Theodor Fontane

Pauline Pittelkow, a widow in her prime, lives in Berlin with her daughter Olga and her younger, still unmarried sister Stine. No one takes offense at the fact that the righteous woman has had an older count as a lover for years. For an evening together, the count brings a baron friend, his nephew Waldemar von Haldern and the actress Wanda. Waldemar, raised in a cold home, and the smart, solid Stine develop a deep, earnest affection for each other. The wise-beyond-life Mrs. Pittelkow does not look kindly on this ill-mannered union. She thinks that a light love affair is acceptable, but deep feelings cause pain. Despite all tradition, Waldemar wants to take Stine as his wife. The resistance of his family and Pauline drives him to take a momentous step.

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Factory wife Jenny Treibel plans to engage her youngest, softened and weak son Leopold to teacher's daughter Corinna Schmidt. She wants to cross the plans of her daughter-in-law Helene, who wants to marry her younger sister to the brother-in-law. At the engagement party, Corinna learns from maid Luise that Leopold has a child with her. Corinna dispenses with the wedding, but for Mrs. Treibel, a marriage between Leopold and Luise is out of the question... The old Count Petöfy worships actress Franziska Franz, who would fit better with his nephew Egon in terms of age. He introduces her to his house and marries her. His sister, the strict Judith of Gundolskirchen, approves this step despite the age-appropriate and social distance. However, after a love relationship between the young Count Egon and Franziska, everything changes...

Following her parents' wishes, spirited seventeen-year-old Effi Briest marries Baron von Innstetten – a former admirer of her mother – who is twenty years Effi's senior. This marriage of prudence heralds the beginning of a humdrum life, far from home, for Effi. Innstetten devotes himself entirely to his political career, and the sleepy small town of Kessin has very little to offer in terms of variety. But then, one day, Innstetten's old regimental comrade, Major Crampas – a charming womanizer – arrives on the scene.

Abel Hradscheck, the owner of an inn in the Oderbruch country, faces financial ruin. For this state of affairs, Ursula, his wife and former actress, is by no means free of blame. She is a "newcomer" to the area and even after eleven years in the area, still a "stranger". A Cracow company announces that a money-collector is on his way to the innkeeper. Mr. Szulski arrives and the debts are settled - with money supposedly stemming from an inheritance. The next day, Szulski departs but according to the maid and the stable-boy, behaves in a very strange manner. Soon afterwards, his carriage is discovered in the Oder River, but there is no trace of the drowned man. Hradscheck's neighbor starts casting suspicion on the innkeeper. The Counselor of Justice, who heads the investigations has the spot under the pear tree dug out. A dead body is exhumed...

When 17-year-old Effi Briest marries the elderly Baron von Instetten, she moves to a small, isolated Baltic town and a house that she fears is haunted. Starved for companionship, Effi begins a friendship with Major Crampas, a charismatic womanizer.

Theodor Fontane's novel about a young girl who as a teenager marries a stiff bureaucrat, has a love affair out of boredom and loneliness and has to suffer the consequences years later should be well known.

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In the nineteenth century, seventeen year old Effi Briest is married to the older Baron von Instetten and moves into a house that she believes has a ghost.

Berlin in 1878: Corinna Schmidt, who was brought up in a petit-bourgeois, academic family, is romantically interested in Leopold Treibel, the son of the lordly councillor of commerce Jenny Treibel – although Corinna is also deeply in love with her cousin Marcel. Leopold is also falling for cute Corinna, and Jenny Treibel tries to prevent their friendship by all means, but changes her opinion when their secret engagement becomes public. To avoid a scandal, she urges them to marry quickly. But Corinna soon withdraws from this complicated situation and again turns to her cousin, who is banished from the country for his social democratic beliefs.

At the end of the 19th century, the Brandenburg nobleman Dubslav von Stechlin dominated a small town of the same name in the county of Ruppin.

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Berlin, around 1900. Art student Hugo Großmann takes his work lightly and his pleasure seriously! A friend’s warnings do no good. He fails his exams. In the vegetable cellar of the widow Möhring, he finds cheap lodging and, in her daughter Mathilde, the person he needs. Hugo resists her positive influence for a long time. As his affection for the girl grows, so does his ambition. Hugo passes his exams, but then the easy life beckons him once again! Mathilde emerges victorious this time as well: he takes the post of mayor in Woldenstein and makes her his wife. It becomes their shared success to secure a railroad connection for the small town against all odds. At the inauguration, a tragedy claims Hugo’s life.

Melanie van der Straaten has the courage to separate from her wealthy, unloved husband and settle down with a new partner, defying all societal restrictions, in humble living circumstances. When her first husband blackmails her after the divorce with the children, Melanie faces her new life with pain and dignity.

The long-established aristocratic von Poggenpuhl family has seen better days. Towards the end of the 19th century, the major's widow and her children have long since eked out a poor existence characterized by a lack of money. Only the dusty ancestral gallery is a reminder of past fame and fortune. But while the mother has resigned herself to her new situation, her sons and daughters hope in vain for a change of fortune.

Grete Minde, based on the novel by Theodor Fontane, tells the story of a girl trapped in the turbulent religious and social prejudices of 17th-century Sweden.

Prussia in the late 19th century: Eighteen-year-old Effi Briest, the daughter of a middle-class family, marries District Administrator Geert von Innstetten. But her marriage to this much older, highly dutiful man does not make her happy. In the small town where Innstetten serves, Effi is socially isolated. Then she meets the charming Major von Crampas...

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