Stankowskis Millionen (2011)

In 1991, East Germany is nursing a hangover. The economy in the former GDR is collapsing. Unemployment and poverty are widespread. Many people blame the Treuhand for the misery. Werner Stankowski, a trained computer scientist and computer specialist, cannot find work despite sending out hundreds of applications. His wife thinks he is a failure and leaves him for a rich man from the West. Only his best friend Rudi, who is also unemployed, still stands by him. Rudi’s wife, Gerda, keeps the family afloat with a struggling mail-order erotica business. Werner then gets a job interview with a computer company in Munich. During the interview, the West Germans denounce Werner and humiliate him with Stasi jokes. When the secretary then supposedly spills coffee on him by accident, Werner is sure that, as an Ossi, he will never find a job because of where he comes from. Shortly afterward, at a street café, Werner meets René Vonderecken, a Treuhand manager whose laptop is giving him trouble. Werner helps the stranger, who mistakes him for an employee of the computer company because Werner was given a T-shirt bearing its name after the coffee spill. Vonderecken promptly offers Werner a job at the Treuhand. Werner turns him down because he realizes that Vonderecken thinks he is a Wessi. When his financial situation worsens, the bank threatens to repossess his dacha, and his daughter Laura and her boyfriend Fränky want to start a company, Werner accepts the job. His new colleagues like him because they think he is a Wessi. He keeps his new job secret from his family and friends, however, since they are staunch opponents of the Treuhand. Werner learns more about its work and methods and plans to turn this knowledge to his family’s advantage. For example, he tries to stop his future son-in-law from buying a run-down fleet of trucks for his new haulage company, and attempts to flog it to his wife’s lover at a vastly inflated price. Werner takes every opportunity to learn more about the Treuhand. He explains his occasional puns in Saxon dialect and the fact that he drives a Wartburg by saying he is curious about the lives of Ossis. With his East German delicacies and his computer expertise, Werner soon becomes a popular and respected colleague. Meanwhile, the scheming Treuhand employee Novak tries to sell Fränky the fleet along with the entire company, now at the same exorbitant price, so he can collect the commission. Werner has to intervene because Fränky and Laura are expecting a baby, and they now face ruin, with debts of 5.5 million marks. He finds an ally in the chief secretary, who is also from the East and is bullied by her colleagues for it. But while forging the contract, Werner gives himself away to his family. Shortly after he successfully passes off the forged contract to the Treuhand, his family and friends angrily confront him. Vonderecken’s assistant overhears them and consequently exposes Werner as an Ossi. Werner’s friend Rudi, who has lost all hope after his wife’s business goes bankrupt, disappears with a pistol. Werner and the others follow him to a Treuhand party in the Berlin TV Tower. They are afraid he might shoot someone. When the gun turns out to be a water pistol, they are relieved. Werner, meanwhile, is fired. Vonderecken offers him a large severance payment to avoid anyone finding out that he brought an Ossi into the company. Werner reconciles with his wife, who is impressed by how much he has done for his family. In the end, all the characters have either become self-employed or found work they are happy with.