In England in 1553, the marriage of Queen Mary Tudor to the Spanish crown prince Philip II is being considered. It is Simon Renard's task to force the issue. Maria, however, has lost her heart to Fabiano, who for his part is betraying the queen and is only interested in gaining power. When his...
A wrestler finds his political interest and activism through sport. However, this is extremely dangerous during the Nazi era and the workers' sports movement starts a resistance against the Nazi regime...
The 18-year-old Katharina Jens is a high diving champion and succeeds in everything she does. When she enters an international contest in place of her team colleague Claudia, expectations are accordingly high. However, when she misses the one-and-a-half somersault with a double twist her team fails...
A disruption on the Berlin S-Bahn: passengers have an involuntary one-hour layover at Frankfurter Allee S-Bahn station and use the time to take a closer look at their fellow passengers. Alice Räppel, a native Berliner with a heart and a snout, meets Egon Ziesemaus, who is usually plagued by bad...
Ernst is a student in Hamburg around 1900 and leads a life like many other young people. In his free time, he roams the colorful metropolis with his buddy Karl. After school, he helps his father, whose business he is to inherit one day. Ernst has many questions about the world and life, but it is...
Psichinski rings Mr. Semmler's doorbell and alerts him to strange noises in the attic. Together they sneak upstairs and discover a full-grown horse, which they report to the police officer. He triggers the alarm. The fire department and several workmen marvel at the event and ponder how it could...
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...
Czech tourist Jelinek decides to take a ride on the "Ferris wheel" in Berlin, and as a result he lags behind the train and is left without his belongings and documents.
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...
In 1923, Judge Böhnsdorf and Inspector Dumke convict 22-year-old Fritz Bondersen of treason, accused of selling military secrets on the testimony of General Director Gotthardt, and sentence him to 15 years in a Zuchthaus. Despite his protestations of innocence, Bondersen can’t produce proof. Two...
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...
This documentary shows the German Peasants’ War between 1524 and 1525 and looks at the role of Thomas Müntzer in it. Müntzer, who was a follower and admirer of Martin Luther, directed his resistance not only against the clerical authorities ruled by the papacy, but also against the secular...
An American transport squadron led by former General Lee supports the French colonial army in Vietnam in return for high pay. Originally their mission was only to help the wounded, but as the advance of the Vietnamese liberation army puts the French under increasing pressure, they also fly...
Böttcher made his graduation film about young people who had become delinquent in a youth work yard in Thuringia. Already here a striking feature of his later films becomes apparent: Jürgen Böttcher gives his protagonists a lot of space; he approaches them without prejudice, empathetically and...
