Beauty and the Beast

The series "Achterbahn" is about friendships and the handling of difficulties and problems from children's everyday lives.

Herr Hoffman parks his late-model car in a lot across from his corner office on the top floor. Each day, he puts a coin in the cup of a beggar who stands in front of the building. One day, Hoffman looks out his window and notices the beggar washing his car - no one else's in the lot, just Hoffmann's. That evening, when he gives the beggar a coin, Hoffmann tells him not the wash it. But the next day, it happens again. On the third morning, Hoffman drives his car back and forth in a mud puddle; the beggar washes it carefully. That evening, Hoffman has no change and no small bills, only 100 DM. He tries to evade the beggar, who gives chase, cane and all. More than wills collide.

Penniless Peter Munk toils day after day as a charcoal burner in the Black Forest. In order to finally achieve the wealth he longs for and thus get closer to his previously unattainable crush Lisbeth, he turns to two mysterious forest spirits with his wishes. While the cranky little glass man can't really help him, the sinister Dutchman-Michel promises him an end to his financial worries. However, he demands Peter's heart in return and puts a cold stone in his chest instead. Although he can now afford everything and finally take Lisbeth as his wife, Peter no longer has any compassion, which soon has devastating consequences not only for himself but also for his fellow human beings.

Berlin widower Paul Krüger, a retired ex-GDR stone mason (66), hates foreigner immigrants, especially Muslims. When his beloved, doting granddaughter Annie plans to marry Deniz, an ambitious student and waiter in Ankara who needs a visa for Germany, backward Paul and his buddy, publican Karin, go on Turkish 'holiday' so he can talk her out of it. But Deniz proves her only choice and probably a right one, even if countrymen and family win Paul's heart, as well as a resourceful preteen-thief, who proves an orphaned Syrian refugee. Paul even promises to plead with his counterpart, Deniz's family patriarch, who opposes him marrying a Christian infidel at pain of expulsion from the close clan.

Volkmar Stenzel is the quintessential branch manager: correct, responsible and always there for his customers. However, people like the 57-year-old are just as little needed in the global financial world as branches in the countryside. When the Chinese group that has just swallowed up his Frankfurt-based bank sends the young careerist Tutz to wind up his branch, Stenzel feels worthless. He rebels against the injustice and finally shows courage.

Philipp Halbe can not read and write. He avoids life, works in a bar at night and does not engage in serious relationships. One day when his daughter Lily, whose mother died in a car accident, is about to die, he has to face the challenges of life and fight for custody. The aim of the film is to raise awareness of the problem of illiteracy and thus to contribute to the de-tabulation.

Berlin pensioner Paul Krüger looks forward to lead his fatherless-raised pregnant granddaughter Annie to the altar, but Turkish groom Denis's sugar uncle insists due to Anatolian family honor tradition on the presence of her biological father Harald, whom her mother Susanne never even told about their child having broken up. Knowing only Harald moved to Greece, Krüger takes his pétanque (bowling) pub buddies Ecki and Bernd along to Hellas, a country they know nor trust. Equipped only with an old photograph, they find themselves on the wrong island, upsetting the wrong shopkeeper's family. Having crossed to the right one, they wander into a tempting German free sex commune, before even learning Harald is now an orthodox monk in a monastery, which observes lent silence, albeit without fasting. The clergyman won't consider returning until Paul calls in unenthusiastic help, and even then the monk isn't on their plane back.

Berlin pensioner Paul Krüger gets to know his place of birth in the Czech Republic.

Paul Krüger and his drinking mates can't accept their beer pub "Flachbau", reaching its 25th jubilee, is about to be closed because the publican Karin fell in love Internet-dating mundane gastronome "Hansi" Falkenheyn Waldstätten and wants to start a new life in his native Austria. Krüger and his buddy Bernd, who has a never-declared crush on her himself, leave Ecki 'guard the fort'in Berlin and travel to Salzburg to stop her wedding preparations. Krüger and Bernd's theory the groom may merely be after the Flachbau sale proceeds is unexpectedly confirmed by their local gentleman inn keeper Poldi, a charming ladies men who volunteers to sabotage scam artist Hansi, to whom he lost a meanwhile ruined lover, leaving only Karin to be forced to learn the truth about her groom before he gets her to the alter, a matter of hours.

What does inclusion mean for classmates, teachers, parents and for the people themselves? The inclusion of Steffi and Paul at the Rousseau School is proving difficult. Class teacher Albert firmly believes in the program. But Steffi bullies her classmates and makes little effort in class - while the retarded Paul tries hard but achieves little due to his slow comprehension skills. Overburdened teachers and concerned parents oppose the project. They believe that the more advanced pupils are being held back in their development. The situation comes to a head. Then an incident occurs.