Vom König Midas

East German documentary about the 20 July plot.

A film about the experiences of a cab driver who drives a young, heavily pregnant woman who has collapsed in a store to hospital. The encounters during the subsequent search for the future father so that he can take the expectant mother's things to the hospital are shown. The GDR leadership argued that the film should be banned.

In an apartment building inhabited by quarrelsome divorcing singles, the energetic senior Karl Zobawa establishes good neighborly relations. Inspired by a missionary zeal, he tolerates no contradiction. He has set himself the goal of turning his neighbors, most of whom have been through divorce, back into friendly people who can live together again. To this end, he draws up a whole catalog of measures that no one would probably have submitted to if it weren't for an impending press report about the house and its residents.

A ship from the GDR fishing fleet is on its way home. The work is done, the hold full of fish. Captain Nipmerow could be satisfied with that, but he has a completely different problem to deal with - a matter about which he also owes the shipping company a statement.

Peter is unwilling to learn the multiplication tables at school. He would rather work as an acrobat at the circus, just like his friend Susanne. When the class plans a trip to the circus, Peter is supposed to buy the tickets. Since he miscounts and buys one ticket less than needed, he cannot join his schoolmates. Susanne, however, comes up with an idea and lets him work in the circus arena where he is supposed to check on the arithmetic problems of a numerate donkey. When Peter fails to control the donkey, he feels deeply ashamed and has to assess that math is needed in all parts of life.

Berlin landlady Mrs. Klucke looks after the residents of Florentiner Strasse 73 like a mother, who could do with her help. When pregnant Brigitte is looking for a furnished room, she ends up with Mrs. Klucke. However, she has to make do with a spare room. At first Brigitte is quite disappointed that all sorts of residents and their guests regularly pass through the room, but over time she gets used to this situation. She soon comes to love the idiosyncrasies of the other residents of Florentine 73 and the motherly care of her landlady.

Was it an act of sabotage or willful negligence? The non-party engineer Heinz Solter is suddenly arrested and accused of approving a defective pipeline that caused a half million loss to his company. At first, the case seems clear-cut for the state prosecutor, but when he probes deeper, he discovers that Solter had acted against his better judgment due to the pressure from his career-driven and authoritarian boss.

Karla Geisler is a woman with her heart in the right place and a very quick mouth - the tenant on the first floor is practically the good soul of the entire building community. Karla is also the aunt of a 32-year-old single man called Karl, who is not lacking in imagination. Every Wednesday, he invites himself over to Auntie's for coffee and cake so that he can do some geological studies in peace.

A cheerfully turbulent GDR TV comedy about a group of elderly people who organize their lives with courage and cheerfulness. Trude and her male senior citizens want to redesign a dilapidated old construction trailer in their new residential area to create a nostalgic arbor. Inspired by the term "construction-related art", they also gave their house on wheels a highly artistic exterior façade. And should any problems arise during the realization of the project: "Don't despair, ask Trudchen"! After all, the whole project is just the prequel to a "wedding in old age" that the aforementioned Trude and her groom Heinz want to celebrate.

Egon Eckstein welcomes shy schoolfriend Reinhold Sabel to share his small apartment, only to find Reinhold arriving with heavy luggage and a pending furniture delivery. As Reinhold’s behavior clashes with Egon’s expectations, daily life descends into conflicts and tangled misunderstandings, forcing them to seek a solution to their untenable living situation.