# The 20 Best German Films of All Time

> Spanning silent Expressionist nightmares, New German Cinema provocations and modern Oscar darlings, this lineup runs from arthouse daring to blockbuster spectacle. Where do you stand?

*By YPB Team · Published June 29, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-20-best-german-films-of-all-time*

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## Current results (3 votes)

1. **Metropolis** — 66.67% (2 votes · score 1000/1000)
   Fritz Lang's 1927 silent science-fiction epic, a landmark of German Expressionism set in a dystopian future city.
2. **Wings of Desire** — 0% (0 votes · score 695/1000)
   Wim Wenders' 1987 poetic fantasy about an angel who longs to become human in divided Berlin.
3. **The Marriage of Maria Braun** — 33.33% (1 votes · score 618/1000)
   Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1979 drama tracing a woman's rise through postwar West Germany.
4. **Fitzcarraldo** — 0% (0 votes · score 534/1000)
   Werner Herzog's 1982 epic about a dreamer who hauls a steamship over a mountain to build an opera house.
5. **Ali: Fear Eats the Soul** — 0% (0 votes · score 534/1000)
   Fassbinder's 1974 drama about a romance between an older German woman and a younger Moroccan migrant.
6. **The Tin Drum** — 0% (0 votes · score 463/1000)
   Volker Schlondorff's 1979 Palme d'Or and Oscar winner about a boy who refuses to grow up in Nazi-era Danzig.
7. **The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari** — 0% (0 votes · score 463/1000)
   A 1920 silent horror film whose jagged, painted sets defined German Expressionist cinema.
8. **All Quiet on the Western Front** — 0% (0 votes · score 463/1000)
   The 2022 Oscar-winning WWI epic following a young German soldier's disillusionment in the trenches.
9. **Phoenix** — 0% (0 votes · score 463/1000)
   Christian Petzold's 2014 postwar drama about a Holocaust survivor searching for the husband who may have betrayed her.
10. **The White Ribbon** — 0% (0 votes · score 463/1000)
   Michael Haneke's 2009 Palme d'Or winner about strange events in a German village before WWI.
11. **M** — 0% (0 votes · score 379/1000)
   Fritz Lang's 1931 thriller starring Peter Lorre as a child murderer hunted by police and the criminal underworld alike.
12. **Das Boot** — 0% (0 votes · score 379/1000)
   Wolfgang Petersen's 1981 claustrophobic WWII drama following the crew of a German U-boat.
13. **Good Bye, Lenin!** — 0% (0 votes · score 379/1000)
   A 2003 tragicomedy in which a son recreates a vanished East Germany to protect his ailing mother.
14. **The Lives of Others** — 0% (0 votes · score 379/1000)
   The 2006 Oscar-winning drama about a Stasi officer surveilling a playwright in East Germany.
15. **Nosferatu** — 0% (0 votes · score 278/1000)
   F. W. Murnau's 1922 unauthorized Dracula adaptation and one of the most influential vampire films ever made.
16. **Toni Erdmann** — 0% (0 votes · score 278/1000)
   Maren Ade's 2016 comedy-drama about a prankster father reconnecting with his corporate daughter.
17. **Aguirre, the Wrath of God** — 0% (0 votes · score 278/1000)
   Werner Herzog's 1972 fever-dream about a conquistador's doomed Amazon expedition, starring Klaus Kinski.
18. **Victoria** — 0% (0 votes · score 154/1000)
   Sebastian Schipper's 2015 thriller shot in a single continuous take across one Berlin night.
19. **Run Lola Run** — 0% (0 votes · score 154/1000)
   Tom Tykwer's kinetic 1998 thriller in which Lola races against time across three branching scenarios.
20. **Downfall** — 0% (0 votes · score 154/1000)
   The 2004 historical drama depicting Hitler's final days in his Berlin bunker, with Bruno Ganz.

Tags: movies, directors, germany, classics