Uncle Krüger

Film journalist and critic Rüdiger Suchsland examines German cinema from 1933, when the Nazis came into power, until 1945, when the Third Reich collapsed. (A sequel to From Caligari to Hitler, 2015.)

Lyrical biography of the classical composer, depicted as a romantic hero, an accursed artist.

A fiction piece centered around the Czech resistance to the Nazis.

In the 15th century Richard Duke of Gloucester, aided by his club-footed executioner Mord, eliminates those ahead of him in succession to the throne, then occupied by his brother King Edward IV of England. As each murder is accomplished he takes particular delight in removing small figurines, each resembling one of the successors, from a throne-room dollhouse, until he alone remains. After the death of Edward he becomes Richard III, King of England, and need only defeat the exiled Henry Tudor to retain power.

The story of the HMS Torrin, from its construction to its sinking in the Mediterranean during action in World War II. The ship’s first and only commanding officer is Captain E.V. Kinross, who trains his men not only to be loyal to him and the country, but—most importantly—to themselves.

During the Nazi occupation of 1944 Rome, Resistance leader Giorgio Manfredi is pursued by the Nazis as he seeks refuge and a means of escape.

In the last days of World War 2, people of various ethnic background meet in a Polish military hospital in a small German town, whereas a Nazi SS division hides in the local forests and tries to move westwards.

The Czech revival movement is divided at the end of the first half of the 19th century. While the older generation, such as František Palacký, urges restraint, students lean towards radical positions. A report on the revolutionary events in Paris prompts Czech Prague residents to write down the demands of the Czech nation for self-determination and the proclamation of a constitution. Tensions peak during the All-Slavic Congress in Prague's Žofín. Vienna rejects the Czech demands and the congress is brutally dispersed by the Austrian police. Prague begins to build barricades...

In 1948, after the Northeast was liberated, enemy sabotage began. The Public Security Bureau learned that spy Li Tianmin had infiltrated the city. Bureau chief and Captain Zhang quickly deployed personnel to capture him. Li Tianmin evaded key questions during interrogation. Clues were found on a milk bottle cap delivered by a boy, who passed it to another spy, Zhou Shaomei. Under surveillance, Zhou Shaomei, fearing Li Tianmin’s capture, killed the boy to erase evidence. Intelligence personnel mobilised the masses, pressuring the hidden enemies. Many deceived individuals provided clues, ensnaring the enemies in the people’s war.

The course of an organized strike by workers from North Moravian steelworks in 1931 to resist mass layoffs during the economic crisis.

Fletcher Christian successfully leads a revolt against the ruthless Captain Bligh on the HMS Bounty. However, Bligh returns one year later, hell bent on revenge.

Diederich Heßling is scared of everything and everyone. But as he grows up, he comes to realize that he has to offer his services to the powers-that-be if he wants to wield power himself. His life motto now runs: bow to those at the top and tread on those below. In this way, he always succeeds: as a student in a duel-fighting student fraternity and as a businessman in a paper factory. He cajoles the obese district administrative president Von Wulkow and wins his favor. He slanders his financial rivals and hatches a plot with the social democrats in the town council. On his honeymoon with his rich wife Guste, he finally finds a chance to do his beloved Kaiser a favor. And when a memorial to the Kaiser is unveiled in the town where Diederich lives and works, he delivers the address. He stands behind the lectern in the pouring rain, saluting his Kaiser. The crowd is dispersed. Everything is laid in ruins...

The first blitzkrieg, Hitler's invasion of Poland, is traced in this original Nazi propaganda film from 1940.

A musical film based on biographical facts about Clara Wieck's love for composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856), her marriage against her will, Schumann's triumph, and his tragic end due to mental illness. The film is beautiful and entertaining, full of noble spirit and beautiful words about art and love, which only conflict in a theoretical context; not least thanks to its solid cast, this film is quite serious and far from kitsch. Completed in 1944, during World War II, the film was rejected by the Nazi leadership, but was eventually released and enjoyed success with an audience already weary of war.

Two beautiful and different girls, Alice and Lisette are 17 years old, when forcibly removed from their Alsatian family to cooperate in the war effort in Germany. After spending six months in a indoctrination camp, they are both sent to a munitions factory where they are tasked to perform inhuman works. An explosion erupts, they are suspected of sabotage and threatened with being sent to a boot camp. Alice and Lisette believe they saved when transferred to a maternity where they continue living the hell of war.

Nazi propaganda film about the Condor Legion, a unit of German "volunteers" who fought in the Spanish Civil War on the side of eventual dictator Francisco Franco against the elected government of Spain.

Dashing pirate Geoffrey Thorpe plunders Spanish ships for Queen Elizabeth I and falls in love with Dona Maria, a beautiful Spanish royal he captures.

Celebrating the end of World War II and liberation of their city, a group of students is set on holding a cultural evening. They invite Ema, a reclusive piano teacher from the same building, to play for them. Ema declines, but starts reminscing back on her own life and the historical events that have seemingly overshadowed it.

A dramatized account of the French Resistance, this wartime film depicts how railway workers sabotaged German trains to disrupt troop movements and supply lines during the Nazi occupation. Blending documentary realism with fiction, it pays tribute to the courage and sacrifice of ordinary workers who became central to the fight for liberation.

The cunning Cardinal Richelieu must save King Louis XIII from treachery within his inner circle.