Theodor Vogeler

The good-natured helmsman Jan Jenssen somehow ends up being a part of some international intrigue, when he agrees to take a briefcase to Genoa on behalf of a certain Mr. Branting. It is there, that he gets to know the attractive Ruth Martens, who asserts, that Branting was a confidant of her father, who has in the meantime died, and that there’s a very important contract in the briefcase concerning Beryllium and a South American country known as Santona. But then, Branting was murdered and the contract stolen. The unscrupulous grand industrialist Morrow, who holds the monopoly to Beryllium extraction in the world, wants the contract, so he can do business with Santona himself.

Otto, a feckless Everyman, tries to adjust to the postwar travails of his defeated nation. Stymied by black-market profiteers and government bureaucrats, Otto begins fantasizing about a happier life at the end of that ever-elusive rainbow.

During the Thirty Years' War, Christine, an orphan, falls in love with the colonel Count Merian. In order to always be with him, she puts on men's clothes, becomes a troop boy and later even a cornet - only the sutler knows her secret. Little by little, Christine realizes that the man she loves has been brutalized by the war and is no longer capable of true feelings. When she gives herself to him instead of a peasant maid, she is horrified by his brutality. She shoots him in a duel. She is sentenced to death as a cornet, but acquitted as a woman.

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.

A beautiful princess is betrothed to the prince of a neighboring kingdom, and when the time comes, she sets out with a small entourage to wed him. She is given a magic handkerchief by her mother, which she is told will protect her, along with a talking horse. Before she departs, her mother entrusts her to the care of her chambermaid, who promises to look after her. Unknown to the queen, however is the fact that the chambermaid desires the prince for herself, and has been concocting an evil plan to accomplish her ends. With the reluctant help of two bumbling servants, the chambermaid deprives the princess of the magic handkerchief, and tricks her into changing places with her, swearing her to secrecy. Once they arrive at the palace, the maid is taken for the princess, who becomes a goose girl.

In the middle of the 19th century, almost one in three women who gave birth died of puerperal fever. The Hungarian doctor Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis also observed these terrible occurrences in his clinic in Vienna. He came to the conclusion that it was primarily the unhygienic conditions in the clinic itself that led to this disease, as his colleagues were constantly shuttling back and forth between the anatomy department and the delivery room. He tries to convince the doctors of the absolute necessity of thorough disinfection by washing their hands with chlorinated lime. He meets with fierce resistance from his colleagues until he himself sets up an exemplary clinic in Budapest.

Already a famous painter, Rembrandt van Rijn is commissioned to paint the Amsterdam Archers' Guild. But upon completion of the picture, the men of the guild feel duped, because they don't consider themselves flatteringly depicted in the painting. They therefore decline to pay for the work. During this dispute, the painter finds out his wife is close to death. He finds himself terribly lonely after her passing and suffers from depression until he decides once more to marry.

Shortly after WWII, the DEFA Studios produced a series of operas and operettas which belonged to the classical German musical heritage. This enchanting film, the very first opera production of DEFA, stands out because of its lavish decor and costumes, its outstanding actors and their masterful voices of that time.