Gerd Biewer

At the end of the 1950s, the production of optics in the German Democratic Republic has reached top quality and instigates interest in the West. When national demand rises strongly and at the same time the export to South America heavily decreases, the Volkspolizei - the GDR police force - starts to look into the case. Two seemingly unrelated cases are the starting point for the investigation by second lieutenant Schellenberg of the department for optics racketeering: An old woman who was arrested in the Berlin city railway for trying to smuggle a pair of binoculars to West Berlin, and a dead person in an area of allotments who was involved in obscure dealings with optical devices.

The starting point of the story is a scandalous affair that took place in West Germany at the end of the 1950s. It began with the unexpected death of a member of the Bundestag who was known to the public as a well-paid lawyer and influential man in politics. What was not known, however, was that he mysteriously died of poisoning in a foreign hospital for the poor. It was concealed that the deceased, as a contact person for a Swiss arms company, represented a West German arms contract worth 2.5 billion marks. The Military Counterintelligence Service tried everything to conceal the explosive events...

Bundeswehr soldier Klaus’ regiment is stationed in France, to take part in NATO maneuvers. The soldiers are ordered to be kind to the populace, since the West German High Command wishes the French to forget the atrocities that were committed during the Second World War. Klaus falls in love with Jeanne, the daughter of the local mayor. He discovers that his commanders intend to demolish the ruins of a local church, in which civilians were murdered by the German occupation forces at 1944. A local journalist who researches the event discovers that West German General Rucker ordered the massacre, but he is mysteriously murdered. Klaus defies his commanding officer Siebert, who instructs him to steal the documents indicting Rucker, and hands the evidence over to Jeanne.

An American military plane takes six people, who have taken part in a NATO maneuver, from Tripoli to Oslo. Among them are the British Captain Loy and the United States Air Force Corporal Doris Graves. During the flight, the two become closer, and they regret that the trip will end that evening. But everything turns out differently. The flight captain has received orders to pick up an agent at a German NATO airport, who is to be dropped off again on a Soviet island …

Under political pressure, a West German radio station stages a radio play about a Russian invasion of West Germany. A handsome fee convinced the unemployed Anton Wiesel to take on the direction. At the same time, the driver Harry Kyritz received an inheritance: a decrepit barge with which he intends to become an entrepreneur. His acquaintance with Madeleine Müller, the daughter of a coal wholesaler, comes at just the right time. But so does Mr. Müller, because he is broke. So he throws a big party to sell his daughter as his last profitable asset. Harry has a good chance when the radio plays a radio play about a Russian robbery. The guests take it as a factual report and flee to the cellar. Harry reveals his true financial situation, but Müller accepts him anyway - as a model worker for the Russians. But when the mistake is revealed, Harry is out of the running in favor of a wealthier son-in-law.

Research results of enormous value are stolen from the experimental laboratory of a chemical company in the fictitious town of Bärenfurt in the GDR and seized at the Berlin sector border. The trail leads to the agent "Haas" at the Bärenfurt municipal theater. Captain Jentsch is at the theater to uncover his identity and arrest him. A murder takes place during the "Fiesco" premiere. Many people are suspects, including the head of the theater, Born, who is engaged to the actress Vera and has a conspicuously apolitical attitude. It is no easy task for the security officers to distinguish between reality and appearance in this milieu. Through precise work, they succeed in unmasking the perpetrator and arresting him after a chase through the theater.

Two young building workers are more interested in girls than their work; complications ensue at home.

In the late 1950s, the collectivization of agriculture is in full swing in the East German village of Willshagen on the German-German border. Those in charge have to face many obstacles, especially from a large-scale farmer who is unwilling to join the co-op. All of a sudden, mysterious men in a fancy car appear in the village and show an interest in the rundown manor house. Gossip spreads quickly, and some villagers think there will be a re-parceling of properties and a land swap with West Germany. They assume everything will go back to how it used to be and even expect the count to return to his manor. In preparation, the situation in the village escalates at a fevered pitch.

Railway employee Fritz Marr is not regarded well by his superiors. It is the year 1920, and trains regularly pass the railway hub of Erfurt to the East to secretly transport weapons for the fight against the young Soviet Union. Marr knows about this and wants to mobilise other workers to stop these illegal deliveries. To muzzle him, Marr is relocated to a remote rail work construction site.

Biography of the comic poet Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793).

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.

On the run from police in America, Antonio Morena, a former World War II aviator and black-marketeer, finds himself in South America working for the all-powerful United Fruit Company, known to the natives as "the Green Monster".

Algeria, mid-50s: it is the time of uprisings against the French colonial power. The German-born foreign legionary Hans Röder witnesses inhuman criminal actions against members of the Algerian resistance movement. These go to the account of the French secret organisation "Red Hand", but it cannot use witnesses. Röder deserts and tries to bring his observations to the public. He is relentlessly pursued by the "Red Hand", which leaves a bloody trace. Röder flees to West Germany, but here too the arm of the organisation enough. He sees no other way out than to escape to the GDR.

After Elmers, the head of the publishing house, is reported missing, his son-in-law Jürgen Brandt is targeted by the Hamburg criminal police. Inspector Graumann and his assistant Weber presume murder. The suspicion against editor-in-chief Brandt is confirmed by the fact that he is incriminated by the testimony of several witnesses. At a press conference, Brandt claims that the Elmers murder case was staged only to exonerate the innocently convicted family man, Parsetti. But to Brandt's horror, Elmer's body is actually found.