Verdammt die jungen Sünder nicht (1961)

The story is set among young people in the early 1960s and, as had often been seen since the film *The Juveniles*, is meant to warn young people about the dangers of immorality and vice. At the center of events is 17-year-old Sylvia Reimers, who has become pregnant by Walter Dobel, a somewhat older working-class man. She gives birth and is now left alone with her problems, especially since the father of her child is himself rather directionless and has fallen into the clutches of an unscrupulous peer named Pitt. Walter has Sylvia to thank for ensuring that Pitt can no longer pose a threat to him. Eventually, youth welfare services help the young mother get her life under control. Walter, too, comes to his senses and is prepared to accept responsibility for his child and provide a home for it together with Sylvia. In parallel, the story is told of Ruth Jüttner, a somewhat older girl from a respectable family. Ruth’s parents are wealthy; her father is strict, while her mother is indulgent and kind, and tries, despite all the differences between parents and daughter, to keep the lines of communication with the young woman from breaking off completely. Ruth soon falls in with criminal circles, as an act of rebellion against her overbearing father and his patriarchal ideas about how to raise her. After repeatedly getting into difficult situations and causing an accident while drunk, she is placed in a youth care home. Fred, a wealthy young suitor who repeatedly gets her into dangerous situations, is certainly not blameless. The young woman’s downward spiral seems unavoidable. After escaping from the home with Fred’s help, Ruth causes another traffic accident, this time with injuries. She sits crying at the roadside and stammers that she wants to go home, unaware that her parents have decided during a nighttime conversation to bring their daughter home and make a greater effort to understand her and do many things differently than before.