Top 25 German films of all time
by Tasos2 | created - 21 Sep 2021 | updated - 21 Sep 2021 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Parsifal (1982)
PG | 255 min | Drama, Music
Richard Wagner's last opera has remained controversial since its first performance for its unique, and, for some, unsavory blending of religious and erotic themes and imagery. Based on one ... See full summary »
Director: Hans-Jürgen Syberberg | Stars: Edith Clever, Martin Sperr, Robert Lloyd, Michael Kutter
Votes: 334
2. The Lives of Others (2006)
R | 137 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
In 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck | Stars: Ulrich Mühe, Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Tukur
Votes: 410,681 | Gross: $11.29M
3. I Am My Films (1978)
93 min | Documentary
"I Am My Films - A Portrait of Werner Herzog" - Herzog is one of the most important German auteur filmmakers and certainly also one of the most passionate. For his film projects, he does ... See full summary »
Directors: Erwin Keusch, Christian Weisenborn | Stars: Bruno S., Eva Mattes, Burkhard Driest, Wilhelm von Homburg
Votes: 150
4. Paris, Texas (1984)
R | 145 min | Drama
Travis Henderson, an aimless drifter who has been missing for four years, wanders out of the desert and must reconnect with society, himself, his life, and his family.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell, Sam Berry
Votes: 119,151 | Gross: $2.18M
5. Sunrise (1927)
Passed | 94 min | Drama, Romance
A sophisticated city woman seduces a farmer and convinces him to murder his wife and join her in the city, but he ends up rekindling his romance with his wife when he changes his mind at the last moment.
Director: F.W. Murnau | Stars: George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston, Bodil Rosing
Votes: 53,865 | Gross: $0.54M
6. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
Not Rated | 95 min | Action, Adventure, Biography
In the 16th century, the ruthless and insane Don Lope de Aguirre leads a Spanish expedition in search of El Dorado.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Klaus Kinski, Ruy Guerra, Helena Rojo, Del Negro
Votes: 62,325
7. The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975)
R | 106 min | Crime, Drama
A young woman's life is scrutinized by police and tabloid press after she spends the night with a suspected terrorist.
Directors: Volker Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta | Stars: Angela Winkler, Mario Adorf, Dieter Laser, Jürgen Prochnow
Votes: 4,897
8. Pandora's Box (1929)
Not Rated | 109 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
The rise and inevitable fall of an amoral but naive young woman whose insouciant eroticism inspires lust and violence in those around her.
Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst | Stars: Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Francis Lederer, Carl Goetz
Votes: 11,861 | Gross: $0.01M
9. The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)
R | 120 min | Drama
Maria marries Hermann Braun in the last days of World War II, only for him to go missing in the war. Alone, Maria puts to use her beauty and ambition in order to find prosperity during Germany's "economic miracle" of the 1950s.
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Hanna Schygulla, Klaus Löwitsch, Ivan Desny, Gisela Uhlen
Votes: 14,931
10. Metropolis (1927)
Not Rated | 153 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working-class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge
Votes: 185,617 | Gross: $1.24M
11. Stroszek (1977)
Not Rated | 115 min | Comedy, Drama
In Berlin, an alcoholic man, recently released from prison, joins his elderly friend and a prostitute in a determined dream to leave Germany and seek a better life in Wisconsin.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Bruno S., Eva Mattes, Clemens Scheitz, Wilhelm von Homburg
Votes: 15,331
12. Lola (1981)
R | 115 min | Drama, Romance
A seductive cabaret singer-prostitute pits a corrupt building contractor against the new straight-arrow building commissioner, launching an outrageous plan to elevate herself in a world where everything-and everyone-is for sale.
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Barbara Sukowa, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Mario Adorf, Matthias Fuchs
Votes: 6,825
13. Alice in the Cities (1974)
Not Rated | 113 min | Drama
A German journalist is saddled with a nine-year-old girl after encountering her mother at a New York airport.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Yella Rottländer, Rüdiger Vogler, Lisa Kreuzer, Edda Köchl
Votes: 13,275
14. The American Friend (1977)
Not Rated | 128 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Tom Ripley, who deals in forged art, suggests a picture framer he knows would make a good hit man.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Dennis Hopper, Bruno Ganz, Lisa Kreuzer, Gérard Blain
Votes: 18,615
15. Knife in the Head (1978)
113 min | Drama
During a police raid on a youth center, the biogeneticist Hoffmann is shot in the head. When he awakes from a coma, he can't remember anyting. The police accuse him of being a terrorist.
Director: Reinhard Hauff | Stars: Bruno Ganz, Angela Winkler, Hans Christian Blech, Heinz Hoenig
Votes: 722
16. Hannah Arendt (2012)
Not Rated | 113 min | Biography, Drama
A look at the life of philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt, who reported for 'The New Yorker' on the trial of the Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem.
Director: Margarethe von Trotta | Stars: Barbara Sukowa, Axel Milberg, Janet McTeer, Julia Jentsch
Votes: 12,025 | Gross: $0.71M
17. Diplomacy (2014)
Not Rated | 84 min | Drama, History, War
A historical drama that depicts the relationship between Dietrich von Choltitz, the German military governor of occupied Paris, and Swedish consul-general Raoul Nordling.
Director: Volker Schlöndorff | Stars: André Dussollier, Niels Arestrup, Burghart Klaußner, Robert Stadlober
Votes: 5,861 | Gross: $0.23M
18. The Wave (2008)
Not Rated | 107 min | Drama, Thriller
A high school teacher's experiment to demonstrate to his students what life is like under a dictatorship spins horribly out of control when he forms a social unit with a life of its own.
Director: Dennis Gansel | Stars: Jürgen Vogel, Frederick Lau, Max Riemelt, Jennifer Ulrich
Votes: 115,161
19. Good Bye Lenin! (2003)
R | 121 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
In 1990, to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock after a long coma, a young man must keep her from learning that her beloved nation of East Germany as she knew it has disappeared.
Director: Wolfgang Becker | Stars: Daniel Brühl, Katrin Sass, Chulpan Khamatova, Florian Lukas
Votes: 152,686 | Gross: $4.06M
20. Downfall (2004)
R | 156 min | Biography, Drama, History
Traudl Junge, the final secretary for Adolf Hitler, tells of the Nazi dictator's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII.
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel | Stars: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ulrich Matthes, Juliane Köhler
Votes: 375,404 | Gross: $5.51M
21. Phoenix (II) (2014)
PG-13 | 98 min | Drama, History, Music
After surviving Auschwitz, a former cabaret singer has her disfigured face reconstructed and returns to her war-ravaged hometown to seek out her gentile husband, who may or may not have betrayed her to the Nazis.
Director: Christian Petzold | Stars: Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld, Nina Kunzendorf, Trystan Pütter
Votes: 20,675
22. Sheer Madness (1983)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama
Olga and Ruth become friends. Olga is independent, separated from her husband, living with an immigrant pianist, and teaching feminist literature. Ruth is withdrawn, a painter, possibly ... See full summary »
Director: Margarethe von Trotta | Stars: Hanna Schygulla, Angela Winkler, Peter Striebeck, Christine Fersen
Votes: 297
23. M (1931)
Passed | 99 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
When the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut, Otto Wernicke
Votes: 168,538 | Gross: $0.03M
24. The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
Not Rated | 110 min | Biography, Drama, History
A young man named Kaspar Hauser suddenly appears in Nuremberg in 1828, barely able to talk or walk, and bearing a strange note.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Bruno S., Walter Ladengast, Brigitte Mira, Willy Semmelrogge
Votes: 18,916
25. Veronika Voss (1982)
R | 104 min | Drama
Partially based on the life of Sybille Schmitz, who found fame under the Nazi regime, but whose career was destroyed afterward. Veronika Voss is a once prominent UFA actress, kept by her doctor, who raises suspicion in a sports journalist.
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Rosel Zech, Hilmar Thate, Cornelia Froboess, Annemarie Düringer
Votes: 7,790
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