Research Guides: GERM 340: Introduction to German Literature: Films

Finding German Language Films in the Hatfield Library

Click on this search for Motion Pictures, German to find all of the films we have in the library.

Then click on Show More under the Subject list to see all of the types of films you can choose from.

Great German Movies from the Weimar Era

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.9.S5 C2 2002

A somnambulist commits murders under a hypnotist's influence. This film is an example of the German Expressionist movement.
Nosferatu (1922) by F. W Murnau
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.9.S5 N7 2002

The first film version of Bram Stoker's Dracula. The insatiable Transylvanian vampire, Count Orlock (Nosferatu), leaves his castle in the Carpathians and travels by ship to Bremen, bringing coffins filled with dirt and plague rats.
The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.9.A6 A33 2002

Premiered in Germany in 1926 and is based on the stories from "The Arabian nights", this movie has been hailed as the first full-length animated film.
Metropolis (1927)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.9.S5 M4 2002

The story of a 21st century city run by a "super trustee" and his collaborators who live in a paradise-like garden. Workers are totally enslaved by machines and condemned to live underground. In the midst of this misery, a young woman, Maria, arises and attempts to inspire the workers to throw off their oppressors.
Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) DD880 .B47 1999

A cross section of life in Berlin from dawn to midnight on a late spring day. Uses montage, cutting, and editing to capture the pulse and tempo of this city.
Berlin-Alexanderplatz die Geschichte Franz Biberkopfs. (1931)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video PN1995.91.G4 B3 1985

Story of Franz Biberkopf, just released from prison where he has served four years for an irrational act of violence. He returns to his Berlin neighborhood resolved to go straight...
Die 3groschenoper = The Threepenny Opera (1931)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 D74 2007

Set in the impoverished back alleys of Victorian London, The threepenny opera follows underworld antihero Mackie Messer (a.k.a. Mack the Knife) as he tries to woo Polly Peachum and elude the authorities. Music by Kurt Weill. Play by Bertolt Brecht.
M (1931)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 M15 2004

When a serial killer is stalking the children of the city, everyone, including the criminal underworld, wants to see him brought down.
Kuhle Wampe, or Who Owns the World? (1932)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 K84 2008

At the height of the Depression, Anni and her parents are evicted from their Berlin home and sent to Kuhle Wampe, a camp that now accommodates the ever-growing numbers of the dispossed. The only Communist film to come out of Weimar Germany, Kuhle Wampe was swiftly banned upon Hitler's rise to power.

Nazi-Era Films from Germany

Amphitryon aus den Wolken kommt das Glück (1935)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 A66 2005

Jupiter takes the shape of Amphitryon in order to enjoy the love of Amphitryon's wife, Alcmene. Based on the play by von Kleist, this cabaret-style treatment was one of the most successful films of the 1930's.
Der Ewige Jude = The Eternal Jew (1940)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) DS146.G4 E9432 2004

This pseudo-logical, uncomfortably realistic and genuinely frightening documentary interprets Jewish life and history from the viewpoint of traditional European anti-Semitism and Nazi ideology.
La Habanera (1937)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 H123 2004

Working at Germany's famed UFA Studios under the very noses of the Nazi authorities that would later force him into Hollywood exile and eminence, Sirk transformed a glossy musical vehicle for UFA's "new Garbo" into a dark and intimate anti-colonial melodrama.
Münchhausen (1943)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 M85 2004

A series of improbably-embellished stories featuring the adventurer Baron Munchhausen. Produced during wartime defeats in Russia to show that Germany could produce a counterpart to Hollywood blockbusters
Olympia (1936)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) GV722 1936 .O4 2006

After being commissioned by the 1936 Olympic Committee to create a feature film of the Berlin Olympics, Riefenstahl shot a documentary that celebrates the human body by combining the poetry of bodies in motion with close-ups of athletes in the heat of competition.
Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (1933)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 T37 2004

The Testament of Dr. Mabuse appropriates slogans and ideas from the newly ascendant Nazi party and puts them into the mouth of a madman, warning the audience of the horrible menace that was rapidly becoming a reality.
Triumph of the Will = Triumph des Willens (1935)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) DD253.28 1934 .T7 2001

This film, commissioned by Adolf Hitler to record the 1934 Nazi party rally in Nuremberg, is the "most powerful piece of propaganda ever produced".

Places to Watch Videos

The Hatfield Library has three rooms where you can watch VHS and DVD videos. Several Foreign-Language videos use a format called PAL, which is different from the North America NTSC standard. AV Room 2 has players where you can watch international PAL VHS and DVD videos. You can check out keys for all three of these rooms at the Circulation Desk.

Movies from / about West Germany (1945-1989)

Deutschland im Jahre Null / Germany Year Zero (1948) by Roberto Rossellini
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.I8 R64 2009

A devastating, a portrait of an obliterated Berlin seen through the eyes of a 12-year old boy. Living in a bombed-out apartment building with his sick father and two older siblings, young Edmund is mostly left to wander unsupervised, getting ensnared in the black market schemes of a group of teenagers and coming under the nefarious influence of a Nazi-sympathizing ex-teacher.
One, Two, Three (1961) by Billy Wilder
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.9.C55 O6 1991

In one of his very best roles, Cagney plays C.R. MacNamara, a brash, top-ranking cola executive stationed in West Berlin. When his boss's harebrained daughter Scarlett falls in love and marries a fierce young Communist named Otto Piffl, Mac must break up the union or risk losing his chance for advancement.
The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975) by Volker Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video PN1995.91.G4 V37 2000

In the period of several days, Katharina's privacy and her honor are destroyed, first by the police who terrorize her, and then by the yellow press, which creates in her name the image of a politicized Bonnie Parker.
The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979) by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 B73 2003

Maria marries Hermann Braun in the last days of World War II, only to have him disappear in the war. Alone, Maria uses her beauty and ambition to prosper in Germany's "economic miracle" of the 1950's.
Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) by Werner Herzog
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 N68 2002

Jonathan Harker, against the wishes of his wife, departs on a journey over the Carpathian Mountains to arrange a real estate transaction for Count Dracula, with tragic results.
Himmel über Berlin / Wings of Desire (1987) by Wim Wenders
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 H45 2006

Based on poems by Rainer Maria Rilke.
A romantic fantasy about an angel who wishes he were mortal and is willing to fall from the sky if it means a chance to fall in love. Set in modern day Berlin, the film follows angel Damiel's path from heavenly flight to earthly delight in a manner that's comical, touching and entertaining.
Raus aus der Haut / Shedding Skin (1997)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 R28 2004

In 1977, Anna and Marcus are two teenagers in East Germany undergoing punishment by their high school principal. Inspired by terrorist kidnappings in West Germany, they kidnap the principal and hold him hostage in Anna's grandmother's basement.
The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008) by Bernd Eichinger
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 B23 2010

Germany 1967: murderous bomb attacks, the threat of terrorism, and the fear of the enemy inside are rocking the very foundations of the still-fragile German democracy. The radicalized children of the Nazi generation, led by Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, and Gudrun Ensslin, are fighting a violent war against what they perceive as the new face of fascism.
Rosa Luxemburg (1986) by Margarethe von Trotta
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 R7 2019

Rosa Luxemburg, a Polish Jewess was born on March 5, 1871. She became German through an unconsumated marriage and at the beginning of the century, played an important role in the political and moral fields.

Films about Nazi Era Germany

Nackt unter Wölfen / Naked among Wolves (1963)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 N23 2005

The first German film devoted to life and death in a concentration camp tells the story of organized resistance by political prisoners in the Buchenwald concentration camp. Made in East Germany.
Die Blechtrommel / The Tin Drum (1979) by Volker Schlöndorff
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 B55 2004

Danzig, 1924. Oskar Matzerath is born with an intellect beyond his infancy. As he witnesses the hypocrisy of adulthood and the irresponsibility of society, Oskar rejects both, and, on his third birthday, refuses to grow.
Stalingrad (1992)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 S83 1998

The battle of Stalingrad lasted from September 1942 to January 1943...the awesome battle that thwarted Hitler's Eastern Front conquests is told from the viewpoint of four German soldiers.
Aimée & Jaguar (1998)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 A44 2001

During World War II in the Battle of Berlin, two women find each other. One is single, Jaguar; the other, Aimée, is unhappily married and mother to four sons. In war-torn Germany it was not safe to be Jewish; it was just as unsafe to be a lesbian.
Nirgendwo in Afrika / Nowhere in Africa (2001)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 N47 2003

true tale of a Jewish family who flee the Nazi regime in 1938 and learns to cope with their new life, and each other, on a remote farm in Kenya.
Untergang / Downfall (2004) by Oliver Hirschbiegel
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 U595 2005

Loosely based on her actual first-hand account, depicts the final ten days of Nazi Germany as seen through the eyes of Hitler's then-secretary Gertraud (Traudl) Junge.
Generation War (2013)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 G453 2014

Vividly depicts the lives of five young German friends forced to navigate the unconscionable moral compromises of life under Hitler A television miniseries that first aired in Germany and Austria in 2013.

Films from/about East Germany (1945 - 1989)

Die Mörder Sind unter Uns / The Murderers Are Among Us (1946)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 M64 2002

Susanne is a concentration camp survivor who, despite unspeakable experiences, is filled with a new desire to live. She wants to move back into her apartment in war-torn Berlin where Hans has taken up residence. He is a former officer and surgeon in the German army who finds himself unable to deal with the haunting memories of his role in the war.
Berlin Schoenhauser Corner (1957)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (PN1995.91.G4 B347 1999 )

Portrays young people in East Berlin in search of their purpose in life a few years before the construction of the Berlin Wall.
Das Zweite Gleis / The Second Track (1962)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 Z897 2006

Station Inspector Brock is witness to a robbery. When he fails to report one of the culprits, he experiences flashbacks of his earlier failure to take a stand against Nazi persecutions years ago.
Das Kaninchen Bin Ich / The Rabbit Is Me (1965)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) (PN1995.91.G4 K214 2006

A 19-year-old East German girl named Maria Morzeck is denied university admission because her brother is in jail for political reasons. She later has an affair with the judge who passed the harsh sentence on her brother and eventually confronts him.
Heißer Sommer / Hot Summer (1968)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 H367 1999

Set on the Baltic Sea, is the lovin' and fightin' of 10 teenage boys and 11 teenage girls on vacation. A musical version of coming of age. This bit of fluff lit up the East German box offices in 1968.
Coming Out (1989)
Call Number: Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 C65 2001

Against the background of the East German society's prejudice against homosexual relationships, Philip, a high school teacher with a pregnant girlfriend, discovers he loves Matthias. This production, the first and last DEFA feature film about homosexuality, had its premiere on November 9, 1989, the evening of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Das Leben der Anderen / The Lives of Others (2007)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD)PN1995.91.G4 L32 2007

East Berlin, 1984. Capt. Gerd Wiesler, Stasi officer and surveillance specialist has a simple assignment: keep an eye on a respected playwright, and his actress girlfriend.

Movies about Post Reunification German

Auf der anderen Seite (2007) by Fatih Akin
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 A94 2008 )

Six characters are drawn together by circumstances - an old man and a prostitute forging a partnership, a young scholar reconciling his past, two young women falling in love, and a mother putting the shattered pieces of her life back together.
German, English and Turkish dialogue with English subtitles.
Berlin is in Germany (2001)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 B348 2003

Imprisoned during the East German regime in Brandenburg, Martin Schulz, a former East German citizen, attempts to adjust to life in unified Berlin. He meets old friends and his wife who now lives with his son, whom he has never met, and another man.
Das Experiment (1999)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 E95 2003

A fictionalized interpretation of an experiment by Stanford University in 1971 which asked for 24 male students to volunteer for a simulated prison experience as prisoners or guards to determine behavioral and psychological consequences
Gegen die Wand / Head-On (2004)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 G44 2005

Cahit Tomruk is in his forties, a rock 'n' rolling boozer with a purposeless, dead-end job. Sibel Güner desperately wants to escape her conservative Turkish family. Both are German-born Turks equally ill at ease in either culture; seeking a new life, and a morality that will withstand the constant shuttling between codes.
Good Bye Lenin! (2003)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 G66 2004

Alex's proud, socialist mother falls into a coma for eight months. When she wakes, her heart is weak, so Alex has to keep the secret that the Berlin Wall has fallen and capitalism has triumphed.
Im Juli / In July (2000)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 I54 2004

Daniel, a young teacher, decides to spend his summer at home in Hamburg. At the local flea market, he meets Juli, who is immediately attracted to him, a fact to which Daniel seems oblivious. On the same day, Daniel meets Melek, a young Turkish girl, with whom he is immediately smitten. Ignoring his earlier plans, he sets out in pursuit of her across the Balkans...
Lola + Bilidikid (1999)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 L65 2000

Set in the underworld of contemporary Berlin, the video offers a rare glimpse into a Turkish immigrant sub-culture in which sixteen-year-old Murat is a voyeur to macho histlers and gay sex, torn between the pressures of his Muslim family and his need to experience this taboo arena.
Lola Rennt / Run Lola Run (1998)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 L657 1999

A thrilling post-MTV, roller-coaster ride about two star-crossed lovers who have only minutes to change the course of their lives.
Mostly Martha (2001)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 M65 2007

Master chef and workaholic Martha is a perfectionist who revels in the sense of power and control her career affords. Martha's finely-tuned life is upset when her nine-year old niece Lina comes to stay, and a free-spirited sous chef is hired at her kitchen.
Männer (1985)
Call Number: Hatfield Library AV Video (DVD) PN1995.91.G4 M224 2005

An uptight ad executive becomes very jealous when he learns that his wife is having an affair, so he befriends her lover and becomes his roommate, with hilarious consequences.
Was tun, wenn's brennt? What to do in case of fire? (2001)
Call Number: PN1995.91.G4 W27 2002

When a twenty-year-old bomb explodes in an abandoned mansion in modern-day Berlin, the evidence points to a notorious late 1980's anarchist group. As the police start looking for them, the six former rebels reunite for the first time in 12 years to come up with a plan to protect themselves.