Vater Jarow
1865. Katharina goes to a ball in Moscow. There she meets again Tchaikowsky, her first and only love. The young, who is now married to wealthy Michael Iwanowitsch Murakin, a man she does not love, has not forgotten Piotr Illich, the (not yet) famous composer. Both are still in love with each other but Piotr is engaged to Nastassia, a dancer, while for her part Katharina cannot leave her husband. Tchaikowky's first love then decides to sacrifice her happiness to the success of the composer, sponsoring him in secret. Something Piotr will learn only years after. When Katharina finds herself free at last it is too late: Tchaikowsky is dying of cholera and she only has time to close his eyes.
Four graduates of an industrial design school team up and form a small business. The protagonist is so excited by the venture that she turns down the proposal of her dashing instructor. Time passes and her three partners lose interest in the business for different reasons. This leaves the heroine who has a change of heart and decides to forgo the business and marry the instructor after all.
Diener Christian
In 1885, famous New York Metropolitan Opera singer Maddalena dall' Orto is scheduled to perform at a festival in the German residence of Ilmingen. It soon becomes obvious that she is non other than Magda von Schwartze, who left the town eight years ago against her father's wishes to become a singer.
Schutzmann Patzkowski
This film is a fascinating showcase for Emil Janning's theatrical play. He's a gentle school teacher who believes in his boys and is easily fooled about all things, while the other town officials want him dismissed. Curiously it's very hard to see what the film is exactly aiming for. Disaster strikes and the lax prof proves to be too far removed of the real problems of the world, on the other hand his enemies are shown in the most unsympathetic, satirical way denouncing the militaristic, bourgeois ideology of the Kaiserreich.
Oncken, Bauer
Unit Production Manager
A sensitive girl is sent to an all-girls boarding school and develops a romantic attachment to one of her teachers. One of the earliest narrative films to explicitly portray homosexuality. Based on "Gestern und Heute" by German playwright Christa Winsloe.
The Conductor
Andreas Rellnow decides to leave his troubled parents and pursue an artistic career. As a violin virtuoso, he quickly became popular and a first-class heart-breaker.
