


The sprawling story of the everyday triumphs and travails of the young toolmaker Jochen and many of the people populating his world, including the woman he loves, his eccentric family, and his colleagues, with whom he bands together to improve conditions on the factory floor.

Lola Montes, previously a great adventuress, is reduced to being the attraction of a circus after having been the lover of various important men.



In the 23rd century, it is no longer necessary to work thanks to the latest technology. Convicts do the work that still needs to be done. The World Leisure Center uses a computer system to decide how people spend their free time. World citizen number DARK 7035 7201 is called Prun. Although an examination shows that his IQ is too low for him to have a child of his own, he becomes the father of Botho. Because it is a "black birth", he has to keep Botho hidden from now on. Prun comes into contact with the so-called "semi-intelligentsia", who oppose the government.

Two members of a traveling troupe are reduced to the status of hoboes. They pretend to be a famous composer and his colleague, to improve their prospects.





Karl Kramer is a waiter in a beach hotel on the Baltic Sea. But he has completely different plans in mind for the future. Before he marries Grete Wernicke, the daughter of the hotel manager, he wants to have enough money himself.

Heinz Erhardt wanders through the Black Forest as a photographer for a magazine. On the train he meets a young girl who from now on does not leave his side.
