A working-class family in Berlin in 1931 where survival is difficult, with massive unemployment in the wake of the Great Depression.
The stories of four – out of approximately 250,000 – former political prisoners in East Germany.
Paul is unhappily married to a beautiful but ignorant woman who cheats on him. Paula, who has two children from different fathers, is in a relationship of convenience with a tire salesman. When Paula and Paul meet in a bar, they fall in love.
Berlin, early 1930s. Lissy (Sonja Sutter), a young woman raised in a socialist working-class family, marries a clerk who promises her a better life. During the depression, however, he gets fired and can’t find a new job.
Charlotte Kestner (played by Lilli Palmer) was the love of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s youth, who became famous as Lotte in his renowned epistolary novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, published in 1774. After four decades, in late summer 1816, Charlotte travels to Weimar to see Goethe
Sonya, an art student, loves the med student Dieter. And Siegi, a factory worker, loves the bricklayer Eddie. At a lavish Carnival party at East Berlin’s art school an unintentional exchange of partners begins.
The film spans a ten-year period starting in 1933. Celebrated German film and theater actor Hans Wieland marries the Jewish actress Elisabeth Maurer. As Nazi anti-Semitic policies increasingly infringe on their lives, they struggle to survive.
This film takes place during the Seven Years' War. The Prussian Major von Tellheim has become engaged to the Saxon noblewoman Minna von Barnhelm. After the war, the King – in an unwarranted move – deprives the major of his honor.
When their father dies, 17-year-old Helene Raupe and her little sister become orphans. Abandoned by their aunt, they must face the challenges of daily life in East Berlin. Helene is only happy in her dreams, where she can fly or be a stewardess or model.
It is 1988. Jacob (Gottfried John), from Hamburg in West Germany, falls in love with Elisabeth (Angelica Domröse) in East Germany. When they secretly meet in East Berlin, it seems the Stasi (secret police) know about it. When Jacob visits her village, someone informs on him and he is deported.