German Films after 1945

A rich girl, about to become of age, decides to withdraw all her money from a bank. The sum is much larger than the bank can afford, at that particular time, so Peter Voss, a bank employee, offers himself to pretend stealing it and to keep on the run until stocks have risen again. Followed by a private detective and the girl, he flees around the world. In the end, the bank is saved and Voss gets the girl.

The plot from the famous Johann Strauss operetta adapted as a comedy film with most of the songs left out.

After returning from a concentration camp, Susanne finds an ex-soldier living in her apartment. Together the two try to move past their experiences during World War II.

Two barge skippers fall in love with the same woman.

As the end of the Second World War approaches and the Soviet Red Army is advancing, a group of concentration camp inmates is helped to escape by a Polish doctor. They hide in a wood where they meet other fugitives, who have been there for months, constantly in fear of being discovered. Out of fear of the German army patrols, they do not dare to leave the forest, even as the food supplies run low.

A screenwriter comes up with a story about an affair between a maid and her employer

After he has luckily survived the war, Otto tries to build up his new life in the remains of Berlin.

A long time-span of Austrian history (from the late 19th century to the years after world war II) is reflected in the ups and downs of a family of piano-makers in Vienna.

Shortly after WWII, the DEFA Studios produced a series of operas and operettas which belonged to the classical German musical heritage. This enchanting film, the very first opera production of DEFA, stands out because of its lavish decor and costumes, its outstanding actors and their masterful voices of that time.

A Jewish professor returns to Germany following World War II. He hopes to help rebuild a new, free Germany, but he must confront the antisemitism of his colleagues and students.

A young man and a woman about to commit suicide by jumping into a river, recount to each other their experiences of the Second World War and the struggles of the immediate post-war situation.

The life of the worker Hans Behnke and his family from 1925 to 1945 in Berlin. Hans ultimately does join the Nazi party, but still shows signs of disagreement with their ideology.

Set in German-occupied France in 1944 where a female resistance operative and a German army officer fall in love.

Peter Munk, a poor charcoal burner, lives with his mother in The Black Forest. Poverty prevents him from marrying Lisbeth, the girl he loves. When he comes across the Little Glass Man, the good spirit of the forest, the young man asks him for assistance. His wish is granted and he becomes rich. But the fool soon loses all his money after gambling at the inn. In desperation, he asks Dutch Michael, the evil spirit of the forest, to help him to become rich again. The mean giant agrees and gives Peter all the riches in the world, but on one condition: the young man will exchange his heart for a cold stone. He can now marry Lisbeth but can a heart of ice make you and the others happy...?

German scientist murders his fiancée during World War II when he learns that she has been selling the results of his secret research to the enemy.

Diederich Heßling is scared of everything and everyone. But as he grows up, he comes to realize that he has to offer his services to the powers-that-be if he wants to wield power himself. His life motto now runs: bow to those at the top and tread on those below. In this way, he always succeeds: as a student in a duel-fighting student fraternity and as a businessman in a paper factory. He cajoles the obese district administrative president Von Wulkow and wins his favor. He slanders his financial rivals and hatches a plot with the social democrats in the town council. On his honeymoon with his rich wife Guste, he finally finds a chance to do his beloved Kaiser a favor. And when a memorial to the Kaiser is unveiled in the town where Diederich lives and works, he delivers the address. He stands behind the lectern in the pouring rain, saluting his Kaiser. The crowd is dispersed. Everything is laid in ruins...

During the Salzburg Festival a drug-addicted ballerina tries everything to get some morphine in her hands. She put her moves on a young pharmacist, Hans Falkner (O.W. Fischer) and almost ruins his marriage with his wife Anna (Heidemarie Hatheyer). A doctor advises the ballerina to join a rehab and yet hands her a prescription for morphine, but accidentally prescribes a lethal dose. Subsequently, Anna Falkner, who gets the prescription, is lead into temptation to get rid of her hatred competitor. Evetually, morality wins and Anna mixes the morphine in the right dose.

An actress used to playing only bit parts becomes the center of attention when a movie director buys her life story as a film project, she is now faced with a psychological crisis.

Emil goes to Berlin to see his grandmother with a large amount of money and is offered sweets by a strange man that make him sleep. He wakes up at his stop with no money. It is up to him and a group of children to save the day.

Shortly before the outbreak of World War II: Private Asch and gunner Vierbein belong to the same unit but could not be more contrary.

A German nurse gets sent to the front because she gives medical aid to a wounded Serbian partisan during World War II.

King Ludwig II of Bavaria is frustrated, having to accept parliament's will to join Bismarck, rather he his cultured Habsburg friends, in wars. His love-life being as fruitless, he seeks comfort in art. But building fairytale castles and an even grander opera for his musical idol Wagner proves so expensive, his cabinet ends up resorting to formally challenging his mental health, plausible as his beloved brother Otto contracted schizophrenia earlier. Tragedy now lurks in Ludwig's prison-castle.

As Germany's fortunes in the latter part of World War II wane, several young boys, in their enthusiasm to do something "for the fatherland", volunteer to fight with the German army in the East. Horrified at the news that their children are to be sent to the Russian front, the boys' mothers begin a desperate effort to get their sons back.