Hans Fallada tells in his published after the war novel "The drinker" the story of the agricultural wholesaler Erwin Sommer, who flees from his narrow bourgeois relations under the burdens of the new times in the kingdom of the king alcohol, whose liberty and independence promises prove a lie - the only truth of the alcohol. On behalf of the WDR television play Ulrich Plenzdorf has adapted Fallada's 1944/45 novel for a film adaptation by Tom Toelle with Harald Juhnke in the main role of Erwin Sommer.
The Lübeck merchant Friedemann owes his crippled figure to a wet nurse "devoted to drink". He lives a secluded life with his three simple-minded sisters and his bedridden mother, loving only the theater and music. Only Gerda, the unhappy wife of the district commander of Rinnlingen, makes him blossom...
1831. A village schoolteacher Matthias Spitzbart dreams of the ideal school and writes a textbook on the perfect educational institution. When he becomes principal of a grammar school by chance, he puts his ideas into practice. His almost missionary-like zeal blossoms in wondrous ways, but his family idyll is deceptive. Entangled in his activities, Spitzbart fails to see his wife's affair with pro-rector Mehlmann, daughter Friederike flirts with the trainee teacher, and son Michael's misdeeds are enough to make a mockery of his efforts at exemplary behavior. Teachers, parents and the mayor are of the opinion that he has upset everything that worked before: he is dismissed...
Johann Hull, a man with revolutionary charisma, comes to St. Barbara one day. He encourages the starving fishermen to fight to improve their living conditions. They dare to revolt.
Love, intrigue, favouritism and corruption at the Dresdner Hof.
The young forester Rudolf is released from a mental hospital after suffering from a mental illness. His widowed mother accompanies the taciturn son to a vicarage where he is supposed to recover. There he meets the pastor's daughter Anna, with whom he immediately falls in love, and the two decide to get married. His mother is critical of the marriage and demands that her son conceal his stay in the "lunatic asylum" from his wife. This secret overshadows the young couple's relationship from the very beginning, and the burden of silence finally makes Rudolf want to take his own life. Only at the last minute is Anna able to save him from this stupidity.
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