Movies like Ernst Thälmann – Son of the Working Class (1954)
The best movies like Ernst Thälmann – Son of the Working Class (1954) are Rosa Luxemburg (1986), Truth & Treason (2025) and The People vs. Fritz Bauer (2015). If Ernst Thälmann – Son of the Working Class hooked you with its history and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Lives of Others (2006)8.0/10 from 4,358 votes
- NewestNuremberg (2025)Released 2025
- In GermanRosa Luxemburg (1986)Also in German
Rosa Luxemburg (1986)
Polish socialist and Marxist Rosa Luxemburg works tirelessly in the service of revolution in early 20th century Poland and Germany. While Luxemburg campaigns for her beliefs, she is repeatedly imprisoned as she forms the Spartacist League offering a new vision for Germany.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTruth & Treason (2025)
In 1941 Nazi Germany, 16-year-old Helmuth Hübener begins questioning the regime after learning the truth about the war and seeing his Jewish friend persecuted. With two friends, he secretly listens to banned foreign broadcasts and distributes leaflets exposing Nazi lies. As the Gestapo closes in, the teenagers face mounting danger for choosing conscience over obedience. Based on the true story of one of Germany’s youngest resistance fighters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe People vs. Fritz Bauer (2015)
It is the late 1950s. Flourishing under the economic miracle, Germany grows increasingly apathetic about confronting the horrors of its recent past. Nevertheless, Fritz Bauer doggedly devotes his energies to bringing the Third Reich to justice. One day Bauer receives a letter from Argentina, written by a man who is certain that his daughter is dating the son of Adolph Eichmann. Excited by the promising lead, and mistrustful of a corrupt judiciary system where Nazis still lurk, Bauer journeys to Jerusalem to seek alliance with Mossad, the Israeli secret service. To do so is treason — yet committing treason is the only way Bauer can serve his country.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNuremberg (2025)
In postwar Germany, an American psychiatrist must determine whether Nazi prisoners are fit to go on trial for war crimes, and finds himself in a complex battle of intellect and ethics with Hermann Göring, Hitler's right-hand man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
The film follows Kaspar Hauser, who lived the first seventeen years of his life chained in a tiny cellar with only a toy horse to occupy his time, devoid of all human contact except for a man who wears a black overcoat and top hat who feeds him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNaked Among Wolves (2015)
Taking place at the Concentration camp Buchenwald at the end of March 1945, prisoner Hans Pippig discovers in a carrying case of an incoming prisoner a Jewish child. If reported the three-year-old is sure to die. On the other hand, a violation of the rules of the camp would threaten the long prepared uprising of the concentration camp prisoners against the SS.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGoebbels and the Führer (2024)
As Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels creates films and pictures used to prepare the Germans for Total War and the Holocaust. When the war is lost, he conceives his last staging, the most radical propaganda act still possible to him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDownfall (2004)
In April of 1945, Germany stands at the brink of defeat with the Russian Army closing in from the east and the Allied Expeditionary Force attacking from the west. In Berlin, capital of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler proclaims that Germany will still achieve victory and orders his generals and advisers to fight to the last man. When the end finally does come, and Hitler lies dead by his own hand, what is left of his military must find a way to end the killing that is the Battle of Berlin, and lay down their arms in surrender.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisWalking with the Enemy (2014)
Regent Horthy is the leader of Hungary and a German ally, but his favorable standing with Hitler changes as the war comes to an end. Forced to cede Hungary’s power or else witness the execution of his son, Regent Horthy gives up control of his country to the Nazis, who quickly move Hungarians to ghettos and death camps, with no hope in sight. But the despair changes when a young man named Elek emerges. Separated from his family during the relocations and aided by the woman he loves , Elek defies the enemy by becoming one of them. In a race against time, disguised as a Nazi Officer he embarks on a mission to save his family and thousands of his countrymen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisConspiracy (2001)
At the Wannsee Conference on January 20, 1942, senior Nazi officials meet to determine the manner in which the so-called "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" can be best implemented.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJimmy's Hall (2014)
In Depression-era Ireland, Jimmy Gralton returns home after a decade's exile in America. Witnessing the levels of poverty and oppression, his inner activist reawakens and he seeks to reopen the dance hall that led to his deportation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWatch on the Rhine (1943)
On the eve of World War II, the German Kurt Müller, his American-born wife Sara, and their three children, having lived in Europe for years, visit Sara's wealthy mother near Washington, DC. Kurt secretly works for the anti-Nazi resistance. A visiting Romanian count, becoming aware of this, seeks to blackmail him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMarianne and Juliane (1981)
Germany, 1968: The priest's daughters Marianna and Juliane both fight for changes in society, like making abortion legal. However their means are totally different: while Juliane's committed as a reporter, her sister joins a terroristic organization. After she's caught by the police and put into isolation jail, Juliane remains as her last connection to the rest of the world. Although she doesn't accept her sister's arguments and her boyfriend Wolfgang doesn't want her to, Juliane keeps on helping her sister. She begins to question the way her sister is treated.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Last Train (2006)
A group of people are imprisoned in a rail car bound from Berlin to a concentration camp in 1945.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Lives of Others (2006)
In 1984 East Berlin, dedicated Stasi officer Gerd Wiesler begins spying on a famous playwright and his actress-lover Christa-Maria. Wiesler becomes unexpectedly sympathetic to the couple, and faces conflicting loyalties when his superior takes a liking to Christa-Maria.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisNight Crossing (1982)
Two men want to escape from East Germany (under Communist rule) but they will only go if they can take their families with them. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRosenstrasse (2003)
When Ruth's husband dies in New York, in 2000, she imposes strict Jewish mourning, which puzzles her children. A stranger comes to the house - Ruth's cousin - with a picture of Ruth, age 8, in Berlin, with a woman the cousin says helped Ruth escape. Hannah, Ruth's daughter engaged to a gentile, goes to Berlin to find the woman, Lena Fisher, now 90. Posing as a journalist investigating intermarriage, Hannah interviews Lena who tells the story of a week in 1943 when the Jewish husbands of Aryan women were detained in a building on Rosenstrasse. The women gather daily for word of their husbands. The film goes back and forth to tell Ruth and Lena's story. How will it affect Hannah?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Good German (2006)
An American journalist arrives in Berlin just after the end of World War Two. He becomes involved in a murder mystery surrounding a dead GI who washes up at a lakeside mansion during the Potsdam negotiations between the Allied powers. Soon his investigation connects with his search for his married pre-war German lover.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Bunker (1981)
Dramatization depicting the events surrounding Adolf Hitler's last weeks in and around his underground bunker in Berlin before and during the battle for the city.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAn American Rhapsody (2001)
A Hungarian family forced to flee the Communist country for the United States must leave a young daughter behind. Six years later, the family arranges to bring the absent daughter to the United States where she has trouble adjusting. The daughter then decides to travel to Budapest to discover her identity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFanny Elssler (1937)
Prince Klemens von Metternich orders Friedrich Gentz, one of his aides, to keep the Duke of Reichstadt---Napoleon Francois Joseph Charles---son of Napoleon and heir to the French throne, from thinking about French politics. Gentz enlists the help of ballerina Fanny Elsser, all the rage in several European capitals, to keep the Duke distracted.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown (1989)
No one expects much from Christy Brown, a boy with cerebral palsy born into a working-class Irish family. Though Christy is a spastic quadriplegic and essentially paralyzed, a miraculous event occurs when, at the age of 5, he demonstrates control of his left foot by using chalk to scrawl a word on the floor. With the help of his steely mother — and no shortage of grit and determination — Christy overcomes his infirmity to become a painter, poet and author.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNever Mind the Wall (2001)
Germany 1982: The country is divided into two parts. Nele, coming from West-Germany, travels to East-Germany where she meets Captain, singer of a band. They fall in love with each other, but the regime "takes care" of their relationship, meaning: They can not see each other again. Germany 1990: The country is reunited. Nele starts searching their lost love...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
My Life for Ireland (1941)
A Nazi propaganda movie from 1941 directed by Max W. Kimmich, covering a story of Irish heroism and martyrdom over two generations under the occupation of the British.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Our Daily Bread (1949)
A story about a family after the Second World War. The petty bourgeois cashier Karl Weber of Berlin observes from a distance how his son Ernst participates in the building of a new socialist society. Karl does not understand Ernst's visions, instead he confides in his other son Harry. However, Harry becomes involved in illicit business and Karl quickly realizes that it would be best to join his son Ernst in the citizen-owned factory.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
100 Years (2021)
As the Communist Party of China celebrates its 100th anniversary, this documentary looks back at the party’s history, from the 1920’s, to the Civil War, the Great Leap Forward, the Great Famine, the Cultural Revolution and the reforms by Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. Did the Great Famine cost more than 15 million lives? How does the Cultural Revolution continue to shape Chinese politics today? What was capitalism like after Mao’s death? Through rare and never-before-seen historical footage, expert interviews and eyewitness accounts of the Great Famine, Tiananmen incident, and the Cultural Revolution, get to know how one party has so profoundly shaped China.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history
Pelle the Conqueror (1987)
In the late 19th century, two Swedish emigrants, Lasse Karlsson and his son Pelle, arrive on the Danish island of Bornholm hoping to find work on a farm and save enough money to travel to the United States of America.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Condemned Village (1952)
East German propaganda film about an American army base trying to take away land from a West German village.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Barbarian Invasions (2003)
In this belated sequel to 'The Decline of the American Empire', middle-aged Montreal college professor, Remy, learns that he is dying of liver cancer. His ex-wife, Louise, asks their estranged son, Sebastian, a successful businessman living in London, to come home. Sebastian makes the impossible happen, using his contacts and disrupting the Canadian healthcare system in every way possible to help his father fight his terminal illness to the bitter end, while reuniting some of Remy's old friends, including Pierre, Alain, Dominique, Diane, and Claude, who return to see their friend before he passes on.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
A young Pakistani Briton manages a rundown laundrette with his lover while dealing with tension in his family, the local Pakistani community, and a persistent mob of skinheads.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Ernst Thälmann – Son of the Working Class?
The closest matches to Ernst Thälmann – Son of the Working Class are Rosa Luxemburg (1986), Truth & Treason (2025) and The People vs. Fritz Bauer (2015). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Ernst Thälmann – Son of the Working Class?
Start with Rosa Luxemburg (1986), the closest match to Ernst Thälmann – Son of the Working Class.
What is the highest-rated movie like Ernst Thälmann – Son of the Working Class?
The Lives of Others (2006), rated 8.0/10 by 4,358 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Ernst Thälmann – Son of the Working Class?
Nuremberg (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like Ernst Thälmann – Son of the Working Class?
Yes: Rosa Luxemburg (1986), The People vs. Fritz Bauer (2015) and The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974).
How are movies similar to Ernst Thälmann – Son of the Working Class chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Ernst Thälmann – Son of the Working Class, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.