List of Films Set in Berlin - 1940s

1940s

1941

• Der Gasmann, 1941 - a gas meter reader in Berlin during World War II is suspected of being a foreign spy. Directed by Carl Froelich.

1942

• Two in a Big City (Zwei in einer großen Stadt), 1942 - A sergeant from the Wehrmacht and a nurse (working at the local Red Cross station) meet accidentally at Friedrichstraße station and spend one day together in Berlin. Directed by Volker von Collande.

1943

• Ich vertraue dir meine Frau an, 1943 - a man asks a friend to keep a jealous watch over his wife in Berlin during a business trip with his secretary what causes several adventures for the caring friend. Directed by Kurt Hoffmann.

1944

• Under the Bridges (Unter den Brücken), 1944/45 - Two men and a woman shipping on the river Havel shortly before Berlin gets totally destroyed. Directed by Helmut Käutner.

1945

• Hotel Berlin, 1945 - near the close of World War II, a member of the German underground escapes from the Gestapo and takes shelter at Hotel Berlin. Directed by Peter Godfrey.
• Fall of Berlin – 1945, 1945 - Soviet propaganda documentary film about the Battle of Berlin. Footage of the actual battle is shown, as the Red Army fights the Nazis, building by building. The assault on the Reichstag ends with the famous photograph, raising the Red Flag over the Reichstag. Directed by Yuli Raizman and Yelizaveta Svilova.

1946

• Murderers Among Us (Die Mörder sind unter uns), 1946 - The first post-WWII Trümmerfilm. Directed by Wolfgang Staudte.
• Irgendwo in Berlin, 1946 - Drama about children in post-war Berlin. Directed by Gerhard Lamprecht.

1947

• ...and the Sky Above Us (...und über uns der Himmel), 1947 - A man comes home after World War II into destroyed Berlin and starts working as a black market trader. With Hans Albers, directed by Josef von Báky.
• Razzia, 1947 - crime thriller about black market traders in Berlin. A spy forewarns everybody before the police arrives and a police commissar gets murdered. Directed by Werner Klingler.

1948

• A Foreign Affair, 1948 - Romantic comedy set in Berlin during the Allied occupation; stars Jean Arthur and Marlene Dietrich; directed by Billy Wilder.
• Berliner Ballade, 1948 - Daily life of a veteran home from the war. Director Robert A. Stemmle.
• Berlin Express, 1948 - Murder mystery with scenes from bombed-out Frankfurt and Berlin, directed by Jacques Tourneur.
• Germany Year Zero, 1948 - Filmed in German in the ruins of the bombed-out city of Berlin, then dubbed into Italian (with subtitles). A masterpiece of neo-realism, by Roberto Rossellini.

1949

• Unser täglich Brot, 1949 - about the difficult life of an extended family in destroyed Berlin in 1946. Directed by Slatan Dudow.
• Rotation, 1949 - showing the life of a mechanic in Berlin between 1920 and 1945. During the Third Reich, as a member of the Nazi Party, he aids a resistance group in printing anti-war propaganda and is finally turned into the authorities by his own son who is a frenetic member of the Hitler Youth. Directed by Wolfgang Staudte.
• The Beaverskin (Die Buntkarierten), 1949 - the fate of a typical working-class family in Berlin between 1883 and 1949 facing child labour, trade union engagement, war, depression, unemployment and the rise and fall of Nazism. Directed by Kurt Maetzig.