The long-established aristocratic von Poggenpuhl family has seen better days. Towards the end of the 19th century, the major's widow and her children have long since eked out a poor existence characterized by a lack of money. Only the dusty ancestral gallery is a reminder of past fame and fortune. But while the mother has resigned herself to her new situation, her sons and daughters hope in vain for a change of fortune.

This tragic love story relates ten decisive years in the life of the great Romantic poet Friedrich Hölderlin, played by a young Ulrich Mühe.

Elias, born at the end of the war, receives an anonymous phone call on his 47th birthday: his parents are dead. He is now a successful politician, but thirty years ago he had fled from his home and parents in the East to seek a new life in the West. The return to his parental home causes Elias a sense of unease and disturbs the rigid order and complacency of his life.

Victory and demise of the first proletarian dictatorship in the history of mankind, about the struggling, bleeding workers of Paris who enthusiastically defend their historical initiative. The little Cabet family from Rue Pigalle and their friends let the spectator participate in the action.

The wrenching story of a woman sentenced in 1934 to ten years in prison for antifascist activities. The love between her and her fiancée enables her to survive the tribulations of her time in prison, where she is one of few political prisoners.

Adaptation of Theodor Fontane's novel.