Eduard Bornträger

On his travels, Paul, a journeyman from northern Germany, runs into a childhood friend, Lisei, a puppeteer's daughter. They fall in love and get married. Together with Lisei's father, the young couple moves to Paul's hometown. Although Paul himself is accepted - even respected - by the stuck-up and snooty citizens, the young woman is rejected by the town dwellers, who are imbued with class arrogance. Paul stands up for his wife but the scorn and abuse heaped on her weigh heavily upon him.

France at the time of the Restoration. The young country gentleman Rastignac comes to Paris to study. He takes up residence in a poor boarding house, where his father Goriot, who has been excluded by his daughters, also lives. The penniless Rastignac is anxious to gain a foothold in Parisian society. His cousin advises him to take the rich banker's wife Delphine, one of Goriot's daughters, as his mistress, which he does. At the same time, however, he falls in love with the laundress Yvette. He is unable to make up his mind when boarding house guest Vautrin suggests a third option: To marry Victorine, the disinherited daughter of a millionaire, and kill her brother in a duel in order to get his inheritance after all. Rastignac agrees. This is his downfall. Instead of high society, he ends up in the gutter.

On the Faroe Islands, people eke out a meagre existence by catching birds. Merchant Brause pays them little and does a good business. This comes under threat when Dr. Sten Horn suspects that the dangerous annual plague, which kills dozens of inhabitants, is transmitted by birds. Brause forces the people to work anyway and conceals the telegram from the Copenhagen research institute that confirms Horn's suspicions. Horn, supported by his cousin Arne, enlightens the islanders and the greedy Brause can only flee.

Berlin in 1878: Corinna Schmidt, who was brought up in a petit-bourgeois, academic family, is romantically interested in Leopold Treibel, the son of the lordly councillor of commerce Jenny Treibel – although Corinna is also deeply in love with her cousin Marcel. Leopold is also falling for cute Corinna, and Jenny Treibel tries to prevent their friendship by all means, but changes her opinion when their secret engagement becomes public. To avoid a scandal, she urges them to marry quickly. But Corinna soon withdraws from this complicated situation and again turns to her cousin, who is banished from the country for his social democratic beliefs.

New teacher Heider takes up his post with great enthusiasm. His unconventional ideas meet with incomprehension and mistrust from the old head teacher Ruppert. When a boy has an accident on a school trip, the children blame Heider. The parents turn against him and he is suspended from his job. But Ruppert has come to respect the new boy. He does not believe he is to blame. Meanwhile, the children are preparing the next mischief. They want to blow up a ruin with explosives found in the forest. Heider is able to prevent this at the last minute. He is rehabilitated and everyone happily awaits his return to school.

After a bad losing streak, Lisa Freyberg wants to sell her inherited horse stall. Trainer Roberts, however, is successful in making the stall profitable again. Lisa's new passion for horses, however, is proving to be a losing streak for her engagement to her estate neighbor Thermalen. She's hoping for a new victory with her horse Arabella and has the apprentice Otto bring the horse to the competition in Dresden. Otto, however, takes the train to Dresden with his first love, Ossi la Planta and leaves the job to the grooms. But neither the horse nor the grooms show up in Dresden!

After a successful concert, the singer Maria dreams about a man with a boquet of lilies, who follows her and kisses her. A short time later, she actually meets such a man: his name is Peter and he’s on his way to his bride, Helene. In the afternoon, Maria receives a valuable diamond pin from a messenger, which was actually intended for Helene. This confusion will now trigger a wild chase through concert halls and overnight trains. During all of this, Maria’s fiancée will show up, who, in light of all this nonsense, decides he’d be better off with someone less fickle and breaks off the engagement. Maria and Peter, who barely know one another, will be drawn closer together by fate and will eventually marry … and will stay so until Maria no doubt dreams of a lawyer with a divorce decree knocking on her door.

A musical film based on biographical facts about Clara Wieck's love for composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856), her marriage against her will, Schumann's triumph, and his tragic end due to mental illness. The film is beautiful and entertaining, full of noble spirit and beautiful words about art and love, which only conflict in a theoretical context; not least thanks to its solid cast, this film is quite serious and far from kitsch. Completed in 1944, during World War II, the film was rejected by the Nazi leadership, but was eventually released and enjoyed success with an audience already weary of war.

A group of artists and journalists enjoy a series of romantic entanglements in a country hotel. An author, Vera von Eichberg "of whom no photo exists," has mentioned the hotel in her work, boosting its notoriety. When another female guest arrives, everyone assumes she is the author, despite her repeated assertions to the contrary.

Max and Karla visit his deceased uncle's farming estate where it is confirmed that they will inherit it. Financial expert Max tries to manage the farm but collides with manager Georg whom Max soon suspects to have an affair with Karla.