Gerhard Hartig

Things may not be fast at the German post office, but they're a lot of fun: postal supervisor Max Sparwein knows a thing or two about it, because he really can't complain about boring and monotonous service on his tour through the city. This is also the experience of journalist Mara Schönwetter, who accompanies him on his walks up and down the stairs to write a report.

Set in Hamburg's “Hell's Kitchen,” a waterfront milieu of gangsters, pimps, dealers and prostitutes, the story follows the attempts of an ex-seaman first to insinuate himself into the scene, and then to extricate himself from it. He becomes a small-time pimp, sending his naive girlfriend out onto the streets thinking she is financing their middle-class future. When he becomes involved with an old pal, Nil, he increases his criminal portfolio. But when he steals Nil's girlfriend and things heat up, he leaves for his sister's middle-class home in Berlin, where his attempts to fit in are doomed from the start. Returning to Hamburg, he starts a rapid decline that delivers him into the waiting arms of Nil, whose revenge is merciless.

A private detective tries to find out how and why some convicts have mysteriously disappeared from the prison of Dartmoor.

Harry, a timpanist and pyromaniac, and Ginamove into the same apartment due to Hamburg's housing shortage. This is the beginning of a wonderful enmity, with Harry, who has been tried and tested in marital warfare, and relationship terrorist Gina proving to be quite equal opponents.

A strangler is loose on a British estate, and he not only strangles his victims but brands an "M" onto their foreheads before he decapitates them.

Dr. Mabuse has been locked away for years in an insane asylum. Suddenly crimes start occurring and no one knows the culprit. A detective goes to visit the Doctor to find some sort of clues to the robberies.

In 1951, East Berlin's railroad transportation fund was robbed in a spectacular burglary. The vaults contained the West Marks that the East Berlin Reichsbahn administration collected through its services in the West sectors of Berlin.

A woman is kidnapped and her identity is stolen by criminals attempting to collect her inheritance.