Kuhle Wampe takes place in early-1930s Berlin. The film begins with a montage of newspaper headlines describing steadily-rising unemployment figures. This is followed by scenes of a young man looking for work in the city and the family discussing the unpaid back rent. The young man, brother of the protagonist Anni, removes his wristwatch and throws himself from a window out of despair. Shortly thereafter his family is evicted from their apartment. Now homeless, the family moves into a garden colony of sorts with the name “Kuhle Wampe.”
If watching a fellow facing indifference/rejection in the slums of Berlin didn't convey enough pathos, Gerhard Lamprecht gathered much of the same crew from Die Verrufenen and turned his attention to the city's population of unwanted children for the heart-tugging Die Unehelichen, released the following year. The trio of foster children at the center of Die Verrufenen are survivors who use their own resourcefulness to get by when the kids' guardians and the system itself let them down.
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson look into reports that a huge, vicious hound has killed Lord Charles Baskerville and that Lord Henry Baskerville is the next to be killed.
Else Riedel (Lissy Arna), locked out by her authoritarian father, seeks refuge with her boyfriend Hans. Complications threaten when Hans's roommate Max falls in love with her, but the situation is resolved: the three remain friends, and decide to form a music hall act. They want to ascend, but how? A way out beckons when a theatrical agent named Nevin enters Else’s life. He is played by Hubert von Meyerinck as a slick and oily villain, who oozes refinement; his experience behind bars is waved away with a silk scarf. He is cunning to the point of perfidiousness, but is not completely unsympathetic. He also embodies a new type - the scrounger.
A mother wants to buy a bike for her son, but she doesn't have enough money.
Violanta lives with her parents in a poor cottage in the mountains in Austria. Her family is frowned upon by the local population since her father is a drunk and suspected by the villagers to have caused the death of one of the farmers. One day handsome Marianus Renner comes along. He sees Violanta and immediately starts courting her, They become involved in a relationship, until one day he suddenly does not come to her usual appointment.
After WWII, Berlin lies in ruins. For Gustav, Willi and their friends the rubble provides an adventurous, dangerous playground. Especially for Gustav, it helps pass the time, as he longs for his father's return from a POW camp. One day a stranger arrives, looking helpless and hopeless.
In 1942 the Germans devised an operation to introduce in Egypt spies to provoke a rebellion against the British.
While on leave in Berlin during the Second World War, a soldier named Hans meets a young woman named Monika. They fall in love and make plans for a future together after the war. Yet their later attempts to find an apartment and get married are hindered by the housing shortage and they have to stay separately with relatives.
Baron von Goret is an impoverished landowner, whose estate is about to go into receivership. And so, for that reason, he wishes to marry off his son Hermann with his well-off girlfriend Helga. But Hermann is in love with the farmer’s daughter Dorothea. He leaves his father’s estate with her and makes his way to Berlin to make a name for himself. He’s not successful in this and, so as not to stand in his way, Dorothea leaves him. Hermann’s aunt brings him back to his father’s estate, where, depressed over losing Dorothea, works tirelessly to clear the estate of all its debts.
In his will, the eccentric Feinsipp leaves his porter Piesicke his race horse "Amalia", to his driver his car, and to his cook Marie -- as well as to his chambermaid Barbel -- a small pension. All four now try to begin their independent existence together. Amalia is supposed to race in the next show, for Piesicke has already prophesized her victory. With the winnings, they're going to open a beer garden. But the horse ends up losing and is sold. With the money, Piesicke buys another horse and this one wins a bucket load of money in a race. Yet, in spite of this stroke of luck, the friendship among the four of them starts to fall apart from mistrust and jealousy.
In this war drama, three Nazi survivors are rescued after their battleship sank. Initially they are given heroes' accolades for their courage, but then it becomes apparent that these men actually jumped ship three hours before the boat sank. The men are tried and subsequently executed.
A melancholic enjoyable journey by an old couple who escape the dreary everyday life of a Berlin retirement home for a day: at Pentecost, Margarete and Heinrich come up with the idea of visiting their nephew, whom they believe to have invited them to dinner. So they set off on their own, and although they don't always know where they are or why they have actually set off, they have a wonderful day. Even if the police find them and bring them back before they reach their destination.
A family suffers greatly during the First World War.
Vera Meiners' life was sweet but unfortunately for her, it was not to last. Her husband, Jan, left her after she met a former lover in a harmless friendly meeting. Forced to resume her disrupted medical career, she worked in a Swiss clinic but, without the knowledge of the chief surgeon, Vera ordered a risky operation to be performed and was thereafter fired. Penniless, she then works in Spanish nightclubs in order to provide for herself and her child. After many years, she runs into her friend Frank again in one of these nightclubs...
Dr. Blum, a Jewish manufacturer, is falsely accused of a murder. Even when the real killer’s identity becomes evident, the state prosecutor refuses to accept Blum’s innocence.
Returning after three years at sea, a young sailor finds his boyhood sweetheart is now engaged to his old friend::a challenge to their comradeship.
Since her father died, rich and carefree Jacqueline Topelius makes magazine covers and causes social gossip with her flirtatious adventures around Europe, leaving a string of admirers behind without much concern. Her sister June, living in Paris, is all the contrary but they love each other just the same. Everything changes when Jacqueline meets Dr. Michael Thomas, who rejects her at first. Now she must choose, and also face the consequences her past life may have on their future together.
Albert and his sister Lene live with their aunt. One day, they discover that the street car line will open a new track, which will go through the land, on which their aunt has a house. In expectation of a high buying price for her property, the aunt goes on a spending spree, only to find out that the new line will not be laid on her property after all.
A patriotic period melodrama in which a father and son are in love with the same lady.The son does not tell her that his father, an officer, has fought in a duel over her, but lies that he has left her for the army. Melodrama written by Douglas Sirk.
Peter Kolle, a low-level clerk, and his wife Sabine have a happy marriage, but Peter lacks the necessary funds. Therefore, he secretly works on his invention at a friend's house at night. When his wife finds out, she angrily leaves their apartment and travels to Berlin to see her brother Alphons, to whom Peter had promised at their wedding that he would give up on the invention and to whom he had therefore given all the paperwork. Soon, they both long for each other again: Sabine travels home, Peter to Berlin. And eventually, they meet.
Miss Annemarie Tessmer is a clerk in the house of the manufacturer Herman Schilling and she is indispensable. She is exploited by all the family members and her own life is completely in the background. Herman Schilling wants his daughter Thea merry with the representative for foreign affairs Dr. Richard Rauch. However, after a number of dramatic complications, Richard chooses for the good, selfless and hardworking Annemarie.
The cashier, Jürgen Borb, has already worked for 10 years at Dadag in Hamburg and is an example for customer service and company loyalty. His professionalism are matched by the trust of his employers, who, while relating to him in an acceptable manner professionally, desire no closer contact with him outside of the workplace. When Borb suddenly disappears one day, Dadag's directors and Borb's colleagues are surprised. They become even more surprised when they soon discover that Borb has embezzled well over a million marks from the firm. His stepsister, Mette, doesn't believe that her stepbrother is an embezzler. In the meantime, she has fallen in love with a criminal investigator, who, she believes, is simply exploiting her affections to get to Borb. Then one day, the criminal investigator finds a body in the cellar of a house Borb rented under a false name and this man created a phony ID card for Borb, identifying him as a resident of a South American country.
The young opera singer Carla is in love with the talented young composer Michele, who wants to make it big with classical music and writes his first opera, "The Return of Odysseus," for Carla. But Carla is more successful than he is and gets a gig at La Scala in Milan. Through her connections, she manages to find a publisher for Michele's opera. But when Michele learns what the publisher really thinks of his work, he leaves and abandons Carla. A year later, Carla finds Michele again. He has since become a sought-after composer, but is embittered because he is only successful with pop songs. His new revue "Dream Music," a reworking of his opera, is about to premiere. Carla then arranges for Michele's original opera to premiere in Budapest with her in the lead role.
Student Helene moves to Berlin to write her doctoral thesis. In the laboratory of her doctoral supervisor, the renowned Professor Matthias, she meets the charming Dr. Stefan Rainer. Helene falls in love with him, unaware that Stefan is already having an affair with Matthias′ wife Yvonne.