The successful shipowner Georg Behrendsen and his wife Irene are coming from South America to Germany for business. While negotiating in the home of senator Kersten, the senator's son Wilhelm (Werner Fuetterer) is taking care of Irene Behrendsen. The two fall in love with each other and decide to marry after Irene's divorce from her husband. But the old senator forces his son to decide whether to marry Irene or to become head of the shipping company. Not to break the family tradition, Wilhelm decides against the marriage. Irene, full of hatred against the senator, goes back to her husband. 25 years later. The senator is still head of the shipping company, because Wilhelm was killed in the war. He concentrates his love now on his daughter Victoria and he can't refuse any wish of her. Some day she tells him that she has been falling in love with a young german guy from overseas called Peter Behrendsen, not knowing that he is the son of the women who hates the senator the most.
A biographical film of Otto von Bismarck, the Prime Minister of Prussia, and how he and his policies - including aggressive war - helped to unite Germany.
The young Schiller, whose heart and soul are writing and poetry, is forced into the military academy (the pride and joy of the Duke of Württemberg). Schiller is disgusted by the everyday routine of the military, always back and forth between breeding and drills. Conversation, conflict or even critique are discouraged – the oppression insufferable for the young rebel. Disgusted by the brutality, he writes his drama "The Bandit", which he would later publish anonymously. But following a frank conversation with the Duke, Schiller is dishonored and must leave the land.
About how the British broke the Brazilian monopoly on natural rubber. The storyline suggests a complex relation between adventure, military conquest and imperialism.
The Italian mountaineer Carel wants to be the first man to stand on the top of the Matterhorn. Since the climb is very difficult, he agrees to try it together with the British mountaineer Whymper. But due to an intrigue this agreement is dropped and the two man try it on the same day with two different teams and then disaster strikes.
The film follows the life story of Johann Augustus Suter, the owner of Sutter's Mill, famous as the birthplace of the great California Gold Rush of 1848.
A German scientist designs and builds a machine that will do dangerous work instead of placing humans in jeopardy. But the machine itself turns out to have disastrous effects on the people involved.
