Fernsehen der DDR

A Jewish ghetto in the east of Europe, 1944. By coincidence, Jakob Heym eavesdrops on a German radio broadcast announcing the Soviet Army is making slow by steady progress towards central Europe. In order to keep his companion in misfortune, Mischa, from risking his life for a few potatoes, he tells him what he heard and announces that he is in possession of a radio - in the ghetto a crime punishable by death. It doesn't take long for word of Jakob's secret to spread - suddenly, there is new hope and something to live for - and so Jakob finds himself in the uncomforting position of having to come up with more and more stories.

Early 1921: a man is on his way home. Gleb Chumalov, regimental commander, worker and Hero of the Order of the Red Banner, returns to his home town from the Civil War. The victory over the enemies of the Russian people gives him the conviction that a new, better time will dawn overnight. Gleb looks for his comrades from earlier years, but only finds people who are emaciated by their efforts. The cement works where he used to work has been plundered and abandoned. With great effort, Gleb and his comrades try to get the plant up and running again. The struggle seems to begin anew... It is the time after the victory of the “Great October Socialist Revolution“ and the time of building a new society.

The opera singer Ludwig Löwenhaupt wants a proper festive roast for Christmas, so he buys a goose in advance to feed the whole family. What he doesn't realize, however, is that the children, Elli, Gerda and Peterle, will grow fond of the animal, which is christened Gustje, and will no longer want to eat it. After the "liberation", the "five kilos of meat", which were initially locked up in the cellar, become a pet that the children take to bed with them and communicate with. But shortly before Christmas, father Löwenhaupt still wants to slaughter them. However, as his family protests and his conscience gets in the way, he can't slaughter the goose after all. So Gustje only has to leave a few feathers as proof that she has been plucked, and the opera singer is given another goose that has already been cut up.

This elaborate two-part television film shows a period in the life of the communist labor leader Ernst Thälmann. It begins with the bloody riots on May 1, 1929 in Berlin, during which police shot at demonstrating workers, and ends with the 7th.

Hannes Peters is delighted that he can escape his unloved job as a chef and join the navy. He is overjoyed to be assigned as a hydroacoustician. But then the cook falls ill and Hannes is transferred to the galley. He resists, serves inedible dumplings and oversalted coffee, but it doesn't help! For a while, he has to do his duty as a smutje and finally realizes that everyone in the navy is in the same boat.

A teacher at a German high-school in the nineteen thirties has issues with his students who seem to be getting less human and more convinced of Nazi ideals as time goes on.

After a long period as a prisoner of war, Joachim Ott returns home to find that his wife is now living with another man.

Ralph grows up in pre-war Dresden as the eldest son of a principled and orderly streetcar conductor. With the rise to power of the Nazis, the war, the collapse and the hesitant new beginning, his firmly established middle-class world is also thrown off course. His father is one of the first to be called up to the front. His mother is left alone with the responsibility for Ralph and his younger brother Achim. In the air-raid shelter, during the nights of bombing and later in the daily struggle against misery and hunger, the mother quickly abandons all moral baggage and develops a pragmatic will to survive, for which she admires Ralph. At the same time, the boy is frightened by his mother's desperate claim to happiness because he perceives her affairs as a betrayal of his father, who has gradually faded into a symbol of a happy, carefree childhood.

Johann Paul Schroth is a 20-year-old barber's apprentice who breaks out of the barber-surgeon's trade. Schroth wants to realize his dream, which is to put aside the beard knife and use the scalpel in such a way that people are healed and not tortured...

On the way to the holiday camp, 16-year-old Steffi falls in love with Norbert, whom she has known for a long time from visiting grandfather in Pinnow. She made a quick decision to change her future plans and decided to become a milker, because Norbert is the newly appointed apprentice trainer for livestock farming in Pinnow. The grandfather, who is very happy about Steffi's visit, cannot prevent his granddaughter from making up her mind. Norbert himself was an apprentice in Pinnow and often suffered from the teaching methods of his predecessor. That's why he wants to do it differently.

1982: East German actor Erwin Gregorek travels to Hamburg to shoot screen tests for a film about the sinking of the ocean-liner Cap Arcona in 1945 - a catastrophe he himself survived as a concentration camp prisoner.

Switzerland 1523. The mercenary Hansli Gyr returns with his soldiers from Italy to his home in the Oberland. They have fought for the Pope and now find a religious upheaval in Switzerland.

Berlin in the 60s. The construction of the Berlin Wall not only divides the city, but also separates the Rechlin family. While mother Ingelore lives with husband Hannes and the youngest son in the eastern part of the city, the young, married daughter Beate lives in West Berlin. Even when she gives birth to the first grandson, the newly baked grandma Ingelore cannot visit her. Travel permits are only issued one year later. But the formerly so tight family bond is burdened by the long separation. Son Bernd also avoids the rest of the family, as his new girlfriend has just been released from prison because of attempted "republic escape". And so Mother Ingelore almost has to watch her family shatter.

Adaptation of the classic fairytale. Rapunzel lives alone in the woods, in a tower with no doors. Then, one day, a mysterious stranger comes for a visit.

The paths of many people cross before Christmas Eve. Each of them has their own special story to tell on this day... On the morning of December 24, the doctor at the children's clinic leaves the hospital with a happy heart. The parents of little Matthias have reconciled with each other. As a farewell gift, the porter gives her a chocolate Santa Claus, which is to be passed on many times that day: at one or two fleeting encounters, as a nice gesture for other people. Fate plays a bit of a servant Ruprecht and distributes his gifts. Two lonely hearts are in a hurry to escape the hustle and bustle of the festive season. An accident brings them together. In exchange for a bottle of champagne to mark the shock, the sweet chocolate man switches to Ilse's divorced husband, who is drawn back into the bosom of the family at the same time every year.

Normal everyday life in an apartment building on Plantagenstraße in East Berlin is disrupted when a truck pulls up with the new tenants' furniture. And they include two small children - now, of all times, when old Matuschke's wife has just died and consideration should actually be shown for the widower. Even worse for Mrs. Tillack, however, is the fact that the entire male world seems to be after her 16-year-old daughter Katrin.

Bienchen is a little girl who is very worried regarding the private life of her older brother.

"Je oller, je doller", say the roommates of pensioner Otto Panke, because they often see him together with the young Manuela, who likes to invent "dream jobs" for her life and dreams of an "exclusive life". But for Otto, the noticeable sympathy for the pretty, quite professional woman is simply "soul kinship". And since both have an extremely large degree of imagination, they are special, extraordinary - to a certain extent "spider fix"! The problem of the two is that they often get into tricky situations that threaten to get messy and they get a lot of problems. But as is the case with good stories: in the end, everything aims at a happy happy end...