Liebe Deine Nächste! (1998)

Josefine and Isolde, two Salvation Army lieutenants, arrive in Berlin to help the down-and-out with “soup, soap, and salvation.” They want to make respectable people of them again and spread love and hope. First, they clean up the run-down homeless shelter and persuade the men and women to take a shower for the first time in a long while. Alcohol and begging are forbidden. “Everything has changed, except the food—it’s still just as bad,” some of the men grumble. With a few of them who can sort of play instruments, Josefine and Isolde go through the streets making music. The noise bothers business consultant Tristan Müller, who is having breakfast in a restaurant with three department heads from a company and explaining that half their workforce will have to be laid off. Thanks to more extensive use of electronic data processing, he says, this can easily be done. Tristan Müller sends his aide, Lutz, outside to try to silence the Salvation Army band with a hundred-mark note. Angrily, Lieutenant Josefine marches into the restaurant and throws the banknote at Tristan Müller: she won’t be bought! Isolde, who has followed her, accepts Müller’s offer, however, and takes off her bonnet in exchange for a hundred-mark donation. Shortly afterward, the yuppie turns up at the homeless shelter run by the Salvation Army. “With 10,000 marks, you could do something with this place,” he tells Josefine. She climbs down from her ladder, curious. Müller wants to arrange a date with her, but she is coy. When Isolde asks what the business consultant wanted, Josefine claims that he arranged to meet her to discuss a 10,000-mark donation. “For that much money, we could show our hair again,” Isolde says. Since Josefine refuses to go to the meeting alone, Isolde accompanies her to the restaurant. After a while, she takes her leave. Tristan Müller offers Josefine wine, but a Salvation Army lieutenant is not allowed to drink alcohol. He jokingly asks whether she would be willing to come to his hotel—and is astonished when she agrees. “We’re not forbidden to do that.” But Liz, an attractive employee of the company Tristan Müller is advising, has already taken the room key. And there isn’t another room available. After separating “the wheat from the chaff” with inhumane tests and making it clear who will lose their job and who will be allowed to stay, Müller has his departure arranged. Before leaving, he sends Josefine a gift box of roses and 10,000 marks in cash. “As a farewell,” reads the enclosed card. Josefine hurries to the hotel. This time, she goes to bed with Tristan Müller. Afterward, he remarks dryly that she hadn’t let herself be bought for 100 marks, but she had for 10,000. She runs back to the homeless shelter in tears. Isolde and Josefine decide to blow the 10,000 marks and treat their charges to a meal at a good restaurant. Although they have a reservation and apparently can afford the bill, the staff refuse to serve them. Only when Tristan Müller joins them, speaks to the manager, and invites the group do the waiters hand out menus. It’s no surprise that the meal ends in chaos. Finally, Josefine forces Tristan Müller at gunpoint to pay the bill. Police cars arrive with sirens wailing. The officers take up position with their rifles raised, and are astonished when two female Salvation Army lieutenants come out of the restaurant. At the end, Isolde and Josefine say goodbye at the homeless shelter and travel on to the next city.