Sie liebten sich einen Sommer (1972)

Munich, at the beginning of the 1970s. Claudia, a nurse, is a fun-loving young woman who one day falls in love with Stefan, a painter who is still quite young himself. He tries to make ends meet with various small jobs, such as individual and family portraits, but never really manages to get ahead. Nevertheless, the two become a couple and enjoy a carefree time together. Claudia and Stefan decide to marry after Claudia, as a wedding gift and proof of her love, helps him obtain a scholarship for a stay in Rome to study painting. Stefan is overjoyed and wants to spend a carefree time with Claudia in the “Eternal City.” But his young bride has not told him the whole truth: a deep, dark shadow hangs over her, one Stefan is not meant to know about. Some time earlier, an accident at the clinic where she works exposed Claudia to an overdose of cobalt radiation, which has contaminated her body. Now she is terminally ill, and Stefan realizes only too late that she does not have long to live. He wants to make the time she has left as beautiful as possible for her. Claudia, too, enjoys her husband’s company, sitting in a wheelchair toward the end, and watches him wistfully as he practices his art, painting outdoors. But eventually, her life draws to a close…