Dieter Franke

Jakob is a poor farmer′s boy. Because of his timidity that even makes him run away from mice, he is often ridiculed by other people. Even the king is ill-disposed towards him. One day he sends Jakob to the devil to rob him of three golden hairs. This is supposed to be Jakob′s certain death. But naïve Jakob gets going and on his way even promises the oppressed subjects of the king to ask the devil for a way out of their misery.

15-year old Klaus Kambor, called Kurbel, is living in a village in Lusatia and already thinks of himself as an adult. He can hold a lot of rhubarb wine and has already kissed a girl. But with his new method of lawn mowing, which he thinks is brilliant, Klaus makes a big mistake: He causes a wild fire in the forest. Then he does not react adult-like at all, but shirks the responsibility, which leads to the break-up with his girlfriend Daniela. Furthermore, Klaus does not realize that several of the places he likes the most in his environment are now going to be sacrificed to mining. When Klaus becomes friends with the teacher Konzak and with the construction worker Jule, he feels understood for the first time and starts to take more responsibility.

Kemmel, a sculptor with a troubled nature, wonders, as he approaches his fortieth birthday, whether he has created any truly significant work.

In a small village in West Prussia in the 1870s, Germans, Poles, Gypsies and Jews live together as neighbors. One night Johann, a German mill-owner, secretly opens the dam gates and floods the mill of his Jewish rival Levin. After his business is ruined and his calls for justice go unanswered, Levin leaves town.

Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Platow worked for the railways his entire working life. He took up service at the small station of Luege 34 years ago. Now, the line is to be electrified and Platow, who cannot cope with the new technology, has to work on a secondary local line. Georg, his son, a railway worker as well, is to attend a training course, but Georg refuses to go. Then his father comes to a surprising and highly unusual decision. He pretends to be Georg Platow, making himself twenty years younger than he really is and registers for the course.

Russian soldier Grisha escapes from a German prisoner-of-war camp in the spring of 1917. He is caught and is to be shot as a spy. This decision is controversial. The dispute continues. Grisha is executed on the orders of the army high command.

Two 17-year-olds, Werner Holt and Gilbert Wolzow, are pulled out of school and into Hitler's army. Gilbert becomes a fanatical soldier; but at the front, Werner begins to understand the senselessness of war.

Adam, Evchen, and Manni are looking at the moon through their home-made telescope. Evchen isn't interested, and dismisses the moon as a lump of cheese. Manni, who is a big fan of technology, sees satellites and a car driving over the moon's surface. But Adam hears the moon speak, and hears it ask for flowers to cover its surface. From then on, Adam is determined to breed a kind of flower that can grow on the moon.

A young boy fantasizes his way to school into a battle between cowboys and Indians, where the bad guys want to steal some gold medals. Real events and fantasy interacts in his mind.

19-year old Peter is working to gain practical experience for his planned medical studies. But his life turns into confusion as he unexpectedly comes a father.

A story about a young boy nicknamed Moses who lives in Germany Democratic Republic.

Following a training course, the 28-year-old Helga Baumann, a single mother of two children, meets up with her husband Fred again. They had separated a while ago because their ideas of marriage were completely disparate: The conservative Fred advocated the woman′s role of wife and mother, while Helga dreamt about an emancipated partnership between two employed persons. Now, her sister has brought them back together. At first sight, Fred seems to have changed and, once again, Helga cannot resist his advances. But when she meets with difficulties during a fair in Tashkent, Fred yet again proves to be a petty bourgeois by assuring her that they would get along perfectly without her working.

At a farm-equipment plant, production lags at 89 % and a new, untested combine proves a “failure” in the fields. A promising redesign exists, crafted by a transplanted West German engineer, but he’s mistrusted. Meanwhile, workers and the Party secretary blame plant director Berendonck’s poor leadership. As harvest season looms, personnel upheaval and swift action are needed to install the reliable new machine and get production back on track.

The fully loaded Trabi rolled towards the Baltic Sea and father Detlef is for once in excellent mood. Did he not agreed with his friend Alfred, located immediately each issue back with an urgent telegram from the resort. But as the two then adventurous go stalking in the jungle of the big city, they experience a failure after another. Sullen Detlef longs for marriage Trott and campground. There would be matched and over the years rather bland become married woman Eveline is undergoing a remarkable transformation.

For thirty years, Karl Achilles has been working at the chemical collective in Bitterfeld. But now his last day as a master at the plant has come. He is about to retire; even if Karl, who finds ending his working life difficult, wanted to stay on, it would not be possible. Karl’s colleagues have arranged a farewell dinner for the retiring master at an outdoor restaurant. But on his last day of work, before the farewell dinner, he meets all sorts of people: both colleagues and people, who do not work at the plant. A mosaic of the biography of a person who found fulfilment in his work and now has to look for the meaning of his life anew.

Once upon a time, there was a poor farmer who had thirteen children. Since the farmer was so poor, there was never anything left for the youngest of the family. Therefore, the farmer chose Death as the godfather of his son, Jörg, because all people are equal in the eyes of Death. The Grim Reaper is happy to look after the boy and turns Jörg into a skilled doctor who earns wealth and fame.

Karoline Gluth is approaching forty, has an 18-year-old son who is studying and is therefore independent. She decides to start a new life and says goodbye to the family inn on the island of Rügen, where she earned a good living as a cook. She buys a little house on the outskirts of Berlin - based on a photo. The reality, however, looks less favourable than the picture. The house is close to collapse and has an illegal occupant, Christian. She evicts him, but he helps her through the jungle of organising tradesmen and materials. In the process, she meets construction brigadier Herbert Kotbuß, clashes with him - and impresses him. Karoline struggles through, the money runs out, she even has to sell her car, and in the end the house is still pretty much a patchwork. But she has realised her ambition for herself - a new independent life begins.

17-year-old Susanne is a gymnast and has a chance to join the national team. But now, of all times, she is having problems in training. She can't manage the new dismount from the uneven bars. At the same time, she gets into other conflict situations: her performance at school is getting worse. Her ambitious mother, accustomed to her daughter's successes, does not show the necessary understanding. Her father, divorced from Susanne's mother and constantly traveling, is rarely there for her. Her boyfriend Michael, with whom she experiences her first love, soon has to join the army and feels neglected because Susanne has too little time for him. Her coach, however, shows understanding and stands by her side in conflict situations, which she eventually overcomes - and so her success in sport returns.

Europe, 1620: The well-known astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler, who teaches as a professor in Linz, receives the message that his mother is prosecuted as a witch in Württemberg. The truth behind the allegations is rather simple: His mother has been denunciated by a former friend after an argument with the authorities. Kepler tries desperately to convince the prosecutors of the absurdity of their allegations with rational arguments.

It is the time before the First World War - in a fishing village on the Baltic Sea coast, the unusual love story of the young, ambitious lawyer Belling and the fun-loving actress Franziska begins. The young couple believes in career in the neighboring big city, would not be there the rich businessman of Elchem, who limits their love power of his money. Franziska has found an admirer and patron in the entrepreneur - a woman between two men who plays, but cleverly he makes the couple financially dependent on himself... The film adaptation of the novelle by Heinrich Mann describes the moral decay of a social layer fixed on success and money at the beginning of the 20th century.

On a forest road in the Brandenburg March, village teacher Potsch accidentally encounters the distinguished Professor Menzel, who got stuck there in his car. In the conversation that ensues, Menzel and Pötsch quickly discover that they both are great admirers of the early 19th-century writer Max von Schwedenow who was born in the area.

Der Staatsanwalt hat das Wort was an East German television series.

Each 30 minute episode is dedicated to a separate issue or theme and consists mainly of related short featurettes, which explain, explore and educate how things of everyday life and even complex systems work. It spans a wide variety of topics from technology and industry to something as mundane as how the postal service works.

The love story of Emma and Johannes begins during the hard years of the Great Depression. Emma repeatedly tries to encourage her husband, who is suffering terribly from unemployment. However, the crisis continues to intensify and social disintegration affects millions.

Russian soldier Grisha escapes from a German prisoner-of-war camp in the spring of 1917. He is caught and is to be shot as a spy. This decision is controversial. The dispute continues. Grisha is executed on the orders of the army high command.

A German couple start a silent campaign against Hitler's dictatorial reign after the loss of their only son at the front.