HIST 391: Germany in the Cold War: Videos

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Portrays young people in East Berlin in search of their purpose in life a few years before the construction of the Berlin Wall.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.