German war movies

List of the best German war movies selected by visitors to our site: Underground, Donbass, Blood & Gold, The Quiet American, 1917, Never Look Away, The Book Thief, Max Schmeling, Lore, The Aftermath.

In the top there are new films of 2023, a plot description and trailers for films that have already been released.

Markimdb: 8.1
Genrecomedy, drama, military
CountryYugoslavia, Germany, France, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria
Duration03:14

Black marketeers Marko and Blacky manufacture and sell weapons to the Communist resistance in WWII Belgrade, living the good life along the way. Marko's surreal duplicity propels him up the ranks of the Communist Party, and he eventually abandons Blacky and steals his girlfriend. After a lengthy stay in a below-ground shelter, the couple reemerges during the Yugoslavian Civil War of the 1990s as Marko realizes that the situation is ripe for exploitation.

Markimdb: 6.6
Genredrama, military, history
CountryGermany, Ukraine, France, Netherlands, Romania, Poland

In the Donbas, a region of Eastern Ukraine, a hybrid war takes place, involving an open armed conflict alongside killings and robberies on a mass scale perpetrated by separatist gangs. In the Donbass, war is called peace, propaganda is uttered as truth and hatred is declared to be love. A journey through the Donbas unfolds as a chain of curious adventures, where the grotesque and drama are as intertwined as life and death. This is not a tale of one region, one country or one political system. It is about a world, lost in post-truth and fake identities. It is about each and every one of us.

Markimdb: 6.5
Genreaction, drama, military, history
CountryGermany

At the end of World War II, a German soldier is looking for his daughter while an SS troop is looking for a Jewish treasure.

Markimdb: 7
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, military
CountryUnited Kingdom, Germany, USA, Vietnam, Australia, France, Canada
Duration01:35

A stylish political thriller where love and war collide in Southeast Asia. Set in early 1950s Vietnam, a young American becomes entangled in a dangerous love triangle when he falls for the beautiful mistress of a British journalist. As war is waged around them, these three only sink deeper into a world of drugs, passion, and betrayal where nothing is as it seems.

Markimdb: 8.3
Genreaction, drama, military, history
CountryUSA, United Kingdom, India, Spain, Canada, China

At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers.

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: 7.5
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.

Markimdb: 4.7
Genredrama, military, biography, sport
CountryGermany, Croatia
Duration01:43

Based on the true story of Max Schmeling. A national hero in the 1930's when he became World heavyweight champion. He lost favour with the Nazi regime when he lost to a black man, Joe Louis, and is sent to the front in the hope he will be killed in battle.

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: 6.3
Genremelodrama, drama, military
CountryUnited Kingdom, Germany, USA
Duration01:44

In the aftermath of World War II, a British colonel and his wife are assigned to live in Hamburg during the post-war reconstruction, but tensions arise with the German widower who lives with them.

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: 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: 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: 7.1
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: 2.4
Genrehorror, fantastic, action, military
CountryCanada, Italy, USA, Germany
Duration01:30

A bacteriological weapon developed by the US Government to create a super soldier - spreads an epidemic in a quiet little town in the middle of Eastern Europe. All citizens have been turned into infected zombies. The plan is to bring an atomic bomb into the city's nuclear plant to pretend a terrible accident occurred. No one has to know the truth. A team of mercenaries is hired to complete the mission. The battle is on. Hordes of monsters against the team. Who will survive?

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: 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: 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: 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: 6.5
Genrecomedy, drama, military
CountryGermany, Luxembourg, Belgium, France
Duration02:18

David Berman and his friends, all Holocaust survivors, have only one purpose: to go to America as soon as possible. For this they need money. Close to his aim, David is not only deprived of his savings but also overtaken by his shady past.

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: 6.4
Genredrama, military
CountryWest Germany, United Kingdom, Germany, Republic of Ireland, USA
Duration00:16

A Jewish strongman performs in Berlin as the blond Aryan hero Siegfried.

Markimdb: 5.1
Genreaction, drama, military, biography
CountryUSA, United Kingdom, Germany
Duration00:31

Corporal Evan Albright joined the elite Marine Corps Security Guards to save the world and see some action-not necessarily in that order. But his first assignment, protecting a U. S. Embassy in a seemingly safe Middle Eastern capitol, relegates his unit to wrangling "gate groupies" protesting outside the compound and honing their marksmanship by playing video games. So Albright and his team are caught off guard when well-armed and well-trained militants launch a surprise attack aimed at killing an informant in the embassy. Heavily out-gunned, they will have to muster all the courage and fire power they can as their once routine assignment spirals into all-out war.

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: 7.6
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: 6.2
Genremelodrama, drama, military
CountryUnited Kingdom, Germany, Hungary, Cayman Islands
Duration01:36

The rise of national socialism in Germany should not be regarded as a conspiracy of madmen. Millions of "good" people found themselves in a society spiralling into terrible chaos. A film about then, which illuminates the terrors of now.

Markimdb: 8
Genredrama, military, history
CountryAustria, Romania, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, France, Norway, Turkey

Bosnia, July 1995. Aida is a translator for the UN in the small town of Srebrenica. When the Serbian army takes over the town, her family is among the thousands of citizens looking for shelter in the UN camp. As an insider to the negotiations Aida has access to crucial information that she needs to interpret. What is at the horizon for her family and people - rescue or death? Which move should she take?

Markimdb: 6.7
Genredrama, military, history
CountryRussia, Germany, Netherlands, Latvia, Belarus
Duration02:07

Western frontiers of the USSR, 1942. The region is under German occupation. A man is wrongly accused of collaboration. Desperate to save his dignity, he faces an impossible moral choice.

Markimdb: 7.5
Genredrama, military
CountryGeorgia, Germany, France, Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Hungary
Duration01:40

The Inguri River forms a natural border dividing Georgia from Abkhazia. One of the spring floods has created a little island in the middle of the river, as if made for the cultivation of corn. At least, this is the belief of an old peasant, whose sunburned face resembles the landscape he has trodden for dozens of years.

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: 7.5
Genredocumentary, military
CountryDenmark, Germany, France, United Kingdom, USA, Qatar, Syria

Deep beneath the surface in the Syrian province of Ghouta, a group of female doctors have established an underground field hospital. Under the supervision of paediatrician Dr. Amani and her staff of doctors and nurses, hope is restored for some of the thousands of children and civilian victims of the ruthless Syrian civil war.

Markimdb: 7
Genredrama, military
CountryHungary, Germany, Austria, France

In a village on the Hungarian border, two young brothers grow up during war time with their cruel grandmother and must learn every trick of evil to survive in the absurd world of adults.

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: 7.7
Genredrama, short, military
CountryGermany
Duration00:14

On a winter morning, a mother goes to waken her son Heinrich; his bed is empty. She leaves her flat to find him. The neighbors' door, with a Star of David painted on it, is ajar, the furnishings in disarray, the family gone. She asks passersby, runs to the police then on to the rail yard. Flashbacks show that Heinrich and the neighbors' son Paul are six years old and best friends. Paul's family's deportation is expected soon; Heinrich's mother tells her son that they're going to Toyland. Heinrich wants to go with them, has a bag packed, and listens for their departure. His mother realizes he's joined them, and her resolve becomes more urgent. Will she arrive in time to save Heinrich?

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: 7.1
Genredrama, documentary, military
CountryBelgium, Republic of Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Afghanistan
Duration02:52

A group of Kuchi children are living in a minefield around Bagram airfield, Afghanistan. They dig out anti-personal mines in order to sell the explosives to child workers mining in a Lappis Lazulli mine. The trajectory of the blue precious stones goes towards Tajikistan and China, through an area controlled by child soldiers. When they are not waging their own mini-wars in the daily madness of life in Afghanistan, the children are fleeing away in their personal fantasies and dreams, while the American soldiers are planning their retreat...

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: 5.4
Genrecomedy, drama, military
CountryRomania, Germany, Belgium
Duration01:25

Set during World War II, somewhere in Eastern Europe. A German soldier is found dead near the village. The local authorities must find the culprit, or they will be all shot by the Nazis the morning after. There's no way to find the guilty one, but there's Ipu, the madman of the village, whom they promise a hero's funeral if he will claims responsibility and agrees to die in their place. He must decide, and time is running out.

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: 7.5
Genremelodrama, drama, military, history
CountryFrance, Germany
Duration02:05

In the aftermath of WWI, a young German who grieves the death of her fiancé in France meets a mysterious French man who visits the fiance’s grave to lay flowers.

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: 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: 7.4
Genredrama, military
CountryRussia, Germany, Belarus

1942, occupied Europe. Gilles Cremieux, a Belgian of Jewish origin, once in a concentration camp, pretends to be a Persian - for him this is the only opportunity to stay alive. This lie, indeed, saves him from being shot, but Gilles does not yet know what price he will have to pay for this salvation. German soldiers bring Gilles to Klaus Koch, a cook in a concentration camp who wants to leave for Iran and open a restaurant there as soon as the war ends. Koch is looking for a real Persian who will teach him how to speak Farsi. Thus begins the story of Gilles Cremier and Klaus Koch - a Jew and a German, a prisoner and a jailer, student and teacher.

Markimdb: 7.3
Genredrama, military
CountryPoland, Germany, Canada
Duration02:25

A dramatization of one man's rescue of Jewish refugees in the Nazi-occupied Polish city of Lvov. In Darkness tells the true story of Leopold Soha who risks his own life to save a dozen people from certain death. Initially only interested in his own good, the thief and burglar hides Jewish refugees for 14 months in the sewers of the Nazi-occupied town of Lvov (formerly Poland).

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: 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: 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: 7
Genredrama, military
CountryAfghanistan, France, Germany, United Kingdom
Duration01:42

In a war ridden country a woman watches over the husband reduced to a vegetable state by a bullet in the neck, abandoned by Jihad companions and brothers. One day, the woman decides to say things to him she could never have done before.

Markimdb: 7
Genredrama, military
CountryFrance, Germany

The night of August 24, 1944. The fate of Paris is in the hands of General von Choltitz, governor of Grand Paris, who is preparing, on Hitler’s orders, to blow up the French capital. The descendent of a long line of Prussian military men, the general has never had any hesitation when it came to obeying orders. This is what’s on Swedish consul Raoul Nordling’s mind as he takes the secret staircase that leads to General von Choltitz’s suite at the Hôtel Meurice. The bridges on the Seine and the major monuments of Paris (including the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower) are mined with explosives, ready to be detonated. Armed with all the weapons of diplomacy, the consul will try to convince the general not to follow Hitler’s order of destruction.

Markimdb: 7.2
Genremelodrama, drama, military, biography, sport
CountryUnited Kingdom, Germany

The story of a man whose love for football, for England and for the love of his life, Margaret, saw him rise from Nazi 'villain' to British hero. Bert Trautmann, the German goalkeeper won over even his harshest opponents by winning the FA Cup Final for Manchester City in 1956 - playing on with a broken neck to secure victory.




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