Reinhard Michalke

East German adaptation of Grimm‘s fairy tale "Rumpelstiltskin". A boastful miller pretends that his daughter Marie can spin straw into gold, and so she is locked into a room full of straw and ordered to spin it into gold by the next morning. A little man appears and offers his help in exchange for Marie's necklace. The greedy treasurer makes Marie spin twice more until the only thing she has left to give the little man is the promise of her first-born child…

During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), five International Brigade soldiers of different nationalities are given a crucial assignment as their commander lies dying: they are to smuggle top-secret information across enemy lines.

A film about the historical uprising of the seamen in Kiel: During the Russian October Revolution of 1917, German and Russian soldiers start to solidarize with each other. By disarming the officers, machinist Henne Lonke and stoker Jens Kasten prevent the attack on a Russian freighter. When German admiralty gives out orders for operation "Nibelungen", which would lead the German fleet into a suicidal attack against England and quell the revolutionary spirit, seamen and soldiers from different political backgrounds unite in protest.

The young Walter Retzlow, drafted into the guard team of a foreign labor factory in the last year of the war, receives the papers of a murdered anti-fascist by chance. He adopts the new identity, which promises him security.

Cowboys Hobble Frank and Tante Droll are instructed to deliver the legacy of chief Weiser Bär, a map to the legendary Treasure of the Silver Lake, to his hiers Großer Bär and Kleiner Bär. But the bandit Cornel Brinkley and his buddies manage to steal the map and so Frank and Droll call up Old Shatterhand and Winnetou, to help them in their quest to recapture the map and save the treasure.

On the way to the holiday camp, 16-year-old Steffi falls in love with Norbert, whom she has known for a long time from visiting grandfather in Pinnow. She made a quick decision to change her future plans and decided to become a milker, because Norbert is the newly appointed apprentice trainer for livestock farming in Pinnow. The grandfather, who is very happy about Steffi's visit, cannot prevent his granddaughter from making up her mind. Norbert himself was an apprentice in Pinnow and often suffered from the teaching methods of his predecessor. That's why he wants to do it differently.

Irene Klaussen, a brilliant, tomboyish Berlin student, falls for new classmate Peter Lemke. To prove herself, she follows him, first to a school dance in a borrowed gown, then to a year’s stint on a remote oil‐plant construction in Granow. Ostracized at first, she wins respect under FDJ secretary Anton by mastering every trade and helping him study for engineering school. After returning to Berlin, she discovers Peter’s infidelity and, disillusioned, goes back to Granow, finding true partnership and purpose with Anton.

Alexander sits in the pub and wants to be left alone. The fake sailor Konstantin sits in the pub because he can't leave his fellow men alone. That evening, however, he has his sights set on Alexander and won't let up until he reluctantly tells him about his accident at work. After the accident, he is only good for desk jobs, which leaves the once perfectly healthy construction worker struggling with his fate. Unasked and uninvited, Konstantin provides the embittered Alexander with more than enough work by declaring him responsible for a long overdue road construction project in the municipality. The old man takes not only Alexander by surprise, but also the mayor. He had put off planning the project for far too long. Understandably, neither of them are thrilled, but now that things have got rolling, they have to act...

This elaborate two-part television film features a section from the life of communist worker leader Ernst Thälmann. It begins with the bloody riots on May 1, 1929 in Berlin, in which police officers shot at demonstrating workers, and ends with February 7, 1933, when Thälmann appeared as a speaker at the illegal meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Germany in goat neck. This period was marked by the struggle of the Communists against the ever stronger National Socialists and the rise of Adolf Hitler.

Professor Heger's son was shot by the Gestapo during the war. Dr. Bram was also responsible for his death. After the war, working in Heger's clinic, Bram tells the professor about his guilt. Considering Bram a traitor, Heger refuses to work with him. Bram flees to West Germany. Soon the professor, who has decided in his heart to stay in the FRG forever, leaves for Munich for the congress. But his meeting with Bram in Munich and the reality surrounding them dispelled his illusions, and they both return to their homeland.

Alma Krause is the proud owner of a thoroughbred French bully. Even otherwise, she nurses and harbors several two- and four-legged friends in her apartment - just as one would expect from a veterinarian's widow. Her nephew Heinz, on the other hand, is kind of beaten. Not as for the love of animals, that would fit badly to a nascent vet, but for a small animal practice, as the blessed uncle operated, he seems to have no ambitions. A future as a "Bazillenscheuche" in the cowshed would like to spare him again Aunt Alma. And she takes her appropriate action.

The children of Herbert and Hella, two single train conductors, are going to vacation at Baltic Sea. Unfortunately the parents are to busy to go so the oldest sister is in charge.

In the 1930s, the Soviet ship "Chelyuskin" embarked on an expedition to the Northern Ocean. But soon there is an accident in the ice and the team can save themselves on an ice floe. Two months, the over one hundred people have to persevere there until rescue from the air finally approaches.

Karlemann is very often found in his own 'Robinson world', a secluded place on earth. There he travels the river in his special all-weather boat, and he has his domicile on the river, all built himself. One day he meets two soldiers of the National People's Army who got lost in Karlemann's empire. He shows the them the right way. What Karlemann does not yet suspect: a bridge is to be built over the river at the exact spot where his hut stands...

In spring 1946, Warsaw historian Wojtek arrives in a Polish provincial town to study the Renaissance. He soon becomes entangled in the fierce postwar power struggle between the Soviet-backed People’s Government—nationalizing industry and land—and reactionary exiled forces waging “bandit terror,” from train robberies to political assassinations. As violence escalates, Wojtek shifts from observer to active defender of the new “people’s power.”

In South Africa, few white people realize that colonialism and apartheid are outdated and that the commandments of humanity must apply to the entire South African population. One of them is Jan Snider, a young lawyer. But he is alone with his progressive ideas. Captain Brook, who had overheard a conversation between Snider and the colored house servant Kil Kuoli, also makes this clear to him. He warns Snider urgently that rioters from the black opposition have already been shot...

Polizeiruf 110 is a long-running German language detective television series. The first episode was broadcast 27 June 1971 in the German Democratic Republic, and after the dissolution of Fernsehen der DDR the series was picked up by ARD. It was originally created as a counterpart to the West German series Tatort, and quickly became a public favorite.

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

Rentner haben niemals Zeit is a German television series.