Brigitte Beier

Paul and Paula have had bad experiences with love: Paul is financially well off but has lost all affection for his wife, and Paula leads a troublesome life raising two children on her own. They meet and discover a strong passion for each other. Life seems like a dream when they're together - but their short flights from the burdens of reality are once and again interrupted by Paul's ties to family and career.

Tom, a 17-year-old window design apprentice, dreams about true love. One day, a new girl from East Berlin moves to town. Tom has a crush on her and will do anything to impress her. When he finds out that she plans to become an actress, he even discovers the aspiration to perform himself. For a while, Tom is on cloud 9.

Helene Sonntag, 40, unmarried and a teacher. She has long dreamed of happy partnership, but things turn out as they should. In order to avoid the work overload caused by substitute teaching and vacation childcare, she is forced to make a move.

A young boy fantasizes his way to school into a battle between cowboys and Indians, where the bad guys want to steal some gold medals. Real events and fantasy interacts in his mind.

One year has passed since Max and Wanda got their divorce. Max has come to the realization that he wants his ex-wife back - no matter what the cost! So he concocts a sneaky plan: he asks Wanda to hide him from the police, who are apparently looking for him. At first, Wanda rejects all his attempts to restart their relationship. But she is soon unable to resist Max's convincing promises and even throws her lover out of the house. But then she discovers Max's lie.

A mechanic, Peter Papenbold, is giving all his free time to volunteer in the children's sport school. When he's asked to switch to teaching permanently - it's a very difficult decision for him.

No one has any time for Moritz. And at school, things are not exactly the greatest either. Moritz runs away and moves into the inside of an advertising pillar. A speaking cat, a circus girl and a street sweeper become his new friends. Gradually, they help the young boy to realize that running away does not solve anything.

Carola is a mischievous girl who doesn't care much for school- except for sports and recess, of course. Without her good friend Willi to keep her on the straight and narrow, she would really be in trouble. One day at school, Carola has an idea. She invents what she calls "International Ghosts' Day" and a ghost named "Buh" to go with it. When Buh turns out to be less-than-imaginary the two decide to switch places, with Buh taking on all the schoolwork, and Carola taking the opportunity to play practical jokes on all her friends...

In the village of Medela, the village elder Fritz Schmal is buried with great sympathy. Beforehand, Till goes with his father to his property to check on the stork on its new nest. When they join the funeral procession afterwards, the stork has just returned from Africa and joins her husband on the nest. So it comes as Grandad Schmal had predicted. The following flashback shows how it all began.

Otto Scheidel (Manfred Krug) has been captain of the Elbe steamer Jenissei for over twenty years, but his ship, the last of its kind, is going to be converted into a floating restaurant. Otto, whose his strong attachment to the ship has already cost him his relationship with his girlfriend Caramba (Renate Krößner), refuses to take another job and instead joins a railway construction brigade.

The little island of Laenneken is a place where time seems to stands still. Traditional customs and age-old power relations are still in place and are unaffected by modern-day influences. Not even the foundation of a fishery cooperative has diminished the power of the two richest fishermen, Pröpping and Grabe. Both men have been bitter rivals for ages. Nevertheless, Grabe’s son Henning and Pröpping’s daughter Bärbel prepare to break with the traditions that restrict their lives, as they are had over heels in love with each other and want to marry.

The philosopher Democritus has a toothache, so a dentist from ancient Abdera sets off for his house. En route, he gets into a fight with a donkey driver. This conflict eventually causes all of Abdera to go crazy. Just when the city is seconds away from having a civil war, Democritus' apprentice shows up to ease the city's tensions with a gift.

15-year old Klaus Kambor, called Kurbel, is living in a village in Lusatia and already thinks of himself as an adult. He can hold a lot of rhubarb wine and has already kissed a girl. But with his new method of lawn mowing, which he thinks is brilliant, Klaus makes a big mistake: He causes a wild fire in the forest. Then he does not react adult-like at all, but shirks the responsibility, which leads to the break-up with his girlfriend Daniela. Furthermore, Klaus does not realize that several of the places he likes the most in his environment are now going to be sacrificed to mining. When Klaus becomes friends with the teacher Konzak and with the construction worker Jule, he feels understood for the first time and starts to take more responsibility.

In the troubled state of Ocantros, the prime minister is assassinated. Martin Katrup, who is responsible for setting up a large printing plant, is also on the island at this time. A short time later, two of his colleagues disappear without a trace and Katrup sets off in search of them. The situation is exacerbated when the secret service tries everything in its power to spark a coup and a civil war.

The late summer of 1918. Paul, Willi and Heinrich from an age-old German town are good friends, although there is a great deal that divides them. Heinrich comes from an officer's family with an army tradition and is preparing to enter cadet college. Paul's father and grandfather are workers, and Willi, left to depend on himself, works as a hotel messenger. The last year of the war is hard for everyone, but while Paul and Willi know their own minds and do not hesitate to help the war fugitives Tony and Sepp, for Heinrich everything is more complicated.

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 deputy editor-in-chief of an SPD newspaper in West Germany, Karl Waldner, recognizes the former Henlein leader Meißner, who is guilty of the murder of his father, at a meeting of Sudeten Germans. He wants to open the case and hand Meißner over to the courts. But he encounters resistance, even in the SPD, whose right-wing leaders do not want any conflict with the CDU, in which Meißner has an influential position. Waldner, who has been in the party for thirty years, has to rethink his own position. Discussions with his childhood friend Sepp Lukas and memories of their joint attempts to unite the Young Communists and Young Socialists against the Henlein Youth help him to do so. He realized where the failure of social democracy had already led back then.

It's no big secret that twelve-year-old Hannes is in love with his classmate Carolin, who he compares to a beautiful white cloud in the sky. But when Carolin spends most of her time exploring the village's history with Benno, Hannes becomes increasingly jealous of his rival. The only person who is happy about this situation is Kerstin, who is in fact interested in Hannes. In order to impress Carolin, Hannes takes her and several others out for a boat ride in the nearby Bay of Greifswald, but his plan takes a deadly turn as a storm approaches.