Du und icke und Berlin (1978)

Construction worker Dieter Körber flees his fiancée and leaves the small town of Mühlhausen for Berlin. There, he is officially staying at a workers’ hostel, where he shares a room with handyman Harald Pfitzner. In reality, however, Dieter moves in with his aunt, Irma Bause. As soon as he arrives, Dieter gets lost wandering around Berlin because he cannot find his hostel. Ten-year-old Ulrike helps him find his way. Ulrike is growing up without a father, with her mother Karin and her grandfather Karl, and she suffers from not having a father. When the new teacher, Frau Krüger, sees her talking to Dieter, she assumes he is Ulrike’s father and summons him to the school for the following day. Ulrike does not tell her mother about the meeting with the teacher, where Ulrike’s school performance is to be criticized in particular. Karin, however, finds the note about the meeting among Ulrike’s belongings and appears at the school the next day, where Dieter is already waiting. Frau Krüger mistakes Dieter and Karin for Ulrike’s divorced parents, an assumption Karin is especially quick to reject with irritation. In the days that follow, Ulrike does everything she can to bring Karin and Dieter closer. The two do arrange to meet one day, but in the end Dieter gets cold feet about pursuing a closer relationship. Because Karin knows his aunt’s address, he moves back to the workers’ hostel and swaps jobs with Harald Pfitzner, since otherwise he would still have to work on the street where Karin lives. Dieter does ask Harald, however, to get in touch with Karin. But Harald approaches not Karin, but her colleague Edeltraud, who is allowed to do her laundry at Karin’s apartment. Edeltraud is taken with Harald, and before long they become a couple. Harald, however, thinks his new girlfriend’s name is Karin, so over time Dieter gets a false impression of Karin. Karin, meanwhile, wants to move and needs Harald’s help with renovating the apartment. Harald brings Dieter along to help, and suddenly Dieter’s former fiancée, Ilona, from Mühlhausen is standing in the doorway. Dieter had sent her a letter ending their engagement, but Ilona never opened it. Since Dieter believes Karin and Harald are a couple, and continues to reproach Karin even after the misunderstanding has been cleared up, he decides to return to Mühlhausen with Ilona. At the station, he runs into Ulrike, who looks at him reproachfully. When a passenger accuses Ulrike of stealing money, Dieter stands up for her and is once again taken for her father—which this time he does not deny. He leaves Ilona for good and returns to Berlin with Ulrike.