Heini Göbel

A group of German boys are ordered to protect a small bridge in their home village during the waning months of the second world war. Truckloads of defeated, cynical Wehrmacht soldiers flee the approaching American troops, but the boys, full of enthusiasm for the "blood and honor" Nazi ideology, stay to defend the useless bridge. The film is based on a West German anti-war novel of the same name, written by Gregor Dorfmeister.

Winnie is desperate and doesn't know what to do next. She is about to marry her lover Paul, who has returned from war captivity. Both want to emigrate to America short after marriage. But the young woman has an illegitimate one-and-a-half-year-old son, whom she has kept secret from her fiancé. The short-tempered Paul would never understand that. When she is on her way to the orphanage, the grumpy senior civil servant Hieronymus Spitz and his little dog Tobby get into her train compartment. After a short observation, Winnie is certain that the misantrope actually has a good heart, because he lovingly takes care of his dog. Without further ado she leaves little Niki with the tax accountant and disappears from the train. Only a note with a request remains. The overwhelmed old gentleman initially wants to get rid of the child, but then takes it home and takes care of it together with his housekeeper. Both take the bundle of joy to their hearts. But then everything turns out differently.

The action takes place in a central German town in the 1920s. A Jewish factory owner is accused of murdering his accountant. The German nationalist investigating judge, who is determined to have a Jewish perpetrator, still sees Blum as the perpetrator even when evidence of the actual murderer, a former Freikorp fighter, is found. The Social Democratic court president from Berlin sends a criminal investigator to tear apart the judge's chain of evidence.

In the midst of World War II, postman Ludwig Fuchs writes a letter to his former school friend Field Marshal Hermann Göring, urging him to work for peace. He is declared mentally incompetent. After the war, he struggles to shake off the stigma of alleged mental illness. Göring is executed. Fuchs forces the court to examine him: he vandalizes the lobby of Post Office 122 in Munich and is rehabilitated (with full salary compensation for lost years).

12-year-old Jakob helps out at his mother's vegetable stand and also carries customers' purchased goods home. One day, an old woman with a long nose comes to the stand and claims that the herbs are bad and were better 50 years ago. Jakob is upset that she holds all the herbs to her nose and crushes them: "Take it away from your long nose!" he shouts and hits her hand. "Don't you like it, my beautiful long nose?" the woman scoffs, "You should have one too, even longer than mine." Finally, she buys some cabbages, which she wants Jakob to carry home for her. Jakob resists but is persuaded by his mother. Other market women whisper whether the old woman is not the evil fairy Kräuterweis.

Countess Franziska "is kidnapped" by a band of robbers. However, her father is not willing to pay the ransom so Franziska changes sides.

At night, elves help people as long as they are not seen. Unfortunately, a shoemaker's wife is too curious.

The quiet life of an extended family is shaken up when a circus comes into town.