List of Films Set in Berlin

1950s

The Fall of Berlin, 1950 - two-part Soviet propagandistic feature film. The plot revolves around the history of the Great Patriotic War and the Battle of Berlin, focusing on the role that Joseph Stalin played in the events. Directed by Mikheil Chiaureli.
The Big Lift, 1950 - Stars Montgomery Clift in the Berlin Air Lift. Film by George Seaton.

Story of A Young Couple (Roman einer jungen Ehe), 1952 - a young married couple - both actors - work in Cold War Berlin. She is on location in East Berlin, and he works at a theatre in West Berlin. As they hold more and more opposed views on politics, art and society, their marriage is in danger of breaking up. Directed by Kurt Maetzig.
Die Spur führt nach Berlin, 1952 - Film noir about a young American lawyer who discovers a gang of counterfeiters in Berlin and gets hunted himself. By Frantisek Cáp.

The Man Between, 1953 - Stars James Mason. Atmospheric East/West thriller filmed in bomb-torn Berlin. Directed by Carol Reed.
No Way Back (Weg ohne Umkehr), 1953 - in 1945 a Red Army officer discovers a frightened girl huddled in a Berlin cellar. He gives her a safe escort home and wins her gratitude. Seven years later they meet again in the divided city. Directed by Victor Vicas.

Night People, 1954 - during the Cold War a counter-intelligence officer of the United States Army has to recover a young G.I. in Berlin who was hauled off to the East by the Soviets. Directed by Nunnally Johnson.
Emil and the Detectives (Emil und die Detektive), 1954 - Adventure film directed by Robert A. Stemmle, based on the novel Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kästner.
Sauerbruch – Das war mein Leben, 1954 - showing the work of famous senior surgeon Ferdinand Sauerbruch at the teaching hospital Charité in Berlin with several flashback scenes about his former labour. Directed by Rolf Hansen.

Jackboot Mutiny (Es geschah am 20. Juli), 1955 - about the failed July 20 Plot to kill Adolf Hitler by a bomb placed at Wolf's Lair by Claus von Stauffenberg, which led to the execution of several resistance group members at the Berlin Bendlerblock. Directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst.
Der 20. Juli, 1955 - feature film on the failed July 20, 1944 attempt at assassinating Adolf Hitler. The film has a realism that comes close to the style of a documentary. Directed by Falk Harnack.
The Last Ten Days (Der letzte Akt), 1955 - about the last days of Adolf Hitler at the Führerbunker during the Battle of Berlin. Directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst.
Die drei von der Tankstelle, 1955 - three friends are broke, so they sell their car and open a filling station in Berlin. Then they all fall in love with the same girl. Directed by Hans Wolff.
Hotel Adlon, 1955 - episodic movie about the exclusive and world-famous Hotel Adlon, Unter den Linden, before World War II, its illustrious and glamourous guests and the working staff. Directed by Josef von Báky.

Der Hauptmann von Köpenick, 1956 - Directed by Helmut Käutner and based upon the play The Captain of Köpenick by Carl Zuckmayer. The play was based on the true story of Wilhelm Voigt.
Teenage Wolfpack (Die Halbstarken), 1956 - A portrait of rebellious young people in Berlin during the 1950s. Directed by Georg Tressler.
A Berlin Romance (Eine Berliner Romanze), 1956 - about youth urban life in the divided city of Berlin. The film is a love story about a seventeen-year-old East German saleswoman and an unemployed auto mechanic from West Berlin. Directed by Gerhard Klein.
Treffpunkt Aimée, 1956 - a group of criminals smuggles PVC declared as cement from East Berlin to West Berlin until the Volkspolizei becomes suspicious. Directed by Horst Reinecke.

Berlin – Ecke Schönhauser…, 1957 - Drama by Gerhard Klein about anti-establishment teens in East Berlin.
Vergeßt mir meine Traudel nicht, 1957 - a lonely 17-year-old girl escapes from a children's home, comes to Berlin and upsets the life of a teacher and a policeman sharing the same flat. Directed by Kurt Maetzig.
Bewildered Youth (Anders als du und ich / Das dritte Geschlecht), 1957 - a young man in postwar Berlin discovers his homosexuality but his own family tries very hard to set him straight. Directed by Veit Harlan.
Lissy, 1957 - a poor girl from a working-class family in Berlin-Wedding marries a successful Nazi. But her social advancement gets along with the loss of old friends. Directed by Konrad Wolf.
Old Barge, Young Love (Alter Kahn und junge Liebe), 1957 - a skipper leads a small group of barges travelling from Berlin to Waren. Directed by Hans Heinrich.

Endstation Liebe, 1958 - a young factory worker in West Berlin is a lady-killer and does not believe in true love until he meets the love of his life during a bet. Directed by Georg Tressler.
Fraulein, 1958 - German woman and American officer caught up in the end of and aftermath of World War II in Berlin. Directed by Henry Koster.
Solang' noch untern Linden, 1958 - biography of famous chanson and operetta composer Walter Kollo working at the Berliner Theater and the Admiralspalast. Directed by his son Willi Kollo; grandson and opera tenor René Kollo played his own grandfather.
Tatort Berlin, 1958 - illustrates the advantage for criminals with the still passable inner German border but also the problems with separate police investigations inside Berlin. In the movie a new jurisdiction is seen to help with the resocialisation of former petty criminals into the system of the GDR. Directed by Joachim Kunert.
Der eiserne Gustav, 1958 - based on the novel by Hans Fallada and telling the true story of horse-drawn cabman Gustav Hartmann from Wannsee district who drove sensationally to Paris in 1928 to demonstrate against the rise of the motorcar taxicab. Directed by George Hurdalek.

Ten Seconds to Hell, 1959 - focuses on a half-dozen German POWs who return to a devastated Berlin and find employment as a bomb disposal squad, tasked with clearing the city of unexploded Allied bombs. Directed by Robert Aldrich.
Reportage 57, 1959 - drawing on negative depictions of Halbstarke and Rock 'n' roll in West Berlin in its critiques of the West. Directed by János Veiczi.
Love's Confusion (Verwirrung der Liebe), 1959 - a medical student at Berlin Humboldt University misses his girlfriend at a masquerade and finds a new girl. His former girlfriend takes the former boyfriend of the student's new girl instead. Before wedding they again switch partners. Directed by Slatan Dudow.

Read more about this topic: List Of Films Set In Berlin

List of Films Set in Berlin - 1950s