Willi Schrade

Albert Einstein (1990)

Two part movie about Einstein's escape from Germany in 1932 and his influence in the invention of the nuclear bomb in 1939. ...

Erster Verlust (1990)

In a German village in 1942, farmer Heinrich Marten is conscripted, leaving behind his wife Kathrin and sister Frieda. As the two young women cannot manage the farm alone, they are given help by the state: a prisoner of war. The Russian Alexei is emaciated ...

Der Streit um des Esels Schatten (1990)

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 hav ...

Alter schützt vor Liebe nicht (1990)

Otto is turning 65 and a big celebration with relatives and friends is coming up. What does life bring? A comfortable retirement, looking after his beloved grandchildren, lamenting the aches and pains of old age. None of that. Otto falls in love with Klara ...

Coming Out (1989)

Philipp, a closeted teacher, is dating a female colleague to keep up appearances. One night he stumbles into a gay bar and falls for a man. Transformed by this love, he is no longer afraid to face up to who he is. ...

Kai from the Box (1988)

Kai, a young boy, living in 1923 Berlin tries to convince an American businessman that he can market his chewing gum better than anyone else in town. ...

The Solo Sailor (1987)

Christine inherits a sailboat from her father, whom she barely knew. Christine is a divorced single mother and her job at a research insitute leaves her with too much work and too little time to sail. She can't find anyone to buy the boat at full value, so ...

Offiziere (1986)

Major Leska, who has proven himself as a troop officer in a tank battalion in complicated maneuvers, is to become an instructor. He sees this as a challenge and is looking forward to the new task. But then the decision is made in favor of his friend Hans H ...

Ernst Thälmann (1986)

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, ...

Die Grünstein-Variante (1985)

The plot revolves around three men waiting to be deported in a prison. To escape the monotony, they form chess pieces from their bread rations, with which they then play against each other. Grünstein, a Polish Jew, proves to be a real talent, because alth ...

Meine Frau Inge und meine Frau Schmidt (1985)

One day, the happily married Karl Lehmann is asked by his single colleague, Mrs. Schmidt, for an unusual service: She wants a child. Lehmann is willing to help. His wife Inge and Mrs. Schmidt have a child at the same time, and since the women like each oth ...

Irrläufer (1985)

Our Best Man (1983)

The main character Otto, the "best man", is a copy of the illustrious Mister Bean. He takes on an apprenticeship as a building-worker, which makes him a member of a building brigade. At the same time Otto tries to start a love affair, which he handles even ...

Automärchen (1983)

This quirky episodic comedy weaves together three plotlines centered around the employees of a car garage, with some unexpected fairytale elements to get things moving. A woodland fairy convinces shy bookkeeper Piel to suddenly start driving his Trabi far ...

Frühstück im Bett (1983)

Vera Urban is on a ski holiday with her children. Her two admirers - the sailor Winter and Savings Bank leader Martin - travel enthusiastically in the snow to finally conquer the heart of their worshiped in a relaxed holiday atmosphere. There are also time ...

Bahnwärter Thiel (1982)

The film tells the tragic fate of railroad guard Thiel at the end of the 19th century. Thiel, who spends his days in the dull, monotonous fulfillment of his duties, has lost his gentle, quiet wife Minna. He remarries out of concern for his young son Tobias ...

The Warning (1982)

The action takes place in Moscow, Berlin and Vienna in years 1932 and 1933, a time when the great Bulgarian revolutionary and internationalist Georgi Dimitrov was actively involved in establishing a broad alliance of democratic forces against the emerging ...

Schwarzes Gold (1981)

East German television film. ...

Die Stunde der Töchter (1981)

A life-threatening heart attack confines Richard Roth to the hospital bed. There, Richard, who is in his late fifties, asks himself what will remain of him and his life. What happened to his four daughters? Do they take after him? How have they developed? ...

Der Direktor (1980)

The school authorities want to read success stories in director Joachim Faber's reports. But they cannot simply be produced on an assembly line. Pupils, for example, use the wrong tone. The matter draws circles until the superiors finally talk about refusa ...

Salz und Brot und gute Laune (1980)

Oben geblieben ist noch keiner (1980)

Willi Zubrodt is delegated by his department to a parachuting course at the GST. As he is not very disciplined, has no respect for the instructors and does not fit into the collective, the instructors try to show him up and force his expulsion from the cou ...

Radiokiller (1980)

Enemy secret services from the West had used modern technology for the "cold war", i.e. the confrontation with the Eastern Bloc, and developed a device called COMMINT 3-72. Its nickname was "Radiokiller". This weapon was not much bigger than a soccer and c ...

Alma schafft alle (1980)

Four years have passed since Alma and Dr. Kröpelin got married. The home zoo in Groß-Klückow is thriving and Alma is completely absorbed in her new role. But she still finds time to take care of things that, strictly speaking, are none of her business. ...

Dangerous Games (1980)

1934, Germany. The ten-year-old Peter lives in a small town with his parents. His father, an underground Communist, is arrested. In the summer vacation the kids from the neighbourhood fight in two teams, which prevail in turns. One team, led by Ewald, imit ...

Die Heimkehr des Joachim Ott (1980)

After a long period as a prisoner of war, Joachim Ott returns home to find that his wife is now living with another man. ...

Die Schmuggler von Rajgrod (1980)

In 1903, Jan Anskath and his half-brother Martin are living in Rajgorod at the border between Russia and Prussia – Jan on the Russian, Martin on the Prussian side. Both are occasionally smuggling stuff over the border. But while Jan acts from political c ...

Komödianten-Emil (1980)

The early 1930s in Berlin. Cabaret artist Emil Damaschke wants to entertain people with his program - together with Ida, the attraction from Hungary. But because he risks a lip that is too big, he is thrown out of the "Rosenthaler" cabaret, ends up on the ...

The Blue Helmet (1979)

A story about funny adventures young boy Mirco and a drillers blue helmet. ...

The Goose-Girl at the Fountain (1979)

A young blacksmith, searching for happiness in a series of dreams, realizes that he must find a rejected princess and hold her hand. A fairytale after the Brothers Grimm. ...

Spurensucher (1979)

Verlobung in Hullerbusch (1979)

In 1960, farmer Walter Wagemühl learns from the West that his life is coming to an end. In order to pass the farm into loyal hands, he sends his adopted daughter Catharina to the East to marry his prudent nephew Ewald. The surprising request puts him in a ...

Einfach Blumen aufs Dach (1979)

Mechanic Hannes Blaschke and his wife Maxi, who works as a bus driver, have just become happy parents of twins. Now they have a serious transportation problem: Their Trabant is far too small for the grown family that furthermore includes two sons and a dog ...

Sabine Wulff (1978)

Sabine Wulff is almost 18 when she is released from the juvenile detention center. She doesn't want to return to her unsupportive parents or to her former boyfriend Jimmy, who got her into trouble by persuading her to steal cigarettes. She instead chooses ...

Das Versteck (1978)

One year has passed since Max and Wanda got their divorce. Max has come to the realization that he wants his ex-wife back - no matter what the cost! So he concocts a sneaky plan: he asks Wanda to hide him from the police, who are apparently looking for him ...

Severino (1978)

After a ten-year absence, Severino returns to his tribe, the Manzeneros, who live on the edge of the Argentinian Andes. The reason for his visit is to take his younger brother back with him up north. However, in his home village, Severino finds a tense and ...

Jörg Ratgeb, Painter (1978)

On the eve of the German Peasants' Revolt, painter Joerg Ratgeb is occupied by a crisis of his own: finding a model for a Christ figure. He sets off on a journey to consult with his artistic role model, Albrecht Dürer. Although Ratgeb has always tried to ...

The Singer (1977)

A story of Victor Jara - one of the most popular singers in Chile. ...

Ein Katzensprung (1977)

Young lieutenant Riedel, the leader of a motorized unit of NVA riflemen, is always concerned about his men. Thus, he is all the more happy that everything is running smoothly with the new recruits when he returns from his honeymoon. It seems to him that la ...

DEFA Disko 77 (1977)

A film gala featuring a colorfully mixed program of musical numbers, along with the most popular artists of the GDR music, film and television scenes. The majority of the show is comprised of music performances, which are visually altered or transformed. C ...

Die Emser Depesche (1976)

Theme of this scenic documentation is the consistent preparation of the Franco-German War by Bismarck and leading Prussian military, who, with the help of the conservative and liberal Berlin press, created the mood in which the publication of the heavily r ...

Ikarus (1975)

Eight-year-old Matthias dreams that he will someday become a pilot and his divorced parents will get back together. He waits yearningly for his ninth birthday because his father has told him the story of Icarus, and promised to take him on a sightseeing fl ...

Schwester Agnes (1975)

Sister Agnes helps in all situations and does not only make friends. She has just fallen out with the new mayor. The consequences leave an entire community upside down. ...

Susan, Dear Susan (1975)

Suse works as a truck driver on a major construction site. The young woman has a hard life behind her. She was foundling, was raised by farmers. Manne, the father of her child, wanted to escape from the GDR and is in prison. After he is released, Manne wan ...

Aus meiner Kindheit (1975)

Ernst is a student in Hamburg around 1900 and leads a life like many other young people. In his free time, he roams the colorful metropolis with his buddy Karl. After school, he helps his father, whose business he is to inherit one day. Ernst has many ques ...

Big Night and Big Day (1975)

Slovakian villagers towards the end of WW II are despairing as German troops fall back to their village. ...

Visa für Ocantros (1974)

In the troubled state of Ocantros, the prime minister is assassinated. Martin Katrup, who is responsible for setting up a large printing plant, is also on the island at this time. A short time later, two of his colleagues disappear without a trace and Katr ...

Kit & Co. (1974)

The adventures of Kit Bellew and his friend Shorty during the gold fever at the end of the 19th century. ...

Der Leutnant vom Schwanenkietz (1974)

The film describes the activity of an ABV of the People's Police in its section in East Berlin. A mixture of "positive" characters from the beginning, the extensively staged "owl", who is introduced as a criminal and over the course of time, especially due ...

Love at 16 (1974)

Although at first Ina barely takes any notice of Matti, the two teenagers gradually fall in love at their dance classes and begin their first real relationship. Their parents are upset about this development and try to prevent their children from seeing ea ...

Hallo, Taxi! (1974)

The story of a philanderer behind the wheel of a cab, who gets into a series of hilarious but also adventurous situations, was based on the actual experiences of Berlin cab drivers. It is an entertaining portrayal of how the main protagonist, Eddy, is to b ...

Rückkehr als Toter (1974)

Boatman Ahrens from Hamburg has a sense of justice when it comes to finding a missing girl. He goes down illegal paths when he breaks into someone else's villa. He is caught by the millionaire entrepreneur Ofterdinger and his employee. It turns out that ev ...

Ripe Cherries (1973)

Helmut Kamp, the construction brigade leader, a man no longer young, life immediately confronted several difficult and woeful problems. The birth of a son, the tragic death of his wife, the relationship of his daughter Ingrid with Dr. Beißert coincided wi ...

Apache (1973)

The story of Ulzana, an Apache chief who has reached a rapprochement with the local Mexican population and generously extends it to whites who travel through the territory. His people have become inured to the treacherous ways of the white man, however, an ...

The Second Life of F.W.G. Platow (1973)

Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Platow worked for the railways his entire working life. He took up service at the small station of Luege 34 years ago. Now, the line is to be electrified and Platow, who cannot cope with the new technology, has to work on a secondar ...

The Legend of Paul and Paula (1973)

Paul and Paula have had bad experiences with love: Paul is financially well off but has lost all affection for his wife, and Paula leads a troublesome life raising two children on her own. They meet and discover a strong passion for each other. Life seems ...

Sun Seekers (1972)

A socialist story of "atoms for peace" and compulsory labor in an East German uranium mine under Soviet control. ...

Her Third (1972)

In this East German film, the third one in The Third is Margit's third lover. After her mother's death, Margit has two affairs which don't work out, and one lesbian friendship which she retains. She is looking for a husband, though, and thinks she has spot ...

Filmemacher (1971)

They are just 17 years old when Gaby and Eva receive the offer to play in a feature film that ambitious Hamburg filmmakers want to make. Despite their youth, the girls are suspicious because they have already experienced a lot. On the other hand, that woul ...

Anflug Alpha 1 (1971)

Experiences and problems of an air squadron: Commander Milan has reached the age limit for pilots and must come to terms with the fact that he will have to give up flying from now on. Lieutenant Lenz loses control of the plane during a flight and is seriou ...

Liberation - Part 3 : Direction of the Main Blow (1971)

This five part epic war drama gives a dramatized detailed account of Soviet Union's war against Nazi Germany during world war two. Each of the five parts represents a separate major eastern front campaign. ...

Artur Becker (1971)

The young communist Artur Becker fights with the Interbrigades against the Franco putschists during the Spanish Civil War. He had experienced his baptism of fire in Germany at the time of the Weimar Republic during the Kapp Putsch. He was seriously wounded ...

Androcles and the Lion (1969)

Rome at the time of the persecution of Christians: Androclus, a poor tailor, frees a lion in the forest from terrible pain caused by a thorn in his paw. The two meet again by chance when the devout Christian is about to be thrown to wild animals in the are ...

The Neighbours (1969)

A day before the beginning of the Second World War, a young resident of Bydgoszcz falls in love with a German teenager. ...

Seine Hoheit – Genosse Prinz (1969)

Kasper Mai, an export merchant and comrade with a "clean" record, discovers he is the prince of Hohenlohe-Liebenstein. His royal grandmother designates him as the heir to her estate. A private trip to her reveals that she does not want a NATO airbase built ...

The Boss Will Be Here at Noon (1968)

A dead body is found in a burning car on the Berlin-Leipzig highway. The police investigate: Murder. Objects found in the car point to gold smuggling. At the funeral of the murdered man, his circle of acquaintances is scrutinized. They are all suspects. Th ...

Heroin (1968)

This East German movie was co-produced with studios in Hungary and Yugoslavia, with many interesting location shots (border checkpoint to West Berlin, the Gellert bath in Budapest, and more). The plot is about French drug dealers, who obtain heroin somewhe ...

Brot und Rosen (1967)

At the VII Party Congress of the SED, a delegate tells a reporter his life story: 18-year-old returning soldier Georg Lendau ends up in a small village in 1945. He is starving and sick. Mayor Kallam helps. Later, they meet again; Kallam is now the director ...

Stories of That Night (1967)

Four directors - four styles - four episodes, all relating the events of a single night which has entered the history books: August 12-13, 1961. There are thousands of complex narratives connected with the frontier drawn through the middle of Berlin, and e ...

Wedding Night In The Drizzle (1967)

This comedic musical tells the story of Gabi, a young hairdresser from the Baltic coast who desperately wants to be a jockey. One day, she packs her bags, drives to Hoppegarten, and is soundly rejected by the head coach. Gabi doesn't want to give up, and i ...

Brennende Ruhr (1967)

The two-piece black and white movie "Brennende Ruhr" portrays the events during the Kapp-Putsch 1920 in a small german town in the Ruhr district. The main protagonist is Ernst Sukrow, a student who sympathises first with the bourgeois forces but finally de ...

Irrlicht und Feuer (1966)

Jürgen Fohrmann works as a hauer underground. In the course of the coal crisis, his mine closes - he loses the work. In this mood, his wife's prosperity thinking gets on his nerves - his marriage threatens to break. The dismissed coal buddy applys, first ...

Black Panthers (1966)

Seventeen-year-old Martina has a paralyzing fear of heights, which prevents her from fulfilling her father's wish that they perform a tightrope act together. As she is quite taken with the black panthers in the circus, as well as their trainer Dittrich, s ...

Flucht ins Schweigen (1966)

During construction work in a small town in Thuringia, the burial of an unidentified man in an SS uniform with gunshot wounds is discovered. Taking into account that there were no military operations in this place and an ancient gold coin was found near th ...

The Sons of Great Bear (1966)

As American settlers encroach on the lands of the Lakota people, Tokei-ihto witnesses the murder of his father at the hands of Red Fox, who wanted information on where the tribe finds its gold. Two years later, at the height of the Great Sioux War, Tokei-i ...

The Rabbit Is Me (1965)

Maria, a young student sees her brother Dieter going to prison for sedition against the state. She starts an affair with Paul, a judge who turns out to be the one who sentenced her brother, which eventually leads to a confrontation. ...

Lot's Wife (1965)

The marriage of Katrin and Richard Lot has become a routine. She has a career and he, as a Marine officer, comes home only once every fourteen days. The children greet him with joy, but she greets him only with anxiety because their marriage is missing its ...

The Ancient Coin (1965)

History teacher and coin collector Karl Schneider wants to track down an ancient coin while on vacation in Bulgaria. When he meets a group of musicians, he finds out that their singer Jana Christova is wearing this coin around her neck. He falls in love wi ...

In Search of the Magical Bird (1964)

A fantasy story about the young boy Lutz who is looking, with two friends, for a missing magical bird. ...

Der Dieb von San Marengo (1963)

In San Marengo, master thief Cesare Giovanini's heists leave local merchants profiting from hefty insurance claims. When captured, he's granted luxury prison comforts, and even nightly "private visits", in exchange for continuing his work under police supe ...

Das Stacheltier - Wildweststory (1962)

Reporters tell lies about East Germany. ...

Mord an Rathenau (1961)

Germany 1922 during the Weimar Republic: Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau signs the Treaty of Rapallo between Germany and the Soviet Union. German national, conservative forces then speak of betrayal and anti-Semitic tones become loud. Plans for murder Ra ...

Ein Sommertag macht keine Liebe (1961)

During a weekend spent on the island Hiddensee, the snobbish high school student Jan, who has just been expelled from school, meets Christine. Christine is impressed with his bragging attitude although he just uses it to hide his insecurity and his remorse ...

Fahrt ins Blaue (1960)

Günter has completed his electrical engineering degree and returns to Berlin. His old foreman and his wife welcome him and want to take a Sunday trip to Grünau, but he wants to visit a mechanical engineering exhibition that is only open that day. The old ...

Die Entscheidung des Dr. Ahrendt (1960)

Film by Frank Vogel. ...

Love's Confusion (1959)

The film tells the love story of two young couples. According to their social ranks, construction worker Edy is dating employee Siegi, while medical student Dieter is dating art school student Sonja. Rather unintentionally, they exchange partners. During a ...

Reportage 57 (1959)

The film centers on the story of newlyweds Inga and Heinz. Heinz works in the western sector of Berlin. A gang of crooks involved in various shady dealings tries to draw Heinz into their dark affairs. However, after accidentally learning about the "activit ...