Rolf Bührmann

Maria marries a young soldier in the last days of World War II, only for him to go missing in the war. She must rely on her beauty and ambition to navigate the difficult post-war years alone.

When Peter Huber the proprietor of a Bavarian corner newsstand, wins a free trip to New York City in a magazine contest, he is overjoyed. Filled with romantic ideas from the movies, his actual encounter with the gritty realities of the Big Apple are sobering. Nonetheless, he is in for the adventure of his life. First, he meets Karola Faber, the German wife of a U.S. G.I. who has found life in the States not all it's cracked up to be: she has left her husband and makes her living through prostitution. Peter and Karola visit the local German emigré community's Oktoberfest, and win the festival's King and Queen crown. Their prize is a cow, which accompanies them on their further journeys in New York City.

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.

An old lady named Jane, believes she is Tarzan's widow. She wears a leopard skin bathing suit under her black coat when she visits the zoo to talk to the animals, and keeps African mementos in her home. She also has pictures of famous screen incarnations of Tarzan, including Johnny Weissmuller, Lex Barker, etc. up on the walls of her flat, and longs to 'return' to Africa and visit 'Tarzan's tomb'.

A small carnival is in dire financial straits. Their show is attracting fewer and fewer paying customers, as their "attractions" are ageing, out of shape and beset by internal feuds and bickering. One day a beautiful young woman shows up and suggests a way of attracting customers: put on a strip show, with her as the main attraction. Her act attracts customers in droves, but it turns out that the girl has her own agenda, and it isn't to help out the carnival.

Geierwally, who earned her name through a bitter fight with a bird of prey, refuses to marry Vinzenz, the heir apparent assigned to her by her father, and lives a secluded life in a mountain hut. Her love for Bärenjosef seems hopeless, especially since he knows nothing of Wally's love. She becomes increasingly isolated, becomes the laughing stock of the village, and misunderstandings arise because Bärenjosef's sister Afra is mistakenly regarded as his “girlfriend.” Wally then decides that she would rather have Josef dead than not at all...