"Four men vie for superiority in a small German coastal town: Peter Vauk, a socialist firebrand who works as ship’s pilot; the mayor, Christoph Westphal; the local noble landowner, Bernard von Autrum; and the young clergyman, Pastor Elgett. But their fates are tied together by a stronger-willed teenager, Lisa Westphal, who seeks for ... calm" -- Publishers website.
Professor Vogt sees democracy as the fulfillment of Christianity's promise - but are his fellow men ready for that idea? His protege returns to his mother's estate to enact his own ideas about human dignity and faith, but are his workers as noble as he believes? Meanwhile, the professor's wife and his daughter try to keep the two men from disast
Three German sisters are caught behind the advancing Russian forces at the start of World War One. Will they survive? And are the Russian officers honourable men?
"Following her mother’s passing away, the late Colonel Boddin’s beautiful daughter, Hertha, is left alone in the world. Driven away by her married sister’s jealousy of her beauty, Hertha relies on the kindness of her late mother’s friend Lotte and her son Heinrich who is infatuated with her. But when the young Count Hohensee, who has been courting Lotte’s daughter Anna, sees her beauty, Hertha becomes torn between her need for security and her desire for something more" -- Publishers website.
Gus Petersen strives to find his way in life. But with no money, and more full of ideas than possessed of a practical nature, how can he achieve great things and win over the girl of his dreams?
The young Baron Holstein, son of a dissolute bankrupt, strives to restore his family's honour. But will he be able to avoid the distractions of his enemy's daughter and his young stepmother? - The helmsman nodded with his head. "Well, it seems right to me," he murmured, "but the talk with us goes like this, anyone who once belongs to the sea, he must also return to it. The sea lets go of no one." - His bestsellers burnt and his grave desecrated by the Nazis, Georg Julius Leopold Engel (1866-1931) has been unfairly neglected by subsequent generations. A number of his novels were adapted into movies during his own lifetime, but his perceptive investigations of the human soul have for the most part not been translated into English until now.