This enrapturing comedy-crime thriller with Götz George, Rolf Hoppe and Otto Sanders in the lead roles gained the director Frank Beyer and author Wolfgang Kohlhaase the Ernst-Lubitsch-Prize in 1990. Berlin 1946: Walter Graf, a former navy cook, and his partner, the criminal Erwin Lubowitz, are planning a big coup along with the safe-cracker Bruno Markward – who has already spent 20 years behind bars. They want to steal the wage money from the German National Railway’s safe. It is with this in mind that they open a fake housing agency opposite in order to stalk out the area. As they begin to dig a tunnel they hit groundwater. In what follows they have to break in new accomplices – but only as it suits Markward. In the end their efforts bring success. However, although those concerned exercise extreme caution, the police are soon hot on their tracks…