrity who refuses to mix science and political gain. When his findings are being used to harm humanity, he immigrates to the USA in 1933 in protest against Nazi racial politics.

A train travels through the vastness of Russia, a train with German prisoners of war returning home, and Viktor Kleist, a young German communist from an intellectual home in Munich, travels back home with them. During the journey, the stations on his way to Lenin wake up again.

Two 17-year-olds, Werner Holt and Gilbert Wolzow, are pulled out of school and into Hitler's army. Gilbert becomes a fanatical soldier; but at the front, Werner begins to understand the senselessness of war.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was the author of Werther, the romantic novel that was transformed into a play during Goethe's lifetime and which initiated the whole German romantic movement. The book's story tells of young love and suicide. In this East German film, based on a book by Thomas Mann, Lotte (Lilli Palmer) was the woman who served as the model for the heroine in the novel Werther. She comes to Goethe's hometown for a visit, and her experiences there eerily re-create episodes from the book. Goethe comes across as a pompous old bore, and his friends as pandering sycophants, in this very proper communist party-sponsored, anti-heroic movie.

A commercial artist with a lisp chooses silence, unexpectedly propelling his career. His perceived innovation leads to rapid advancement in an ad agency. Mueller-Stahl shines in this biting critique of East German workplace culture.

In November of 1939, the British consulate in Norway receives documents saying that the Nazis are conducting secret rocket research in Peenemünde. But the British doubt the authenticity of the so called "Oslo report". Thus, the Germans continue their experiments unimpeded. At the same time, resistance groups from France, England, Poland, and Germany try to find and to sabotage the secret Nazi research base. When the first "V 2" rocket is successfully launched, the Allied commanders finally become interested in the "Oslo report".

Comedy about the "Husarenstreich", the 1757 Berlin raid during the Seven Years' War.

A socialist story of "atoms for peace" and compulsory labor in an East German uranium mine under Soviet control.

After causing a deadly hit-and-run motorcycle accident, Conny Schenk spends two years in prison, where he is able to complete a printing apprenticeship and is released early for good behavior. While he is still on probation, money is stolen at the company where he works and everyone is quick to suspect Conny. Can he overcome his past mistakes and start fresh, or will the mistrust of his colleagues and friends become a self-fulfilling prophecy?

At the end of the 1950s, the production of optics in the German Democratic Republic has reached top quality and instigates interest in the West. When national demand rises strongly and at the same time the export to South America heavily decreases, the Volkspolizei - the GDR police force - starts to look into the case. Two seemingly unrelated cases are the starting point for the investigation by second lieutenant Schellenberg of the department for optics racketeering: An old woman who was arrested in the Berlin city railway for trying to smuggle a pair of binoculars to West Berlin, and a dead person in an area of allotments who was involved in obscure dealings with optical devices.