Drama about an impoverished family, a widowed mother and her two sons, trying to get by.

Berlin, early 1930s. Lissy, a young woman raised in a socialist working-class family, marries a clerk who promises her a better life. During the depression, however, he gets fired and can’t find a new job. Desperate for companionship and money, he falls for Nazi propaganda and joins the Storm Troopers. Lissy's brother, who for a time sympathized with the communists, now also wears the SA uniform. When he is killed by the Nazis—because of hisoppositional ideas—Lissy starts questioning things and makes a difficult and potentially dangerous decision.

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.

After Jochen saves police officer Erich's life, the two men become close friends and Erich helps Jochen get a job working for Berlin's local train system. But Jochen falls into the hands of the beautiful West Berlin agent Ellen, who convinces him to participate in acts of sabotage against the trains. All of a sudden, Jochen is making a lot more money and even Erich's former girlfriend Inge becomes interested in him. But everything begins to unravel when Erich observes his friend's illegal activity on one of his nightly rounds.

As the end of the Second World War approaches and the Soviet Red Army is advancing, a group of concentration camp inmates is helped to escape by a Polish doctor. They hide in a wood where they meet other fugitives, who have been there for months, constantly in fear of being discovered. Out of fear of the German army patrols, they do not dare to leave the forest, even as the food supplies run low.

Post-war Germany 1945: Two rival gangs of uprooted boys fight each other in the ruins of Berlin, whose business is the black market out of necessity in order to survive. Their respective leaders are Gerhard and Dietrich. A pretty young circus artist named Corona comes to the destroyed city with a traveling circus. She immediately caught the boys' attention. When the latter notice that the circus director is abusing the girl, the two gangs join forces and plot an act of revenge against the tyrant. But with the hustle and bustle caused by this, Corona falls from the trapeze and is seriously injured. When the circus moves on, the boys organize a doctor for the sick artist who has been left behind. Their collectively concern for the blonde beauty makes them forget their enmity. This welds the troops closer together and sets the course for a common, meaningful future.

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.

When Julius Seipold's wife Regine becomes suspicious that he is having an affair after discovering incriminating evidence, Julius manages to convince her that it is his innocuous assistant Max who is having a relationship.

a movie by Heinz Paul

The Mysteries of a Hairdresser’s Shop describes the absurd goings-on of a by no means ordinary hair salon, where men with great beards wait in vain for a shave while the barber takes a nap.