Monika Bergen

Film by Kurt Jung-Alsen.

The two half-orphans Reni and Rolf are 13 and 10 years old and they live with their grandmother in Berlin. Their father has died during the war, their mother works at a Baltic Sea port. Here she meets a captain who wants to marry her. When their mother tells them about the planned wedding, Reni and Rolf are reluctant to meet the captain.

The democratic Munich journalist and editor-in-chief of the "Südkurier" newspaper, Alexander Steinhorst, has reached the pinnacle of social reputation and private wealth. He can rent a theater for his son and women are at his feet. He then takes the liberty of publishing a newspaper with revelations about the dubious sources of the CSU election fund. CSU lawyer Dr. Fabricius sets a photographer on Steinhorst's private life to bring him down. He is charged with "fornication with addicts", but is acquitted due to a lack of evidence. Steinhorst, however, is ruined socially. Friends and colleagues turn their backs on him out of fear for their own careers and his assets are confiscated. Steinhorst commits suicide.

German teacher Miss Platzke starts working in a graduating class. Since she is young and inexperienced, the students soon consider her incapable of doing her job. Their disrespectful and harsh behavior makes Miss Platzke even more insecure, and she reacts with rigidity: On the last day before winter break she orders them to write an unannounced essay, thereby provoking a spontaneous strike.

During a weekend spent on the island Hiddensee, the snobbish high school student Jan, who has just been expelled from school, meets Christine. Christine is impressed with his bragging attitude although he just uses it to hide his insecurity and his remorse about the fact that he was sacked. Naturally, he keeps quiet about his current situation. Christine’s companion Hannes is less thrilled about Jan. Later on, the three of them meet again at a dockyard in Stralsund. After the disreputable end of his school career, Jan is assigned to the very brigade in which Christine and Hannes work as a crane operator and a brigadier respectively.

What do grown-ups actually do at night? Little Kuno has been asking himself this question a lot lately. One day, the curious six-year-old decides to get to the bottom of it and sneaks outside his house at night. He wanders around the streets aimlessly and experiences some very exciting things.

After their successful May party, now the Lehmann family want to throw a New Year's Eve part with punch. Wilhelm's sons Franz and Paul are brigade leaders at a chemical factory. One of their brigades consists largely of fanatics of high culture, while the other consists of sports fanatics. But the rival brigades must work together in order to throw a successful New Year's Eve party for the factory, since the occasion requires both elements: sports and culture.