Der Lumpenmann

Santa Claus, expelled from the Heavenly Council because of his alleged failure, finds work on Earth as a stoker in a children's hospital. His willingness to help soon makes him indispensable.

On the Faroe Islands, people eke out a meagre existence by catching birds. Merchant Brause pays them little and does a good business. This comes under threat when Dr. Sten Horn suspects that the dangerous annual plague, which kills dozens of inhabitants, is transmitted by birds. Brause forces the people to work anyway and conceals the telegram from the Copenhagen research institute that confirms Horn's suspicions. Horn, supported by his cousin Arne, enlightens the islanders and the greedy Brause can only flee.

A Saturday evening dance in the village pub is interrupted when the barn of local farmer Paul Gäbler catches on fire. The farmer himself is soon found – hanged. Sawmill owner Züllich claims that Gäbler committed suicide because he was forced to join an agricultural production cooperative, but others are convinced Gäbler was murdered. Officers Schneider and Anders must navigate their way through a complex maze of personal and political motivations in order to reconstruct the crime.

In 1929 Berlin, the progressive editor-in-chief Bornstein is on trial for libel. An article in his magazine attempted to uncover the role that Reichsanwalt Jörns had played ten years earlier in the "clarification" of the murders of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. The article explained that the then court martial judge knowingly covered up for the murderers and delayed the trial. At the trial, the testimony of witnesses succeeded in proving the truth of the publication and exposing those behind the murders as those who were preparing fascism.

In Scotland in 1751, young David Balfour is shanghaied aboard a ship where he meets Jacobite rebel Alan Breck Stewart with whom he escapes to the Scottish Highlands, dodging the redcoats.

Based upon Shakespeare′s "Twelfth Night", the movie tells the story of the Duke of Illyria who is in love with the Countess Olivia. Olivia, however, keeps eluding him. When the Duke sends her a page to bring her a message, Olivia falls in love with the messenger who is in fact a woman called Viola. After she was shipwrecked on the shores of Illyria, Viola assumed the role of her missing brother. She cannot return Olivia′s love because she, in turn, adores the Duke.

Two UFA employees travel by car from West Berlin to Potsdam's Sanssouci Palace together with Ministerial Director Schimmelpfennig to persuade Frederick II, who haunts the palace, to collaborate on a new film about himself. The daily newspaper Die Welt had already written about the fact that at the founding meeting of the new UFA, its director pointed out under the motto: "The old spirit lives" that the monumental film Fridericus Rex - Eleventh Part was a first contribution to the ideological armament of the Free World.

A striking resemblance between the hairdresser Franz Blume and the famous actor Günther Kolmin leads to a curious mix-up during a vacation in Feuerstein. Blume's initially shy attempts to defend himself are unsuccessful. It is believed that the star wants to maintain his incognito. And the hairdresser soon takes a liking to the role of the adored one, especially as Miss Petri never leaves his side. When the real Kolmin finally arrives on the scene, the embarrassment is almost unbearable. In the end, Blume is happy to be himself again and returns home to his fiancée in remorse.

Two 17-year-olds, Werner Holt and Gilbert Wolzow, are pulled out of school and into Hitler's army. Gilbert becomes a fanatical soldier; but at the front, Werner begins to understand the senselessness of war.

In an act of friendship and solidarity between two mining towns in 1929, the locals of Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, give their flag as a gift to the locals of Bergstedt, Germany in this GDR propaganda film. This quickly takes on a symbolic meaning for the miners in Bergstedt as the Nazi party demands that this Soviet gesture be erased and the flag be replaced with their own. The miner and communist party functionary Otto Brosowski publicly declares it his duty to defend this flag against every danger, and he keeps his promise despite his family being threatened by torment and torture.

Daniela – a single mother, whose boyfriend left for the US – believes wholeheartedly in Cuba's revolutionary new order. Meanwhile, in Florida, a plot is afoot. Under the command of an American officer, four Cubans ex-patriots and a Guatemalan land on the Cuban coast to prepare a US invasion of the island. Daniela's superior, the corrupt Cuban officer Palomino, is secretly helping the invaders and the young woman becomes entangled in the intrigue.

The soccer team of the company sports association "BSG Hartenfels" is going downhill. New training methods - based on scientific findings - are needed, says Paul Schmidt. But he runs up against the star striker Wieland, whose friends naturally stick by him. So water sportswoman Ruth, deputy chairwoman of the BSG, decides to use female cunning to change the situation for the better. She and her friends Lilo and Uschi want to "work" the unruly ones. In the end, there is indeed a victory - on the sports field - and two happy couples.

Railway employee Fritz Marr is not regarded well by his superiors. It is the year 1920, and trains regularly pass the railway hub of Erfurt to the East to secretly transport weapons for the fight against the young Soviet Union. Marr knows about this and wants to mobilise other workers to stop these illegal deliveries. To muzzle him, Marr is relocated to a remote rail work construction site.

Günter and Gudrun Piesold are very busy with their careers as a TV comedian and an actress, so Grandma takes care of household chores and childcare. But when Grandma remarries, the Piesolds are faced with chaos at home and a burning question: Who will take care of the household?