Harald Hauser

World-famous geneticist Professor Hülsenbeck is a man of integrity who refuses to mix science and political gain. When his findings are being used to harm humanity, he immigrates to the USA in 1933 in protest against Nazi racial politics.

In an act of friendship and solidarity between two mining towns in 1929, the locals of Kriwoj Rog, Russia, give their flag as a gift to the locals of Bergstedt, Germany. This quickly takes on a symbolic meaning for the miners in Bergstedt as the Nazi party demands that this Soviet gesture be erased and the flag be replaced with their own. The miner and communist party functionary Otto Brosowski (Erwin Geschonneck) publicly declares it his duty to defend this flag against every danger, and he keeps his promise despite his family being threatened by torment and torture.

In November of 1939, the British consulate in Norway receives documents saying that the Nazis are conducting secret rocket research in Peenemünde. But the British doubt the authenticity of the so called "Oslo report". Thus, the Germans continue their experiments unimpeded. At the same time, resistance groups from France, England, Poland, and Germany try to find and to sabotage the secret Nazi research base. When the first "V 2" rocket is successfully launched, the Allied commanders finally become interested in the "Oslo report".

Bundeswehr soldier Klaus’ regiment is stationed in France, to take part in NATO maneuvers. The soldiers are ordered to be kind to the populace, since the West German High Command wishes the French to forget the atrocities that were committed during the Second World War. Klaus falls in love with Jeanne, the daughter of the local mayor. He discovers that his commanders intend to demolish the ruins of a local church, in which civilians were murdered by the German occupation forces at 1944. A local journalist who researches the event discovers that West German General Rucker ordered the massacre, but he is mysteriously murdered. Klaus defies his commanding officer Siebert, who instructs him to steal the documents indicting Rucker, and hands the evidence over to Jeanne.

The military officer Manfred von der Lohe has just been on a training course in the USA. During atomic bomb tests there, he was radioactively contaminated and has been incurably ill ever since. In order not to endanger the planned nuclear armament of the Bundeswehr and the economic interests involved, von der Lohe and his wife Eleonore are to disappear. But the couple turns to Professor Soltau, an anti-nuclear activist. Their goal is to inform the public about the danger …