The history of the Leipzig Fair goes back to the Middle Ages, and the first post-war fair, also called the "Peace Fair," took place in 1946. The still Soviet-occupied zone tried to demonstrate the return of economic growth one year after the war.
International delegations from various youth organizations come to Berlin to demonstrate their international solidarity at the first Free German Youth "Deutschlandtreffen" in 1950.
Car mechanic Anton Grubske cunningly avoids being captured and taken to a POW camp in 1945. Upon returning to his village, he marries Liesel, the daughter of his former apprenticeship master, and takes over the workshop.
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.
This documentary juxtaposes events in the immediate postwar East and West Germanies to draw a picture of the developing Cold War politics.
Karl Achilles, who has worked for thirty years in the chemical collective in Bitterfeld, is looking forward to retirement and plans to do everything he always wanted to do, but never had the time for: go on holiday with his wife, spend time with his children, and cultivate his flower garden.
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.
Mid-1950s Berlin, before the building of the Wall. Uschi, a salesgirl and aspiring fashion model from the East, is attracted to Hans, from the West. But she also loves the bright shop windows in his part of the city.
In 1945, the young Ernst Machner (Horst Drinda) returns home to start a new life. Although he would like to weave for a living, his comrades persuade him to become a teacher instead.
Three men – criminals Erwin Lubowitz and Bruno Marquard and waiter Walter Graf – are collaborating on a major bank heist. Construction apprentices Bubi and Julian, who are mainly trying to win the affections of the night club singer Tina, are also unwittingly caught up in the scheme.