Hans Fallada

In wartime Berlin, a factory foreman, Otto Quangel and his wife, Anna learn that their only son, Paul, has been killed in action in France. In their grief, the couple decide to take action against the Nazi regime. They create their own form of resistance, writing postcards urging people to resist Hitler and the Nazis and quietly distributing the postcards around Berlin. Various people enter the picture, showing the fear and distrust of the times. People, such as the actor Harteisen, find the cards and race to turn them in, lest they be found with them and come under suspicion. The police and the Gestapo are baffled for over a year, but finally find the source of the cards. The Volksgerichtshof sentences the Quangels to death.

The impoverished and homeless orphan girl Anna Barbara sets out in search of the mysterious golden thaler. The rag collector Hans Geiz offers her the promise of it if she toils in his underground kingdom for three years.

Berlin in June of 1940. While Nazi propaganda celebrates the regime’s victory over France, a kitchen-cum-living room in Prenzlauer Berg is filled with grief. Anna and Otto Quangel’s son has been killed at the front. This working class couple had long believed in the ‘Führer’ and followed him willingly, but now they realise that his promises are nothing but lies and deceit. They begin writing postcards as a form of resistance and in a bid to raise awareness: Stop the war machine! Kill Hitler! Putting their lives at risk, they distribute these cards in the entrances of tenement buildings and in stairwells. But the SS and the Gestapo are soon onto them, and even their neighbours pose a threat.

The love story of Emma and Johannes begins during the hard years of the Great Depression. Emma repeatedly tries to encourage her husband, who is suffering terribly from unemployment. However, the crisis continues to intensify and social disintegration affects millions.

Hans Fallada tells in his published after the war novel "The drinker" the story of the agricultural wholesaler Erwin Sommer, who flees from his narrow bourgeois relations under the burdens of the new times in the kingdom of the king alcohol, whose liberty and independence promises prove a lie - the only truth of the alcohol. On behalf of the WDR television play Ulrich Plenzdorf has adapted Fallada's 1944/45 novel for a film adaptation by Tom Toelle with Harald Juhnke in the main role of Erwin Sommer.

The stern and reserved Gustav Hartmann, known as "Iron Gustav", is the last Berlin cab driver. At the end of the 1920s, his time is over as horse-drawn cabs are replaced by automobile cabs. He is threatened with impoverishment. His family wants to have him incapacitated. So he sets off on one last great journey that takes him from Berlin to Paris and back. A reporter with a nose for a big story accompanies him, Gustav becomes famous, returns to Berlin in triumph and, having become a gentle and approachable person, reconciles with his family.

The tax officials Thiel and Kalübbe try to confiscate two oxen, but are prevented from doing so by protesting farmers led by the community leader Reimers. The assistant editor Tredup, who takes photos of the incident, is also in the thick of things.

After serving five years Willi soon learns that his new life is another kind of prison since no one trusts an ex-convict. His uphill struggle for a job and shattered hopes of a normal existence grind him down to utter despair.

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A young couple struggling against poverty must keep their marriage a secret in order for the husband to keep his job, as his boss doesn't like to hire married men.

Emma Morschel, known as Lämmchen, is expecting a child. So she marries her boyfriend, Johannes Pinneberg. The young marriage gets off to a rocky start: Lämmchen's parents, class-conscious workers, are opposed to their daughter marrying the lowly clerk.

No description available.

Gustav Hartmann is in trouble. Because of the new taxis he doesn't get many passengers in his horse-drawn carriage. To prove what he and his horse are capable of, he starts a trip from Berlin to Paris.

The underage Rosemarie is still too young to run her inherited farm by herself; but she's more than aware that her foster father and the farm's administrator, the farmer Schlieker, is constantly skimming from the farm's finances to line his own pocket. To put an end to Schlieker's scheme, Rosemarie asks her godfather, Professor Kittgus, for help. But when Kittgus confronts Schlieker, the farmer not only proves to be unreasonable but also violent...

First adaptation of Hans Fallada's novel of the same name.

A German couple start a silent campaign against Hitler's dictatorial reign after the loss of their only son at the front.

Professor Gotthold Kittguß leads a secluded life, which is primarily determined by his books. His housekeeper, the widow Müller, takes care of all the practicalities of life. One day, a strange boy appears at his house to deliver a call for help from his 17-year-old godchild Rosemarie, who is the daughter of a deceased pastor friend and lives with the Schliekers, her so-called foster parents, in the small village of Usadel. The Schliekers manage Rosemarie's inheritance, but are anxious to take possession of the farm. They treat Rosemarie like their maid and allow her to live in undignified conditions. After a moment's hesitation, Professor Kittguß sets off for Usadel to help his godchild. But he doesn't receive a warm welcome there and is even locked up in a cellar. Rosemarie frees him and takes him to a secret hiding place in a nearby fisherman's hut.

When they start losing family members and neighbors due to WWII and the Nazi government's policies, a quiet married couple becomes disillusioned and begins spreading leaflets against the government - a crime punishable by death.