Werner Pohl

In 1959, in a small German village, the annual fair is set up. When a carousel is fixed firmly in the ground, a fair worker discovers a skeleton, a steel helmet, and a machine gun. The skeleton belongs to Robert Mertens, a plain soldier, who deserted in 1944 und flew to his home village. But when he arrived, no one wanted to help him, neither his former friends nor the minister, or even his own parents.

Laslo Benedek interrupted his thriving Hollywood career to return to Europe as director of the German Kinder, Mutter und ein General (Children, Mother and the General). The film is set in Berlin during the last days of WW II. Desperate for manpower, Hitler has ordered that all able-bodied teenaged boys --some as young as 15 -- be drafted into the army. Frau Asmussen (Hilde Krahl) is one of five mothers who learn to their horror that their boys have been slated to be cannon fodder on behalf of the Third Reich. Asmussen and the other mothers head directly to the front to plead with the German generals for the lives of their sons. Not directly an indictment of Germany's involvement in (or incitement of) the recent war, Kinder, Mutter und ein General stresses the futility and heartbreak of all wars everywhere.

Shot in 1944, finished and released in 1954.

The bailiff Engel is believed to be an heir to the millions via a fictitious newspaper advertisement. It is said to have a mink farm. Your debtors mean my nun that as a millionaire you can pay the debts. Some dowry hunters have seen it on them too. Paulchen, who shows the ad, has in Ms. Engel and in the end she also has a couple.

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.

In a mountain village a deranged alcoholic who routinely beats his wife and kids goes missing. Though everyone in the village is glad to see him gone, an investigation begins. Made at the end of the Nazi era and immediately shelved; not released until 1948.

Blonde goddess Marika Rökk plays Julia Koster, a ravishing red-headed musical revue star and her opening number, "At Night It Isn't Right To Be Alone", playing to a packed theater, is both an eye-popper and a jaw-dropper.

The attractive Oberleutnant Paul Wendlandt is stationed in North Africa as a fighter pilot. While in Berlin to deliver a report he is given a day's leave, and on the stage of the cabaret theatre "Skala" sees the popular Danish singer Hanna Holberg. For Paul it is love at first sight. When Hanna visits friends after the end of the performance, he follows her, and speaks to her in the U-Bahn. After the party in her friends' flat, he accompanies her home and chance throws them further together when an air raid warning forces them to take cover in the air raid shelter. Hanna reciprocates Paul's feelings, but after a night spent together Paul has to return immediately to the front. There now follows a whole series of misunderstandings, and one missed opportunity after another. While Hanna waits in vain for some sign of life from Paul, he is flying on missions in North Africa. When he tries to visit her in her Berlin flat, she is giving a Christmas concert in Paris.

After an emergency plane landing in the desert, the actress Barbara gets to know the industrialist Thomas. After they are rescued, the two live at Thomas' place in Berlin. Although she confesses her love for him, Thomas asks his brother Werner to look after Barbara, as he feels he is too consumed by work and doesn't wish to be bound to anyone. Only after a fight with his brother does Thomas realize how much in love with Barbara he really is; but by that time, she has left him. For years, Thomas searches in vain for her until one day he meets her in New York ... where she is now married.

A drama film directed by Gerhard Lamprecht.