A young shoemaker is arrested for stealing a small amount of money, and is jailed for fifteen years. Upon his release, he wants to get a permit to get a job and start anew, but finds that without a job he can't get a permit, and without a permit he can't get a job. Ensnared in the absurd net of Prussian bureaucracy, he can't see any way out. That is, until he enters a thrift shop and spots a Prussian officer's uniform that fits him like a second skin...
Admiral Canaris is chief of the intelligence service of Nazi Germany. His department is quite successful and Hitler grants him all the money he wants for new developments. Still he's a thorn in the side of the Nazi chiefs, since he's not as unscrupulous as they want him and is known to criticize their ideology.
Singing sailor Hannes, who now entertains the crowd at St. Pauli's Hippodrome after years at sea, promises his dying brother that he will take care of his ex-girlfriend Gisa. Taking Gisa to Hamburg to live with him, Hannes quickly falls in love with her, but soon has to face Gisa's affection for another man, Willem.
The attractive Oberleutnant Paul Wendlandt is stationed in North Africa as a fighter pilot. While in Berlin to deliver a report he is given a day's leave, and on the stage of the cabaret theatre "Skala" sees the popular Danish singer Hanna Holberg. For Paul it is love at first sight. When Hanna visits friends after the end of the performance, he follows her, and speaks to her in the U-Bahn. After the party in her friends' flat, he accompanies her home and chance throws them further together when an air raid warning forces them to take cover in the air raid shelter. Hanna reciprocates Paul's feelings, but after a night spent together Paul has to return immediately to the front. There now follows a whole series of misunderstandings, and one missed opportunity after another. While Hanna waits in vain for some sign of life from Paul, he is flying on missions in North Africa. When he tries to visit her in her Berlin flat, she is giving a Christmas concert in Paris.
In this film, the wife of a renowned doctor becomes ill with multiple sclerosis. Trying to spare her beloved husband the ordeal, the woman turns to a family friend, Dr. Lang, to help end her life. When this doctor declines to help with the assisted suicide, however, she is forced to turn to her husband. After much soul-searching, Dr. Heyt, her husband, assists in her suicide. The act, however, is witnessed by a chambermaid, who reports him to the police. Dr. Heyt is put on trial for murder and, at first, Dr. Lang testifies against him in court. Soon, however, Dr. Lang is faced with a similar case in his professional practice and this, along with Dr. Heyt’s impassioned performance in court, convinces Dr. Lang that, in some instances, mercy killing may be the right thing to do.
Across German screens at the outbreak of WWII streaks "DIII88: The New German Air Force Attacks", an aeronautic and maritime spectacle glorifying Hermann Goring's Luftwaffe and the spirit of the newly arisen Germany. Once war became imminent, Joseph Goebbels instructed the German film industry to initiate production of numerous militaristic projects, but DIII88 was initiated by the Propaganda Minister's rival, Goring, who commissioned several aviation pictures. DIII88 is not a war picture per se, because it takes place in peacetime, but the young, fresh-faced air aces enthusiastically look forward to the coming war. The propaganda is blatant: The only thing that matters is dedication to duty and unconditional commitment to the Fatherland.
Prim professor Immanuel Rath finds some of his students ogling racy photos of cabaret performer Lola Lola and visits a local club, The Blue Angel, in an attempt to catch them there. Seeing Lola perform, the teacher is filled with lust, eventually resigning his position at the school to marry the young woman. However, his marriage to a coquette -- whose job is to entice men -- proves to be more difficult than Rath imagined.