Max Haufler

The burial of an old woman leads to several complications among family and friends.

A German living in India during World War II is blackmailed by the English to impersonate an SS officer on board a cargo ship leaving Japan for Germany carrying a large supply of rubber for tyres. His mission is to disable the scuttling charges so the captain cannot sink the ship if they are stopped by English warships.

The farmer Christen, his wife Änneli, their sons Resli and Christeli, and their daughter Annelisi live together harmoniously on the Liebiwyl farm. The harmony is disrupted when Christen allows himself to be persuaded by the deceitful village clerk to speculate with his ward's money. As a result, all the money is lost, and the defrauded farmer has to pay the community for the damage out of his own pocket. This angers Änneli, whose great willingness to help is thwarted by Christen, who is becoming increasingly stingy. One harsh word leads to another, and soon the couple is facing a shambles. The children also suffer from the unfriendly atmosphere at home. Only a visit to church on Pentecost and the corresponding sermon make reconciliation possible.

The surreal tale of an unassuming man who is accused of a never-specified crime and shambles through bizarre encounters to escape this nightmare.

A mother wants to buy a bike for her son, but she doesn't have enough money.

Brothel-owner Chikita Hausmann is forced to flee a South American revolution and sets up a new “house of pleasure” in a sleepy Swiss town, where the local bigwigs queue up so enthusiastically that she placates scandalized wives by dubbing it the “Circle for Expanding Cultural Relations” and wins the naive estate-manager Philip Sprüngli’s heart. When a nearby jazz club run by local youths threatens to expose her clientele, Chikita cleverly sells her establishment to the municipality—transforming it into a youth center—then whisks Sprüngli off on another adventure to a revolution-torn South America.

Four American soldiers stationed near a German village face death in the rape of a local girl and are defended by outside counsel Major Steve Grant.

The further trials of the wealthy Emmentaler farming family Jowäger and their neighbors, adapted from the second volume of the 19th century novel by Jeremias Gotthelf (pen-name of Albert Bitzius).

Florestan Mississippi, a public prosecutor by profession, visits a lady named Anastasia and, while drinking coffee with her, convicts her of poisoning her husband. At the same time, he asks for her hand in marriage, as he too has killed his wife with poison; the marriage is to be the "atonement" of the two poisoners. The four allegorical personifications in this comedy are, in addition to the loveless, absolute justice in the form of the prosecutor Mississippi, perfect equality, represented by the world revolutionary Saint-Claude, Christian love, embodied in the down-and-out, alcoholic tropical doctor Count Uebelohe-Zabernsee, and finally the "Frau Welt" of the old mystery play – Anastasia, who falls for everyone and betrays everyone, loves nothing but the moment, and dies with an invoked untruth on her lips.

The trials of the wealthy Emmentaler farming family Jowäger, adapted from the 19th century novel of the same name by Jeremias Gotthelf (pen-name of Albert Bitzius), which was also published in two parts.