Alfred Maack

Having been happily married for ten years, Gerda Wagner, devoted mother and housewife, suddenly gets it into her head that she would like a career as a pop star. She had singing lessons in the past and her voice is still beautiful. A chance meeting with the idolized Italian singer Fabiani, revives her stage fever - much to the annoyance of her husband Gustl Wagner, head of the records section at a department store.

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The stubborn old skipper Heinrich Borchert refuses to recognize the progress of the new era. Sailing for the DSU is out of the question for him. He is a private ship owner - and will remain so! In order to pay off the mortgage on his barge "Marie", he takes more cargo on board than is reasonable and risks a dangerous draught in the shallow waters of the Havel. Neither his friend Hermann Vollbeck, also an old bargeman but sailing for the DSU, nor the protests of his son Karl can dissuade him. After all, Borchert is only doing all this for Karl, who is supposed to take over the boat one day and have a better life. He, on the other hand, has other ideas about life. Instead of just being a slave to the ship or having to deal with debts, he wants to have time for more enjoyable things alongside his work.

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An industrialist's wife was killed and now her lover is accused of murder.

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This film is set in a medieval mill town in the Harz mountains. The greedy and brutal millman and his accomplices, the castle steward and the mayor, set fire to a forest mill that the farmers used for processing their grain. Without their mill, the farmers must now rely on the millman's services. When the farmhand Anna uncovers the millman’s crimes, he swiftly detains her and a young miller, Jörg. The forest spirits have a different plan, however, and they free the young couple with the charge to rebuild the ruined forest mill and turn things around for the villagers.

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On a barren and stormy island, fishing families eke out a meager existence on what they can catch during summer, and what washes ashore during winter. But little has been washing ashore of late, and their situation worsens. Elders recall how twenty years ago, when the lighthouse keeper’s beacon went dark, a cargo ship broke apart on the cliffs. It proved a bountiful accident for the fishermen. Today people on the island view the conscientious lighthouse keepers with evil hungry eyes...

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Germany in 1949: The residents of the Thuringian village Hunsdorf are still heavily influenced by archaic superstition and explain unusual events with preternatural powers. The same happens when pigs again and again disappear from different farmyards. The village residents firmly believe that witches are the reason for this mystery. Not even police detective Kühlemann who is sent to Hunsdorf is able to dissuade them from their superstition. Thus, the farmers think his investigation is aimless and they do not support him at all. With a lot of patience and well-made arguments he finally convinces little Peter that there are no witches. Next, Peter’s grandfather and teacher Marianne take Kühlemann’s side. With their support, the police detective eventually finds out the truth and is able to put a stop to the gang of crooks that had been stealing the pigs.

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Several children find out what's the matter with a wreck offshore, which puts them into jeopardy.

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During the unloading of the freighter "Florida", West German dock workers discover napalm bombs instead of the specified precision machines - and a deceptive maneuver by the American occupying forces: the workers had already refused to unload the ship in France, where it was named "Chicago". It was refloated on the voyage to Germany. The German dockers also went on strike. Among them was Hein Jensen, who found it particularly difficult to take part. He had just found work again with difficulty. He needs the money because he wants to get married. His bride Helga has just given birth. When the Americans try to blackmail him into changing his colleagues' minds, he knows where his place is. The strike turns into a huge peace demonstration.

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Berlin 1952, seven years after WWII. Four women are looking for a good man and happiness in the divided city. Their destinies are loosely connected through one person: the West Berlin dandy and womanizer, Conny.

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The girl Marianne inherited a motorboat called “Eintracht” from her parents and struggled to get her to drive it with her uncle. There is a row with the new engineer Michel the evening after the first trip. He leaves - out of jealousy. Instead of him, Marianne takes three funny musicians with her who are looking for work. The trip to Hamburg on the Elbe initially ends on a sandbank, from which another barge, the "Petrel", frees them. Michel has now been hired there. After a few complications and pointless fights, because Marianne has long been in love with Michel, there is the well-deserved happy ending.

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The mechanic Behnke wants to join the Nazi party to secure a good living. However, after his Jewish neighbors have been taken away, he changes his views. Trying to remain "a non-political man," he withdraws from reality and becomes a Nazis laborer.

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The story of Johann Friedrich Böttger, an apothecary’s apprentice and alchemist’s assistant. Fleeing from the Prussian King, he goes to Saxony, where King Frederick August the Strong takes him to a fortress and demands that he create gold. Böttger is equipped with everything he would need for the task, but he has known for a while that actual gold production is a myth and instead experiments with porcelain—white porcelain, as the Chinese are said to possess. In 1709, he finally succeeds in surprising the King with the "white gold," the first white porcelain made in Europe, he hopes for freedom.

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Otto, a feckless Everyman, tries to adjust to the postwar travails of his defeated nation. Stymied by black-market profiteers and government bureaucrats, Otto begins fantasizing about a happier life at the end of that ever-elusive rainbow.

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Captain Harms still suffers from the bomb attack on his ship. He can not put up with sitting on land, but is afraid of take to the sea. Slowly he is becoming more and more frustrated and gradually falls into alcohol addiction.

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Hans Albers plays returning war veteran Hans Richter who has trouble finding work. With nowhere else to turn, Richter gets involved with black market activities. This so disgusts Richter's son, blind ex-soldier Edwin (Paul Edwin Roth), that the boy literally disowns his father. Hans eventually mends his ways, but not before several other devastating setbacks.

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Set during the rise of the Nazi regime, Elisabeth Maurer and Hans Wieland enjoy successful careers as actors in Berlin. Confident in her career, Elisabeth, who is Jewish, ignores the advice of a colleague to leave Germany in the face of increasing anti-Semitism. Believing that he can protect her if she becomes his wife, Hans convinces Elisabeth to marry him. In the following years, as Hans's career thrives, Elisabeth awaits the end of the Nazi terror which bars her from public life. When the situation worsens in 1938 with the Kristallnacht pogrom, Elisabeth decides to leave the country, but Hans, who still believes he can protect her, convinces her to stay with him.

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A wealthy man murders his wife, then marries a young woman who becomes suspicious of him.

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Celebrated conservatory graduates Anna and Joachim marry, but since Joachim doesn't seem able to compose anything of value he grows so jealous of pianist Anna's successful cooperation with conductor Westberg that he leaves her.

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A stuffy old civil servant is forced to retire during World War II, but when his son, a Navy submariner, is lost at sea and his city is heavily bombed by English bombers, his old patriotism is re-awakened and he determines to be of use to his country once again

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Director Brakke has good reason to be happy: he has just received the news that his son, Theo, won first place in the local boat race. To be sure, he had forbidden his son to take part in the competition, because the son's grades in school are substandard. In the end, Brakke sees no other way than to pull Theo from school and install him as an apprentice in his airplane manufacturing plant. Although Theo is received by the other 150 apprentices in a friendly fashion, he behaves in an arrogant and disrespectful tone towards them. He feels himself to be better than them, because his father is the director of the factory.

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The day before chemist Dr. Hans Wynhold leaves for a six months business trip to Africa, he meets chemistry student Christa Weiden. They spend the evening together in St. Pauli and fall in love. She doesn't tell him that she'll start the next day at the chemistry laboratory he works at too, because he says he doesn't like women in "men's jobs". Only after his departure the next day Christa learns about Hans' reputation as a Don Juan. In fear that she'll lose him to another woman, she follows him... and starts a series of complications.

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Musician Eduard Boeckel wants to settle down and marries laundry owner Lisbeth Timm. He brings his friend August Garfs into the marriage, and the housekeeper Alwine quickly sets her sights on him. In his new position, Boeckel invents a laundry detergent with unfortunately disastrous consequences: the laundry becomes brittle, and the first major marital spat ensues. Eduard flees to his fellow musicians, gets drunk, and seeks solace with Alwine. When she drives him away, he returns contritely to his wife, who forgives him. And now she also knows what is truly wrong with their marriage: her Eduard misses his profession. From now on, he makes music, and she does the laundry.

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In Bremen, a ship is launched, which was built by Thomas Holk. That evening, he gets to know the middle-aged widow Ada Rasmus, who flirts heavily with him. The next day, Thomas travels to Hallbad on vacation and the two lose sign of each other. In this rural idyll, he gets to know Krist and falls in love with her. He takes her back with him to Bremen and his aunt introduces her into society. Her natural charms enchants everyone and the beautiful widow Ada swears revenge. She finds a way to bring Ada into a painful situation with Dr. von Cremona, and, to top it all off, a man’s coat is found in her room.

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He who loves, torments himself: This turn of phrase works for the big farmer Gerd Tapken and his landlady Katrin Geerken. For more than 30 years, the two have fought at every opportunity, although they secretly love one another. But things seem to have come to a serious breach when Tapken shoots Katrin’s cat, because it allegedly ate three of his hens. The woman is so enraged over this brutality, that she contacts her lawyer. Thus begins a court case, in which the farmer might be fined or even go to jail!

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The four sailing school cadets Gerhard, Fritz, Kurt, and Christian are close friends; there's hardly anything they don't do together. But when the charming Gerhard begins a romance with Charlotte, his comrade Christian's childhood sweetheart, a shadow falls over their close bond. Then, when the four young men are involved in an accident during a nighttime trip on the school ship's pinnace, their friendship is put to another severe test. While three of them manage to raise the money for the repairs, Kurt, unable to contribute his share, lies to his comrades, claiming he has already put the money into the communal kitty.

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Concha flies from his natal Rio to Germany to help his loved one, who has been caught after finding some diamonds in a mine already registered by a company. Amongst them is the impressive one which thanks to her will be known as The Star from Rio. She finds herself staying at the manager's home hired as a dancer to present the diamond at a fashion show. Then the lights go suddenly out.

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Actually, Erika and Werner wanted to take a pleasant boat trip on the Isar. But who would have thought what could happen during such a simple outing?! Werner Merk, who works as an engineer for a large car company in Munich, finds out, that the head of the firm, Director Feldmann, is spending his summer vacation at his house in the mountains. Werner up and decides to make his way their to introduce himself to Feldmann in a relaxed atmosphere.

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A German peasant woman is determined to succeed as a sculptor and ,though she has a child out of wedlock, spurns chances to set up a marriage and continues to pursue her art instead, in the stimulating new climate of Italy.

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Sabine Heitmann, the young boss for the shipping company Heitmann, has become friends with Michael, the First Officer and Helmsman of the ship, the "Sabine Heitmann". He only knows Sabine by her first name and doesn't know that she's the boss. When he discovers the fact, however, he gets pissed and refuses to accept his promotion to Captain. Then the shipping company gets a lucrative offer: In a competition with another shipping company, they need to reach Baltimore in 18 days and pick up some freight. Whoever can move their rear ends faster, gets the very profitable contract from an American firm (correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't this sort of thing sink the Titanic?). Together with Michael, Sabine comes up with a plan, which should have them win the contest. The upshot? She wins back his heart and he becomes Captain.

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Erna, the daughter of a Hamburg coastal skipper, loses her fiancé to the sea. In her grief, she first flees to relatives, then takes her fate into her own hands and starts working for a shipowner in Blankenese. When she slowly begins to develop feelings for a man again, he turns out to be a marriage swindler. But again she does not give in to despair. In her conciliatory attitude to life, she is able to settle a marital dispute between the shipowner and his wife and finally finds her own happiness in love - through a former friend who is himself a widower. She starts a family with him and the children of his deceased wife.

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The Minerva Mines Company is interested in transporting two particularly valuable diamonds from Cape Town to Amsterdam. To confuse potential thieves, two detectives are sent on two different ships with steel suitcases and they have no clue whether they’re carrying pebbles or diamonds. Nevertheless, a collection of questionable characters come on board both ships. The hunt for the diamonds begins; the suitcases are stolen; everyone is suspect.

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A confidence trickster is released from prison and travels to a village where he blackmails and tricks women out of their savings.

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