German movies about the second world war

List of the best German movies about the Second World War, selected by visitors to our site: The Turncoat, The Captain, Valkyrie, 13 Minutes, Inglourious Basterds, Stalingrad, Hasenjagd - Vor lauter Feigheit gibt es kein Erbarmen, Resistance, Land of Mine, The Last U-Boat.

In the top there are new films of 2021, a plot description and trailers for films that have already been released.

Country
Markimdb: 6.8
Genredrama, military, history
CountryGermany

We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

Markimdb: 7.3
Genrethriller, drama, military, history
CountryGermany, France, Poland, China, Portugal
Duration01:51

Germany, 1945. Soldier Willi Herold, a deserter of the German army, stumbles into a uniform of Nazi captain abandoned during the last and desperate weeks of the Third Reich. Newly emboldened by the allure of a suit that he has stolen only to stay warm, Willi discovers that many Germans will follow the leader, whoever he is.

Markimdb: 7.1
Genrethriller, drama, military, history
CountryUSA, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Japan, United Kingdom
Duration02:01

    Wounded in Africa during World War II, Nazi Col. Claus von Stauffenberg returns to his native Germany and joins the Resistance in a daring plan to create a shadow government and assassinate Adolf Hitler. When events unfold so that he becomes a central player, he finds himself tasked with both leading the coup and personally killing the Führer.

    Markimdb: 7
    Genredrama, military, history
    CountryGermany, Italy
    Duration01:44

    The breath-taking story of a man who nearly would have changed the world. 1939, when Hitler tricked millions of people at the height of his power, one said a radical No: Georg Elser, disparaged as an assassin, is one of the greatest resistance fighters.

    Markimdb: 8.3
    Genreaction, comedy, drama, military
    CountryUSA, Germany
    Duration02:33

    In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds, lead by Lt. Aldo Raine soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers.

    Markimdb: 7.5
    Genredrama, military
    CountryGermany
    Duration02:14

    "Stalingrad" follows the progress of a German Platoon through the brutal fighting of the Battle of Stalingrad. After having half their number wiped out and after being placed under the command of a sadistic Captain, the Lieutenant of the platoon leads his men to desert. The men of the platoon attempt to escape from the city which is now surrounded by the Soviet Army.

    Markimdb: 7.1
    Genredrama, military
    CountryAustria, Germany
    Duration01:45

    This film is based on the actual events referred to as the "Mühlviertler Hasenjagd" (Hare-hunt in the Mühlviertel) which occurred in February 1945 around the Mauthausen concentration camp. 500 Soviet officers form death block 20 attempt to escape, but only 150 of them actually succeed. Following the tally-ho of the SS, a barbaric manhunt begins. Only very few fugitives survive. With a lot of good luck, the two young officers Michail and Nikolai reach the Karner family's farm. Frau Karner persuades her husband to hide the two escapees.

    Markimdb: 6.4
    Genredrama, military, biography, history
    CountryUnited Kingdom, France, Germany, USA

    The story of mime Marcel Marceau as he works with a group of Jewish boy scouts and the French Resistance to save the lives of ten thousand orphans during World War II.

    Markimdb: 7.8
    Genredrama, military, history
    CountryDenmark, Germany
    Duration02:22

    In the days following the surrender of Germany in May 1945, a group of young German prisoners of war were handed over to the Danish authorities and subsequently sent out to the West Coast, where they were ordered to remove the more than two million mines that the Germans had placed in the sand along the coast. With their bare hands, crawling around in the sand, the boys were forced to perform the dangerous work under the leadership of the Danish sergeant, Carl Leopold Rasmussen.

    Markimdb: 5.9
    Genredrama, military
    CountryGermany, USA, Japan, Austria

    Near the end of WWII a lone U-Boat is sent from Germany to Japan carrying plutonium needed for a Japanese A-Bomb. During the long journey, news arrives on the radio that Hitler killed himself and Germany has surrendered. This causes a rift in the crew, the Nazi Party members wanting to continue to Japan since they are still at war, while the others just want to surrender or return home.

    Markimdb: 7
    Genredrama, military, biography, history
    CountryGermany, Poland
    Duration02:11

    A nameless woman keeps a diary as the Russians invade Berlin in the spring of 1945. She is in her early 30s, a patriotic journalist with international credentials; her husband, Gerd, a writer, is an officer at the Russian front. She speaks Russian and, for a day or two after the invasion, keeps herself safe, but then the rapes begin. She resolves to control her fate

    Markimdb: 6.4
    Genrefantasy, drama
    CountryGermany, Finland
    Duration01:36

    Juliane's happiness seems perfect. She is head over heals in love and has just begun a new life with August. One morning, however, she wakes up to find that she has been unexplainable thrown back into her past - to the time before she met her new love. Is what seems at first glance a cruel setback in reality actually a second chance?

    Markimdb: 6.5
    Genreaction, drama, military, biography, history
    CountryGermany, France, Austria
    Duration02:00

    The story of the final seven months in the life of German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.

    Markimdb: 7.3
    Genredrama, history
    CountryRussia, Germany, Japan, Italy, France, Luxembourg
    Duration01:50

    The Sun (Russian: Сóлнце, Solntse) is a 2005 Russian biographical film depicting Japanese Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito) during the final days of World War II. The film is the third drama in director Aleksandr Sokurov's trilogy, which included Taurus about the Soviet Union's Vladimir Lenin and Moloch about Nazi Germany's Adolf Hitler.

    Markimdb: 8.2
    Genredrama, military, biography, history
    CountryGermany, Austria, Italy
    Duration02:36

    In April of 1945, Germany stands at the brink of defeat with the Russian Army closing in from the east and the Allied Expeditionary Force attacking from the west. In Berlin, capital of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler proclaims that Germany will still achieve victory and orders his generals and advisers to fight to the last man. When the end finally does come, and Hitler lies dead by his own hand, what is left of his military must find a way to end the killing that is the Battle of Berlin, and lay down their arms in surrender.

    Markimdb: 7.4
    Genredrama, military, sport
    CountryGermany
    Duration01:55

    In 1942, Friedrich Weimer's boxing skills get him an appointment to a National Political Academy (NaPolA) – high schools that produce Nazi elite. Over his father's objections, Friedrich enrolls. During his year in seventh column,Friedrich encounters hazing, cruelty, death, and the Nazi code. His friendship with Albrecht, the ascetic son of the area's governor, is central to this education.

    Markimdb: 7
    Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, military
    CountryUnited Kingdom, France, Canada, Belgium, USA
    Duration01:47

    France, 1940. In the first days of occupation, beautiful Lucile Angellier is trapped in a stifled existence with her controlling mother-in-law as they both await news of her husband: a prisoner of war. Parisian refugees start to pour into their small town, soon followed by a regiment of German soldiers who take up residence in the villagers' own homes. Lucile initially tries to ignore Bruno von Falk, the handsome and refined German officer staying with them. But soon, a powerful love draws them together and leads them into the tragedy of war.

    Markimdb: 7.2
    Genredocumentary, music, history
    CountryUnited Kingdom
    Duration02:05

    We don't have an overview translated in English. Help us expand our database by adding one.

    Markimdb: 6.1
    Genremelodrama, drama
    CountryFrance, Belgium
    Duration01:21

    Murphy is an American living in Paris who enters a highly sexually and emotionally charged relationship with the unstable Electra. Unaware of the seismic effect it will have on their relationship, they invite their pretty neighbor into their bed.

    Markimdb: 6.5
    Genredrama, military, history
    CountryUnited Kingdom, France, Germany
    Duration02:14

    Berlin in June of 1940. While Nazi propaganda celebrates the regime’s victory over France, a kitchen-cum-living room in Prenzlauer Berg is filled with grief. Anna and Otto Quangel’s son has been killed at the front. This working class couple had long believed in the ‘Führer’ and followed him willingly, but now they realise that his promises are nothing but lies and deceit. They begin writing postcards as a form of resistance and in a bid to raise awareness: Stop the war machine! Kill Hitler! Putting their lives at risk, they distribute these cards in the entrances of tenement buildings and in stairwells. But the SS and the Gestapo are soon onto them, and even their neighbours pose a threat.

    Markimdb: 7.1
    Genreaction, drama, military, biography
    CountryGermany, France, Poland
    Duration01:48

    Run Boy Run is the true story of Jurek, an eight-year-old boy, who escapes from the Warsaw ghetto, then manages to survive in the woods and working as a farmhand, disguising himself as a Polish orphan. He encounters people who will betray him for a reward, who will beat him up or try to kill him, and he meets those, who will do and risk almost everything to help him. Jurek’s resilience is put to the ultimate test, when an accident cripples him, making it harder to find work. But he struggles on against all odds. Eventually the Russians reach his area and Jurek even finds a family where he could stay. Yet he is betrayed again, and a young man from a Jewish orphanage forcefully tries to bring Jurek back to his people and his faith.

    Markimdb: 7.1
    Genredrama, military
    CountryAustralia, Germany, United Kingdom
    Duration01:48

    Lore leads her four younger siblings across a war-torn Germany in 1945. Amidst the chaos she encounters a mysterious refugee who shatters her fragile reality with hatred and desire.

    Markimdb: 6.6
    Genredrama, history
    CountryFrance, Germany, Netherlands
    Duration01:54

    Master filmmaker Alexander Sokurov (Russian Ark) transforms a portrait of the world-renowned museum into a magisterial, centuries-spanning reflection on the relation between art, culture and power.

    Markimdb: 6.4
    Genreaction, thriller, military, biography
    CountryUSA, France, United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Hungary
    Duration02:07

    With the Third Reich is at his peak in 1942, the Czech resistance in London plans the most ambitious military operation of WWII – Anthropoid. Two young recruits are sent to Prague to assassinate the most ruthless Nazi leader – Reinhardt Heydrich – head of the SS, the Gestapo and the architect of the Final Solution.

    Markimdb: 6.1
    Genrecomedy, drama, military
    CountryUSA, Germany
    Duration01:58

    Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, The Monuments Men is an action drama focusing on seven over-the-hill, out-of-shape museum directors, artists, architects, curators, and art historians who went to the front lines of WWII to rescue the world’s artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and return them to their rightful owners. With the art hidden behind enemy lines, how could these guys hope to succeed?

    Markimdb: 7.8
    Genredrama, military
    CountryItaly, France, Germany

    The final film in Rossellini's war film trilogy (the first two being Rome, Open City and Paisà). Germany Year Zero takes place in post-war Germany, unlike the others, which take place in German-occupied Rome and post-war Italy, respectively. The story follows a twelve-year-old boy, Edmund Kohler, who is mainly left to his own devices in order to survive and to help his family do the same.

    Markimdb: 7.1
    Genremelodrama, drama
    CountryUnited Kingdom, Germany
    Duration03:00

    A young woman finds out that her mother worked as a spy for the British Secret Service during World War II and has been on the run ever since.

    Markimdb: 8
    Genredrama, documentary, military, biography
    CountryGermany, United Kingdom, France
    Duration01:20

    In 1966, Dieter Dengler was shot down over Laos, captured, and, down to 85 pounds, escaped. Barefoot, surviving monsoons, leeches, and machete-wielding villagers, he was rescued. Now, near 60, living on Mt. Tamalpais, Dengler tells his story: a German lad surviving Allied bombings in World War II, postwar poverty, apprenticed to a smith, beaten regularly. At 18, he emigrates and peels potatoes in the U.S. Air Force. He leaves for California and college, then enlistment in the Navy to learn to fly. A quiet man of sorrows tells his story: war, capture, harrowing conditions, escape, and miraculous rescue. Where did he find the strength; how does he now live with his memories?

    Markimdb: 6.4
    Genredrama, military
    CountryGermany, Russia, Ukraine
    Duration01:33

    Germany, Baltic Sea coast, May 1945, a few days before the end of World War II. A small Soviet patrol arrives at an isolated house where an elderly baroness gives shelter to a group of orphan girls and a boy who is determined to continue the fight.

    Markimdb: 7.6
    Genredrama, military, history
    CountryGermany, France, Poland
    Duration01:52

    A Jewish boy separated from his family in the early days of WWII poses as a German orphan and is taken into the heart of the Nazi world as a 'war hero' and eventually becomes a Hitler Youth.

    Markimdb: 7.4
    Genrethriller, drama, detective
    CountryCanada, Mexico, Germany, South Africa
    Duration02:15

    With the aid of a fellow Auschwitz survivor and a hand-written letter, an elderly man with dementia goes in search of the person responsible for the death of his family.

    Markimdb: 7.1
    Genredrama, military, music
    CountryFrance, United Kingdom, Germany, Austria
    Duration02:22

    One of the most spectacular and renowned conductors of the 1930s, Wilhelm Furtwangler's reputation rivaled that of Toscanini's. After the war, he was investigated as part of the Allies' de-Nazification programme. In the bombed-out Berlin of the immediate post-war period, the Allies slowly bring law and order to bear on an occupied Germany. An American major is given the Furtwangler file, and is told to find everything he can and to prosecute the man ruthlessly. Tough and hard-nosed, Major Steve Arnold sets out to investigate a world of which he knows nothing.

    Markimdb: 7.2
    Genredrama, crime, military, biography
    CountryFrance, Germany, Romania
    Duration01:43

    Kurt Gerstein—a member of the Institute for Hygiene of the Waffen-SS—is horrified by what he sees in the death camps. he is then shocked to learn that the process he used to purify water for his troops by using Zyklon-B, is now used to kill people in gas chambers.

    Markimdb: 7.2
    Genredrama, military, biography, history
    CountryGermany

    Four young Jews survive the Third Reich in the middle of Berlin by living so recklessly that they become "invisible."

    Markimdb: 7
    Genremelodrama, drama, military
    CountryHungary, Germany, United Kingdom, Israel, France, USA

    An Hungarian youth comes of age at Buchenwald during World War II. György Köves is 14, the son of a merchant who's sent to a forced labor camp. After his father's departure, György gets a job at a brickyard; his bus is stopped and its Jewish occupants sent to camps. There, György find camaraderie, suffering, cruelty, illness, and death. He hears advice on preserving one's dignity and self-esteem. He discovers hatred. If he does survive and returns to Budapest, what will he find? What is natural; what is it to be a Jew? Sepia, black and white, and color alternate to shade the mood.

    Markimdb: 6.4
    Genredrama, military, history
    CountryAustria, Germany

    Vienna, 1937, on the eve of the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany. The young and inexperienced Franz Huchel begins to learn about both the joys and hardships of life by working as an apprentice to the mutilated war veteran Otto Trsnjek in a small tobacco shop, where he meets the famous psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, a regular customer, who will become a valuable friend in times of chaos and uncertainty.

    Markimdb: 6.2
    Genrecomedy, drama
    CountryGreece, Germany
    Duration01:24

    In the middle of the Aegean Sea, six men on a fishing trip on a luxury yacht decide to play a game. During this game, things will be compared. Things will be measured. Songs will be butchered, and blood will be tested. Friends will become rivals and rivals will become hungry. But at the end of the journey, when the game is over, the man who wins will be the best man. And he will wear on his smallest finger the victory ring: the Chevalier.

    Markimdb: 7.2
    Genredrama, biography, history
    CountryFrance, Japan, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Cambodia

    Japan, 1944. Trained for intelligence work, Hiroo Onoda, 22 years old, discovers a philosophy contrary to the official line: no suicide; stay alive whatever happens; the mission is more important than anything else. Sent to Lubang, a small island in the Philippines where the Americans are about to land, this role will be to wage a guerrilla war until the return of the Japanese troops. The Empire will surrender soon after; Onoda, 10,000 days later.

    Markimdb: 4.7
    Genreaction, comedy, drama, military
    CountryGermany, Austria, USA
    Duration01:45

    A mismatched team of British Special Services agents led by an American must infiltrate, in disguise, a female-run Enigma factory in Berlin and bring back the decoding device that will end the war.

    Markimdb: 6.7
    Genredrama
    CountryGermany
    Duration02:27

    The story of Anne Frank, the Jewish girl who went into hiding with her family in Amsterdam and became a victim of the Holocaust.

    Markimdb: 7.2
    Genredrama, military, history
    CountryGermany

    Taking place at the Concentration camp Buchenwald at the end of March 1945, prisoner Hans Pippig discovers in a carrying case of an incoming prisoner a Jewish child. If reported the three-year-old is sure to die. On the other hand, a violation of the rules of the camp would threaten the long prepared uprising of the concentration camp prisoners against the SS.

    Markimdb: 5.4
    Genreaction, thriller, drama, adventure, crime, military
    CountryFrance, Belgium, Germany, USA, Malta, Croatia, Netherlands
    Duration02:19

    In the midst of the Balkan wars, a squad of Navy SEALs attempts to unravel a long-forgotten mystery after discovering an enormous treasure trove hidden at the bottom of a lake in Serbia.

    Markimdb: 6.7
    Genredrama, military, music
    CountryGermany
    Duration01:40

    Three musically talented children look to the future, but their hopes crumble when Germany and Russia enter into war.

    Markimdb: 7.7
    Genremelodrama, drama, military, biography
    CountryGermany, Italy
    Duration02:16

    Inspired by real events and spanning three eras of German history, film tells the story of Kurt, a young art student who falls in love with fellow student, Ellie. Ellie’s father, Professor Seeband, a famous doctor, is dismayed at his daughter’s choice of boyfriend, and vows to destroy the relationship. What neither of them knows is that their lives are already connected through a terrible crime Seeband committed decades ago.

    Markimdb: 7.3
    Genredrama, military
    CountryGermany, Austria

    A Roma boy is placed in a mental hospital and experiences the Nazi euthanasia program. Aware of what was happening and attached to friends, the lad attempts to sabotage the program. The film addresses the complexities of the program director, the lives of the child victims, and the struggles of the child protagonist. More than five thousand children died in the Nazi euthanasia program.

    Markimdb: 7
    Genredrama, military, history
    CountryFrance, Germany, Hungary
    Duration01:55

    Joseph is eleven. And this June morning, he must go to school, a yellow star sown on his chest. He receives the support of a goods dealer. The mockery of a baker. Between kindness and contempt, Jo, his Jewish friends, their families, learn of life in an occupied Paris, on the Butte Montmartre, where they've taken shelter. At least that's what they think, until that morning on July 16th 1942, when their fragile happiness is toppled over.

    Markimdb: 6.1
    Genrethriller, drama, military, history
    CountryPoland, Netherlands, Germany

    Summer of 1945. A temporary orphanage is established in an abandoned palace surrounded by forests for the eight children liberated from the Gross-Rosen camp. Hanka, also a former inmate, becomes their guardian. After the atrocities of the camp, the protagonists slowly begin to regain what is left of their childhood but the horror returns quickly. Camp Alsatians roam the forests around. Released by the SS earlier on, they have gone feral and are starving. Looking for food they besiege the palace. The children are terrified and their camp survival instinct is triggered.

    Markimdb: 6.6
    Genremelodrama, drama, military, history
    CountryGermany

    Summer of 1944. Young baroness Barbara is getting married. Her husband, Alexander, leaves to the war and disappears after giving Barbara the amber amulet as symbol of their love. Soviet soldiers, commanded by Major Belyaev are placed in the estate of Barbara parents. Barbara falls in love with a Russian officer.

    Markimdb: 7
    Genredrama, military, history
    CountryRussia, Germany
    Duration02:10

    The historical drama set during the Second World War centres on three people whose paths cross: a Russian aristocratic emigrant and member of the French resistance, a French collaborator and a high-ranking German SS officer.

    Markimdb: 7.5
    Genredrama, military
    CountryUSA, Germany
    Duration02:11

    While subjected to the horrors of WWII Germany, young Liesel finds solace by stealing books and sharing them with others. Under the stairs in her home, a Jewish refuge is being sheltered by her adoptive parents.




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