Helena's mirror, a valuable piece of jewelry, has been stolen from a museum in Bremen and is to be smuggled across the Alps to the border. Alex Roscher, the border guard, catches the smugglers but gets caught up in a shootout.

The residents of the villages Strasslach and Rott are anything but friends. The residents of the “enemy” town are ridiculed at every chance the residents of the other village can get to do so. And it’s no different, when Rott is getting ready to celebrate the 300th anniversary of its founding. The residents of Strasslach ridicule their neighbors, because the Rotters don’t want to celebrate the anniversary, because it’ll cost money. Even the church doesn’t have an organ, because that would cost money, too.

A son, in defending Prussia circa 1814 under the thumb of Napoleon, washes away the disgrace of his aristocrat father who had collaborated with the French and caused the deaths of countrymen.

France in the 15th Century: The country is marked by the wars with England and internal power struggles. King Charles sees himself powerless against the state. As emerges from the people suddenly a young woman named Johanna, who claimed that the Archangel Gabriel to be appointed, to save France. First of all doubt the king in their words, but he remembers that the people through this "help of God" is gaining new courage. With the slogan "God and the Virgin!" pulls the revivified victorious army into battle against the English-Burgundian alliance. After Johanna King Charles is crowned at Reims, there breaks the plague over the country in. Now Johanna all the blame on the disaster: God would punish believe in the country for that a heretic; if Johanna were actual a holy, she would deal also with the plague. The waning faith weakens France, England is again on the rise. But Johanna is executed as a witch. Only years later annulled the verdict of the Holy and Johanna explained.

A biographical film of Otto von Bismarck, the Prime Minister of Prussia, and how he and his policies - including aggressive war - helped to unite Germany.

Director Brakke has good reason to be happy: he has just received the news that his son, Theo, won first place in the local boat race. To be sure, he had forbidden his son to take part in the competition, because the son's grades in school are substandard. In the end, Brakke sees no other way than to pull Theo from school and install him as an apprentice in his airplane manufacturing plant. Although Theo is received by the other 150 apprentices in a friendly fashion, he behaves in an arrogant and disrespectful tone towards them. He feels himself to be better than them, because his father is the director of the factory.

Walter is in love with the 17-year-old Erika, but she raves for older, experienced men. When Walter and Erika visit his parents' estate after passing their exams, Erika shows increasing interest in Walter's father, Werner von Schlettow.