Marga Engel gibt nicht auf (2004)

Cook Marga Engel now works at a children’s home that is on the verge of closing. Once again, the shrewd property developer Siegfried Ohrmann is behind it. Ohrmann wants to build a health clinic in place of the old villa that houses the home. Together with the children, Engel does everything she can to prevent the closure. First, she tries to raise enough money for the home’s sponsoring association to buy the property, but Ohrmann is simply quicker. Given the circumstances, he had promised Marga that he would honor the current lease and guarantee that the children could stay there. Bound by that commitment, Ohrmann tries to uncover safety defects in the building so he has a reason to close it. In his view, major renovation work is urgently needed, which would also lead to a rent increase. Marga refuses to let that happen and decides to carry out the necessary repairs herself. But she does not have the money for that either, so she plans to raise it through a Christmas bazaar. Meanwhile, Ohrmann does everything he can to lure the children away from the home, so his workmen will have free rein and he can do as he pleases there. When that fails, he sabotages the bazaar, ensuring that no guests show up at the home. Marga is disheartened and nearly gives up, but then resorts to one last trick to soften the property developer’s hard heart. During this effort, Ohrmann’s health—which has been poor for some time—comes to light. He collapses and has to be taken to the hospital. In this situation, he admits to Marga that he wanted to convert the house only because he himself had to grow up in a children’s home, and therefore thought that places like it should not exist. Marga manages to convince him that his negative experiences belong to the past and that there is no reason today to take the children’s home away from them. In return for letting them keep the house, Marga promises to look after his investors during his stay in the hospital; they are on the verge of pulling out of Ohrmann’s project. She stands in for him at his company and offers the investors a new property for a health clinic: Ohrmann’s villa. Since he is actually broke, this could, thanks to Marga, save both his company and his marriage.