Ernst Dernburg

From the director of Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, this is the Passion embedded in a contemporary story. An anarchist jailed for an attempted assassination is told the Passion story by the prison chaplain.

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.

Country Dr. Robert Koch is desperate: a tuberculosis epidemic is decimating the children in his district and no one is able to do anything about it. Every fourth child is already sick and the parents must helplessly watch as their young ones die. Now Koch is undertaking to find the cause of the tuberculosis --- something he has already been working on for years --- which has been causing this plague of illness. His work is made more difficult by envy; for example, that of his teacher, who was wounded defending his honor. But his greatest obstacle is the famous Berliner scientist and Reichstag deputy, Privy Councilor Rudolf Virchow: He is extraordinarily skeptical of Koch's theory, that the cause for tuberculosis is a bacteria.

A badly lit street; a car driving too fast; squealing tires .... a car crashes into a construction site. When the police arrive on the scene, the driver is gone. In the vehicle, however, the cops find film with photos of the almost worthless stock of the closed-down Motapa Mining Firm. The originals of the stock are in a bank safe, to which only selected employees of the firm have access. So who made these pictures and what is his or her interest in them?

Four girls seeks happiness on the dance floor among the handsome and rich gentlemen.

A tale of cheating in both love and business.

The Minerva Mines Company is interested in transporting two particularly valuable diamonds from Cape Town to Amsterdam. To confuse potential thieves, two detectives are sent on two different ships with steel suitcases and they have no clue whether they’re carrying pebbles or diamonds. Nevertheless, a collection of questionable characters come on board both ships. The hunt for the diamonds begins; the suitcases are stolen; everyone is suspect.

Three soldiers on very short home leave visit Berlin. One isn't from there and runs around with his guide book being perplexed by all the things that are different now. Another visits his wife and his baby. The third enters a romance due to a mistaken identity.

Paris, 1830: Jean-Gaspard Debureau performs on the stage and delights his audience with song, wit and charm. He is, however, very unpopular with King Charles X, who is the target of much of Debureau's scornful jests. That would be a somewhat tolerable situation if it weren't for the fact that Debureau has fallen for a countess, who happens to be the King's mistress.

Concha flies from his natal Rio to Germany to help his loved one, who has been caught after finding some diamonds in a mine already registered by a company. Amongst them is the impressive one which thanks to her will be known as The Star from Rio. She finds herself staying at the manager's home hired as a dancer to present the diamond at a fashion show. Then the lights go suddenly out.

Lothar von Pütz and Roswitha von Krakow fall in love and only then discover that their fathers are bitter enemies. When Lothar's father dies, a close friend of his father's, Baron Maximilian von Hanckel, takes the boy under his wing and tries to make peace between the families. He visits Roswitha's father, who begins to hope that he can marry his daughter to the older, but wealthy, baron, who is still a bachelor. When an argument breaks out between Lothar and Roswitha, she agrees to marry Maximilian. It is only at the pre-wedding party that Roswitha and Lothar have a real conversation. Maximilian overhears everything, releases Roswitha from her vows, and brings the two young people together.

Since Marion feels ill-treated by her boyfriend her friend Julia confronts him in his home only to learn that she is scolding the wrong guy: there are two cousins named Johannes sharing the apartment. And this Johannes is charming indeed.

Across German screens at the outbreak of WWII streaks "DIII88: The New German Air Force Attacks", an aeronautic and maritime spectacle glorifying Hermann Goring's Luftwaffe and the spirit of the newly arisen Germany. Once war became imminent, Joseph Goebbels instructed the German film industry to initiate production of numerous militaristic projects, but DIII88 was initiated by the Propaganda Minister's rival, Goring, who commissioned several aviation pictures. DIII88 is not a war picture per se, because it takes place in peacetime, but the young, fresh-faced air aces enthusiastically look forward to the coming war. The propaganda is blatant: The only thing that matters is dedication to duty and unconditional commitment to the Fatherland.

Erika, a dancer without a gig, helps out at her brother's gas station. She's immediately courted by several men. Her favorite is the nephew of a quirky, old antique dealer. But the dealer refuses to give his nephew his permission to marry him. So Erika turns the tables and charms her uncle until he finally understands that his nephew is in love with her.

The film focuses on the leadership of the Great Powers of Europe in the days leading up to the outbreak of the First World War.

Eduard Winkelmann, the owner of an apartment building in Munich, never tires of making life difficult for his renters. One day, a young woman, Erika, shows up at his door. She is the illegitimate daughter of a long-past love affair.