Irmingard Schreiter

All throughout his entire life, Friedrich Wilhelm Hoffmann let his career run roughshod over his personal life. He had no wife, because he was married instead to his chocolate factory. Now he’s old and gray, and his relatives, who are greedily waiting for him to kick the bucket so they can get their hands on his worldly goods, keep their distance from him. Then one day, an astonished Hoffmann is visited by a young woman named Brigitte, who asserts, that she’s his granddaughter. Suddenly, it all comes back to the old man: as a young man, he had a short, but intense, love affair, which he had to end on the insistence of his father.

Based on an 1884 novel by Julius Stinde, it is a family chronicle set in late nineteenth century Berlin.

Viktor Werneberg is a widowed swimming instructor with three children, who meets the sophisticated Irene Müller advice column in a newspaper. Although the two strike up a bond he is concerned that his chaotic household, including a lazy uncle Paul and an domineering housekeeper Grete, will put Irene off.

A continuation of the film "Familie Buchholz": To Wilhelmine Buchholz, the concept of a marriage based on love is somewhat scary, although she hears again and again that this is the "modern" method to a happy marriage. Her daughter Betti seems to agree, as she shows no interest in her middle class companions; she only loves the painter Holle. To once again restore family harmony, Mr. Buchholz sends his wife and daughters to Helgoland. But Wilhelmine has to return early to Berlin to look after things while Betti and Holle continue onward. On Helgoland, they secretly marry.