Fernsehen der DDR

When twin brothers Georg and Steffen look a little too deeply into their glasses one day, they decide to swap roles for 14 days. Georg is the manager of a large department store and Steffen is a writer. The two experience bizarre situations: The department store director is adored by a saleswoman with a passion for literature and has to report on his literary work as the guest of honor at a brigade meeting. He is also short of ideas for the lively stories he is supposed to write. The writer, on the other hand, is not very familiar with the bureaucratic customs of running a department store. He allows all the sales assistants to take their housekeeping day at once, approves 3,000 marks for decoration purposes and approves of all departments of the department store being open until 8pm.

Hedda Gabler, the spoiled daughter of a general, marries the staid scholar Tesman in the hope that he will develop into an important personality. But Hedda is an eccentric woman and her expectations of life are insatiable. She has no sympathy for her husband's work and quickly becomes bored in her petty bourgeois circumstances. Then Ejlert Lövberg, a colleague of her husband's, returns to the city he left because of his dissolute lifestyle. They have known each other since those days, but Hedda feared a scandal if she had returned his passionate love. Ejlert is rehabilitated thanks to Thea, the woman at his side. But Hedda's love for him reawakens and, driven by her nature to determine the fate of other people, she drives Ejlert to disaster.

In 1787, Friedrich Schiller published his story about a prince who manipulates, seduces, and ultimately falls victim to a murderous intrigue in Rococo Venice. The prince, an enlightened ruler with a penchant for worldly things, travels to the funeral of his brother, a sometimes mentally confused, generally incompetent, alcohol-addicted good-for-nothing who died in a brawl. Having come to fulfill a tedious duty, the prince falls in love with a mysterious beauty against a romantic backdrop of dreamy gondolas, castles, and masks, and she drives him mad. He, who is usually guided by incorruptible judgment, becomes increasingly entangled in the finely woven web of his invisible enemies from the nobility and clergy. For, despite all reason, it is a matter of succession to the throne and thus of power.

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.

In 1960, farmer Walter Wagemühl learns from the West that his life is coming to an end. In order to pass the farm into loyal hands, he sends his adopted daughter Catharina to the East to marry his prudent nephew Ewald. The surprising request puts him in a huge quandary. He is about to take his final exams and the university officials have earmarked an academic career for him. But Ewald wants nothing more than to become chairman of the socialist cooperative in Hullerbusch. And now this too...

Maria and Tatjana met during the Second World War and became friends for life, especially as they had to endure difficult days together during the Hitler fascist era. This friendship also gave Maria the strength to study medicine after the war and to succeed as a doctor. But the ongoing fight against the common class enemy also welds the two women together, and Maria Fabian then unexpectedly meets the former landowner and current industrialist Guttenberg. He was the tormentor of her family during the Nazi era; now it is time for Maria, now a self-confident woman who owes her professional success to her state, the GDR, to successfully confront this representative of the class enemy.

The East German scientist Professor Gerlach has made a significant discovery with his research into how a new, even stronger pesticide can be protected against ineffectiveness through hydrolysis. This fact has not gone unnoticed by other interested nations. At the International Congress of Chemists in Geneva, a power struggle broke out between agents of the BND and the CIA over a preparation that had been smuggled into Switzerland without the knowledge of Dr. Werner, Gerlach's GDR representative and assistant, and which the enemies hoped would shed light on the composition of the invention.

Physicist Karjoli’s death leads his pupils, Harry and Friedbert, to discover a process for transferring life experiences. They test it on a fisherman, Borkentin, hoping he’ll learn to swim. The drama reveals that true progress requires personal learning.

Documentary film

Engineer Franz Bach seems to have gone astray once again. Working overtime, nagging at his wife and his parents sleeping apart lead the children to come to this conclusion. It can't go on like this. His youngest son Täve does his best to keep his father away from the very young intern Irene. Täve's 19-year-old brother, on the other hand, tries to steal his father's mistress. His wife Margarete also wants to bring a breath of fresh air into the marriage.

A young married couple is in love. Both believe that the other has it easier in life. To find out who is right in this matter, they swap clothes: Anna slips into a man's suit and Peter into a chic woman's wardrobe. In this outfit, they both drive towards their vacation destination. Of course - under these circumstances, the young couple are in for exciting and unpredictable adventures, as the locals at the vacation resort show more than just platonic interest in their new guests...

Professor Wilkers saw the trip to Thailand as a welcome change. But already in Bangkok, the starting point of his research into the origin of the drugs whose abuse he is trying to combat as a member of an international commission, he encounters extreme contradictions. The Swiss doctor is tempted to solve them, as the claims of the rich silk manufacturer Tracy Blake sound truthful and bitter, yet extremely strange. Leo Wilkers decides to embark on a life-threatening venture: He moves into the mountains near the border with Burma. Up there, in the village of Muong Nan, whose headman is at the same time in prison in Bangkok worrying about who in the capital might be interested in his arrest, Wilkers learns about the necessity of poppy cultivation in these areas.

Adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's novella for East German television, produced in 1965/66, not shown until 1972.

Benno (Torsten Rennert), a bright boy from Berlin, is not really a problem case, although his parents have enough trouble with him. But that's not just because of Benno, but because no one really has time for him. During a train ride, he meets a pensioner Oskar Schrader (Erwin Geschonneck), who likes to cook, collect watches, master magic tricks and who lives in the middle of nature. Between them they develop a real friendship. Benno is allowed to spend his school holidays with his friend. The grumpy Oskar lives alone in a garden colony - with friendly and unfriendly neighbors. Benno enjoys playing tricks with his buddy Mutz (Thomas Hoffer) on this neighborhood including the cranky animal lover Irma Kalweit (Agnes Krause) and the rude daredevil Ralf Klotz (Henry Hübchen).

Against the historical background of the occupation of Paris by the German Wehrmacht, the story of a German émigré child who finds shelter with a French working-class family is told.

After two failed marriages, Walter is finally looking for a wife again. But his father Paul, who believes his own position in the house would be jeopardized if a daughter-in-law came into the house, cunningly gets rid of all the candidates. Walter has placed an advertisement for a wife, as both the male-headed household run by Walter's father Paul and the upbringing of his adolescent son Peter require a female hand to keep things in order. Grandfather Paul, on the other hand, feels that the cosy trinity and especially his own position in the house would be jeopardized if another daughter-in-law took over the reins. So Paul sets about inventively thwarting Walter's intentions. At first, it is completely inexplicable to Walter why all his encounters with marriageable ladies end in failure. But he has other things to worry about at the moment anyway. His son, Peter, is having an affair with his teacher's daughter, of all people.

The main character Otto, the "best man", is a copy of the illustrious Mister Bean. He takes on an apprenticeship as a building-worker, which makes him a member of a building brigade. At the same time Otto tries to start a love affair, which he handles even clumsier. Never the less Otto makes progress with the lady in question, a single mother, who apparently doesn't mind. Actually he wanted her sister, but a retired Leninist party member changes his mind. This gives him the courage to persevere in his work, albeit with the helping hand of the obligatory retired party member. And behold, in the end Otto invents a new method of building, which saves the brigade many hours of work.