Weinrich's documentatry report the German's insecure walk from the chaos of the immediate after-war period into the relatively stable 1950's.
The first part deals with the year 1945 in Northern Germany: i.e. the occupation of Hanover by American troops, the flight of many Germans into the West because of fear for the Russian Red Army, the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camps by the British, the capitulation in the Lueneburg moor, life in Bad Oeynhausen, where 6.000 Germans had to leave the town to make room for the British HQ, the restart of broadcasting service in Hamburg, the land reform in Zierow on Baltic Coast where refugees were given the choice of becoming farmers or to continue their flight, the triumphal march of Swing, the restart of public dance, the first Dom, Hamburg's annual fair in autumn 1945 - at a time when millions of German soldiers were still POWs, millions of families searching for their next relatives.
Part II reports on the years 1946-1948: on the hunger winter of 1946/47, on the life on refugees in the village Nettlingen near Hildesheim, on the misery of people in Hannover living in rubble, on the POW camp in Fünfeichen in Neubrandenburg, on the black market in Hamburg.
But the documentary also discribes the reconstruction: the first export fair was held in Hanover in summer 1947, the currency reform 1948. But also the re-advancement of charged natinal socialists alreday casts a cloud.
Knut Weinrich has collected a great number of stories from the years 1945-1948, interviewed eye-witnesses, revisited the places of the events and thus achieved a detailed portray of Germany's "Hour Zero".