Am grünen Strand der Spree

West Berlin 1954. On the evening of April 26, four old friends who have not seen each other since the pre-war period meet in the jockey bar: the advertising film producer Hans Schott (Werner Lieven), the painter and film consultant Fritz Georg Hesselbarth (Bum Krüger) and the actor Bob Arnoldis (Günter Pfitzmann) meet with their friend, the ex-major Hans-Joachim Lepsius (Malte Jaeger), who has only recently returned from Soviet captivity. In turn, they tell each other stories and anecdotes of fateful moments and encounters. Everything that is covered up by post-war everyday life comes to life: landscapes, love affairs, Prussian tradition and the cruel murder of the Jews...

With 'On the Green Beach of the Spree', director Fritz Umgelter created one of the first TV novels on German television. It was based on the book 'Am grünen Strand der Spree - So gut wie ein Roman' (1955) by Hans Scholz. In the process, reports of fate and war experiences come together to form a mosaic-like historical panorama, which made the five-part series the first major street sweeper in Germany. Filming took place at 240 locations. The production cost an astronomical 1.5 million Deutschmarks at the time and made Günter Pfitzmann a star.