Daniel, a young and enthusiastic architect, has high hopes as he pulls a team together to design a vibrant community space for a new housing development.
This last filmic portrait of Arnold Zweig (1887-1968) retells important events in the author’s life: his childhood; WWI; his emigration to Czechoslovakia, France, and later Palestine during WWII; his return to Germany in 1948 and his involvement in the communist system.
Presented here are nine short films that feature: film director Slatan Dudow; actor Martin Brandt; authors Erich Fried, Erich Weinert, and Arnold Zweig; photographer Walter Ballhause; cartoonist Leo Haas; and journalist Egon Erwin Kisch.
Hamburg, Germany 1934: An executioner is needed. Teetjen (Erwin Geschonneck) makes the biggest mistake of his life. Because his butcher shop is facing bankruptcy, he agrees to execute a group of political prisoners for the Nazis. Once this becomes known, Teetjen’s life falls apart.
In August 1961, the former Foreign Legionnaire King and his gang of guys are rabble-rousers. After working on a construction site, the gang moves to a campground on the Baltic Sea, unaware that their shoddy work will lead to two deaths.
Friendship, fun and contemplation characterize the lives of a group of twenty-year-olds who spend their summer vacation in Prerow on the Baltic Sea. In brief interviews, they discuss their past achievements, future plans, dreams and perspectives.
Two roommates in a private sanatorium in early-1950s East Germany are extremely different from one another. Josef is a communist policeman, while Hubertus is a Lutheran vicar. While Josef reads The Communist Manifesto, Hubertus prepares his sermon.
Berlin in the 1960s. Olaf (Dieter Mann) and Horst (Kaspar Eichel) are two young metalworkers, who provoke their older colleagues with critiques of the antiquated equipment and lack of materials...
Alfred and Lisa decide to divorce after only a couple of months of marriage. Alfred takes a few days off to clear his head, riding through Berlin and meeting strangers; although he ultimately returns to Lisa, the ending remains open.
Günter Walcher, 40-years-old, is a hardworking, apolitical West German businessman caught in a moral conflict. He is offered a promotion to become the head of a division—on the condition that he find a reason to fire Zacharias, a communist and the work council chairman.