Wilhelm Gröhl

This film is the first of a two-part historical and biographical portrait of the communist politician and anti-fascist Ernst Thälmann. In early November 1918, Ernst Thälmann is an unwilling soldier serving on the western front. As the revolutionary movement at home is threatened by the betrayal of the Social Democrats and fissures in the working class, Thälmann calls on his fellow soldiers to put down their weapons and unite with the workers in the communist struggle at home. Thälmann’s qualms about which side he is fighting on continue, but when the local police attempt to prevent a shipment of provisions and supplies from reaching the people in Petrograd, he intervenes and the ship is unloaded. With this moment of clarity, Thälmann continues to follow his political convictions and joins the workers at the Hamburg uprising in October 1923.

A young woman does everything she can to catch the eye of her chosen one. In the end, she even goes into the water - wearing a diving suit. A cheerful underwater love story for GDR television, which also casually promotes the diving section of the pre-military Society for Sport and Technology in the GDR.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was the author of Werther, the romantic novel that was transformed into a play during Goethe's lifetime and which initiated the whole German romantic movement. The book's story tells of young love and suicide. In this East German film, based on a book by Thomas Mann, Lotte (Lilli Palmer) was the woman who served as the model for the heroine in the novel Werther. She comes to Goethe's hometown for a visit, and her experiences there eerily re-create episodes from the book. Goethe comes across as a pompous old bore, and his friends as pandering sycophants, in this very proper communist party-sponsored, anti-heroic movie.

A young doctor has to spend a night in a lonely house near the transit highway. Unexpectedly, he witnesses East-West smuggling operations, which he manages to prevent at the last moment.

When Angelika moves to Leipzig, she is forced to rent a room at Mrs. Häublein’s for a start, since her parents will not follow until a few months later. Fellow tenant Thomas, a philosophy student, is not at all enthused about his new, pretty housemate. Because of Angelika he has to move into a smaller room. Furthermore, he is annoyed at her many male acquaintances, without sensing that his aggression might be prompted by jealousy. When Angelika’s father comes for a visit, he asks Thomas to keep an eye on his daughter. Thomas takes this assignment very seriously and finally realizes that he has fallen in love with Angelika.

Brigitte is caught between two men: on the one hand there is the ambitious Klaus, the father of her young daughter, and on the other the sensitive Wolfgang, her flatmate, to whom she feels attracted. With the active help of the housemates, especially her mother Klucke, she finds out who her heart really beats for.

Dentist Dr. Franke's selfless willingness to help is much appreciated by neighbors and acquaintances in the GDR. There is only one exception: Biggi, the beautiful coach of the ice hockey team that Dr. Franke looks after. Biggi thinks Dr. Franke is a particularly clumsy little man. But there's also Nurse Agnes, who once again has to stick her nose into matters that don't really concern her, and thus helps things along...

Three kids from a small village in Mecklenburg decide to sneak away to East-Berlin in order to gift Angela Davis a lucky pig.