Alexander von Richthofen

In 1924, Oskar Matzerath is born in the Free City of Danzig. At age three, he falls down a flight of stairs and stops growing. In 1939, World War II breaks out.

Friedrich Schiller, a respected baker in Einbeck, enjoys a seemingly idyllic life with his wife and nine children. As he approaches his silver wedding anniversary, he nearly succumbs to a fleeting liaison with a spirited woman named Lollo. Though the episode ends harmlessly, it awakens a crisis of conscience in Friedrich, threatening the harmony of his devoted family.

Father Scherzer generally buries himself in the books of the castle library, which he is responsible for managing. He is a warm-hearted but somewhat overwhelmed father to his five daughters, ranging from a preschooler to two teenage girls to a successful press photographer who flirts with a dashing dentist. While he is trying to sell the castle to an overbearing American millionaire, the housekeeper quits, and the youth welfare office insists on discipline and order in the five-girl household.

A mother is sentenced to one year in prison for matchmaking her underage daughter with her adult boyfriend.