Dieter Perlwitz

Rosa von Praunheim, the director of the film, parodies himself and his time as a professor at the Film School in Potsdam Babelsberg, where he taught for six years.

The philosopher Democritus has a toothache, so a dentist from ancient Abdera sets off for his house. En route, he gets into a fight with a donkey driver. This conflict eventually causes all of Abdera to go crazy. Just when the city is seconds away from having a civil war, Democritus' apprentice shows up to ease the city's tensions with a gift.

In a small Saxon town after the Second World War, the former chimney sweep Toni tries to survive on the black market and meets the pusher Ginfizz. Together they initially trade in flour before embarking on a riskier plan: they are to rescue machines from Soviet expropriation for the mill owner Hartmann by transporting them in hidden trucks. In the process, they become entangled in various adventures, from rescuing orphans to transporting pigs, while being constantly pursued by the young policewoman Gisela, who wavers between her professional duty and her attraction to Toni. After Ginfizz is caught and the others remain temporarily free, they help to get the mill up and running again to avert a food shortage.

Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, the paths of three people on the run cross by chance in the small Baltic Sea port of Rerig: Gregor, a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD); Judith, a Jewish woman; and a pastor who wants to save an Ernst Barlach sculpture classified as degenerate art. All those involved share a common fate and the dream of a fisherman's boy from Zanzibar, which is less a real goal than a utopia of a better future. Adaptation of Alfred Andersch's novel.

Bad planning and shortages prevail on an East German construction site. Foreman Hannes Balla uses unconventional methods to overcome the problems. New Socialist Unity Party secretary Werner Horrath is charged with bringing the rough-and-ready builder crew into line. The task seems doomed to fail as the two men compete for the affections of young engineer Kati Klee. But when she gets pregnant by married man Horrath, he is in danger of being expelled from the party, and Balla takes his side...

It is almost twenty years after the war. Wounds of the past that have never fully healed, but are still carried by many in their hearts. Marie Vláčilová, a survivor of one of the prison camps in Germany, also carries the traumas of the time with her. Now, so many years later, a mass grave of prisoners from that camp has been found and investigators visit Marie to get any information they can from her about the camp. With her important information, she is then to become a crown witness for the prosecution in Germany and now prepares to travel. But this brings back more and more unpleasant memories - especially of her daughter Paula, who has been through German re-education and hardly knew her mother after the reunion...

A new pupil has joined the seventh grade and - as is often the case - is met with scepticism. What is more: Mathias' classmates are angry because he is frequently late, goes home early and, on top of it, performs badly at school. They have to acknowledge, however; that he is very gutsy. This proves especially true when it becomes a question of passing a dangerous test: who can hold out longest in the ice cellar?

A young doctor has to spend a night in a lonely house near the transit highway. Unexpectedly, he witnesses East-West smuggling operations, which he manages to prevent at the last moment.

A funny story about a friendship between the children of East Germany and Czechoslovakia.

Peter is unwilling to learn the multiplication tables at school. He would rather work as an acrobat at the circus, just like his friend Susanne. When the class plans a trip to the circus, Peter is supposed to buy the tickets. Since he miscounts and buys one ticket less than needed, he cannot join his schoolmates. Susanne, however, comes up with an idea and lets him work in the circus arena where he is supposed to check on the arithmetic problems of a numerate donkey. When Peter fails to control the donkey, he feels deeply ashamed and has to assess that math is needed in all parts of life.