Es werde Licht! 4. Teil: Sündige Mütter

A painter with syphilis infects his brother's wife and the child born of their affair.

A doctor who believes that only the immoral catch syphilis reconsiders his stance.

A tyrannical landowner terrorizes his wife and seduces the daughter of one of his employees.

A German soldier lies wounded on the front line in the First World War. To avoid capture or death, he assumes the identity of a fallen French officer. As the German soldier happens to speak fluent French, nobody realizes the deception. The soldier begins a new life in Paris, yet remains in constant fear of being exposed as the ‘enemy’.

Moritz Stiefel faces expulsion due to poor marks. When he is caught with an essay titled “Shame and Lust”, he is indeed kicked out – instead of classmate Melchior Gabor, who actually penned it. Gabor was drawing on his experiences with neighbourhood girl Wendla. Then Wendla turns up pregnant. Stiefel descends into despair ... Exploitation between Eros and Thanatos in this “sexual tragedy of youth” based on Frank Wedekind’s play. Setting the film in the 1920s provided a chance to explore “modern” youth culture, complete with cigarettes, jazz music, the gramophone, and a goodly bit of alcohol. Richard Oswald, a master of films of manners and young sex beginning in the 1910s, fully explores the temptations of the youthful body, even early childhood flirtatiousness. At the same time, with his target audience in mind, the film laments the bigotry and double standards of the adult world.

Thomas Bezug, the richest man in the world, is a solitary, domineering and cruel cripple, who hardly can move on his crutches. He dwells a fanatical love for his son, whom he holds like a monkey in a cage. His servants are defaced dwarfs. His secretary is trying to steal Bezugs assets. These are the night people.

An innkeeper in sheer despair murders a passing by musician and steals his money in order to buy medicine for his dying wife. Eventually, he falls into an endless turmoil of guilt and madness.

An adventurer tries to seize oil deposits in Mongolia .

A young count rents a villa near Rome to be near a woman he's courting. While there, he strikes up a friendship with a young woman living with a violent husband.

When Gräfin Mariza visits her country estate it is certainly an event. She gives a party to celebrate her engagement to a certain Koloman Zsupan, who unexpectedly shows up. Her authoritarian ways collide with Török, her manager. Based on Emerich Kálmán operetta.

Aka Passport to Heaven. In Prussia shoemaker Voight needs a residence permit to get a job, but can only get a job if he already has a permit. He dons a captain's uniform to order a platoon of soldiers to Koepenick to take over the Town Hall to get his permit.

Conrad Veidt plays a famous musician who is blackmailed for being gay. Eventually he stands trial and is convicted. At the end the film pleads for the abolition of §175 (the law that punishes homosexuality).

Such a soul torments young composer Georg von Wergenthin, around whom the author creates a precise picture of the fin de siècle, its neuroses and its politics. Georg starts a relationship with a young singer, but does not confess to her in front of his friends, even when she becomes pregnant by him.

Drama about street walker Elena who marries shop keeper Albert. When her former pimp Peter shows up, her life is ruined. She shoots him and poisons herself.

One of the last of the silent Sherlock films.

A young woman receives an invitation from the Governor of an island prison to spend a week with him. She does so, but conceals the fact that her husband is being held as a convict on the island.

Posing as a wealthy Parisian, Mercadet fleeces friends and casual acquaintances alike. He is forced into this life of crime to keep up appearances, so that his daughter Julie can land herself a rich husband.

Based on the true story of a cobbler who bought a second-hand captain's uniform, assumed command of a troop of guardsmen, declared the town of Köpenick under military law, arrested the mayor and confiscated the town treasury.