Berlin Alexanderplatz

In 1928 Berlin, Franz Biberkopf is released after serving four years in Tegel prison for the murder of his girlfriend Ida. After settling into his old apartment, he visits Ida's sister Minna and rapes her. In a flashback, Franz kills Ida with a cream whip after correctly suspecting she's about to leave him. Franz encounters and drinks with old friend Meck, where he meets Lina Przybilla, a young Polish woman, who moves in with him. He receives notification from local police that he's barred from certain districts and surrounding municipalities, under threat of a fine or imprisonment. Placing himself under the supervision of a charity called Prisoners' Aid, to which he must report once a month while remaining in employment, Franz is able to stay.

Biberkopf is self-employed, hawking necktie holders on the street, but has trouble making enough and doesn't consider himself an orator. After turning down the opportunity to sell sex ed manuals, he's talked into selling the Nazi newspaper Völkischer Beobachter and wearing a swastika armband. In the subway, Franz is confronted by a Jewish man selling hot sausages, but denies being antisemitic, and Dreske with two other men also known to him. Dreske admires Lenin and the Soviet Union, but Franz responds by decrying revolution and 'their' Weimar Republic.

Troubled by the dubious nature of Franz's job, Lina introduces him to family friend Otto Lüders, who turns out to be an ex-con he knows from prison, but Franz thinks Otto is good. With him, Franz begins selling shoelaces. In the first apartment, he spends time with a widow whose deceased husband he closely resembles. Later, to Otto, he reports having sex with the widow. Otto visits the widow, expecting the same, but she feels threatened and rejects him. Otto demands money and steals from her. When Franz goes back to the widow, happily expecting another tryst, she slams the door on him. Franz vanishes.