History Series / ChariteAtWar

* CigaretteOfAnxiety: Fairly common. Granted, almost EverybodySmokes rather casually in this time and setting, but with the exception of Anni and Artur, all of the characters are seen smoking when they're distressed.

* PlausibleDeniability: Anni's compliance largely rests on this -- the full extent of the euthanasia programme is too terrible to be lawfully authorized, so ''of course'' there's no such thing. Nurse Käthe points out later that, in truth, they all knew to some degree, only [[ElephantInTheLivingRoom nobody ever talked about it]]. For a long time, not even Professor Sauerbruch can face the truth about the ongoing methodical murders of ''patients''.

* '''Ferdinand Sauerbruch''', chief surgeon at Charité, an innovator who has devised new techniques for taking care of the many, many German casualties coming back from the war with Russia. Generally anti-Nazi. His wife '''Margot''' is his surgical assistant. His son '''Peter''', child of his first marriage, is a doctor serving with the army on the Eastern Front.

* LadyDrunk: Magda Goebbels, wife of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. In episode 2 she and Anni are in the hospital together, Anni after delivering a daughter, Magda after a miscarriage. Magda drinks heavily from a carafe of wine while in her hospital bed, and talks bitterly about how her husband didn't even care enough about the miscarriage to send her flowers.

* TogetherInDeath: In the last episode, when de Crinis and his wife are stopped by a Russian checkpoint, they kill themselves. De Crinis' wife takes a cyanide capsule, and he [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes holds her hand]] for a moment while she spasms, until he takes one too.

* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Anni doesn't seem like it at first, but she turns out to have a heart of gold indeed. Subverted with Christel, who seems nice enough at first, but soon shows that BlondesAreEvil applies.

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: Paul Lohmann, an injured soldier, asks for Pervitin for his pain, aka Crystal Meth. Martin warns him that it's not a medicament, and soon enough finds Lohmann not after an attempt to get high, but after an attempt to kill himself so as not to be executed for "undermining the military force" because he's suspected of having crippled himself, which is exactly what happens to him after that.

* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Anni doesn't seem like it at first, but she turns out to have a heart of gold indeed. Averted with Christel, who's blonde and evil.

* FamilyVersusCareer: Initially a source of conflict between Anni and Margot as the later tries to scare Anni away from her patient Lohmann by noting she's probably more of a candidate for a motherhood award than a dissertation. Contemptuously, Anni replies that Margot is not the rolemodel she'll take -- Margot has one daughter who's currently in a boarding school, and doesn't plan on having more whereas Anni wants to quit working in a few years to raise a whole bunch of babies. They get over this when Margot empathizes with Anni's concerns about her baby. [[spoiler:Anni winds up raising an only daughter alone and thus supports herself.]]

* CigaretteOfAnxiety: Fairly common. Granted, almost EveryoneSmokes rather casually in this time and setting, but with the exception of Anni and Artur, all of the characters are seen smoking when they're distressed.

* CigaretteOfAnxiety: Fairly common. Granted, almost everyone smokes rather casually in this time and setting, but with the exception of Anni and Artur, all of the characters are seen smoking when they're distressed.

* '''Maria Fritsch''', Sauerbruch's secretary, and her boyfriend '''Fritz Kolbe''', whom she regularls helps getting documents he's not supposed to see.

* MentorShip: There are undertones of this between de Crinis and Anni. They never actually ''do'' anything; they're both married after all, but they're very warm with each other, Anni regards her doctoral advisor's words highly and he obviously keeps her close to the system, and de Crinis goes great lengths to help her dissertation. Anni grows more distant from him after Karin's health issues become obvious, but she still takes advantage of de Crinis' affection for and attraction to her to help Martin.

* TheSocialDarwinist: A major theme, as the medical profession is perverted to kill the disabled in accordance with Social Darwinist theory. UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler and the Nazi regime are a bunch of Social Darwinists. Everyone is aware that the regime used to kill the disabled and the mentally ill, although Sauerbruch believes that such activities have been stopped. Artur is perfectly fine with testing a tuberculosis vaccine on mentally handicapped children. A mother is distressingly okay with sending her Down Syndrome daughter to a Nazi institution, even after Anni hints as broadly as she can that the girl may not come back alive.

* TheBeard: DiscussedTrope between the nurses Käthe and Christel. Christel's {{Gaydar}} has been pinging after seeing how much Otto hangs out with Martin. Käthe says there's no reason to care about that: Otto will need a beard for appearances, and she may luck out and get a widow's pension if he's killed in France. She also thinks "lads like that often [[CureYourGays come around]] later", which encourages the infatuated Christel to go for it. Otto however is not interested, telling Christel that he intends not to die.

* TookALevelInJerkass: Artur started out as a fairly nice, if a bit snooty passive-Nazi who cared about his patients on the pediatric ward and had a very affectionate relationship with his wife and did all he could to help his baby. Later, [[spoiler:he signs Karin off for deportation and lies to Anni about it, and gets pissy when he finds out that she protected her daughter, because what will people say about their "genetic inferiority".]] He snaps somewhat back during the last episode, saving lives while Berlin falls, accepting Anni's decision regarding Karin, and protecting a Jewish father and son from being found out, [[spoiler:but it's not enough to save his marriage.]]

* ChristmasEpisode: The last third of episode 3 is this; Christmas in a NaziGermany hospital comes with guests being sneaked in to a patient because he's a dissident and not actually allowed to see his family, with a politically charged song battle (Hitler-ized lyrics sung by the Nazis versus traditional Christian lyrics sung by the dissidents), a HeelRealization, and a [[ForbiddenLove forbidden]] LoveConfession.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Half of the main characters. Other real life characters appear in supporting roles, like Magda Goebbels and Claus von Stauffenberg.

* LesserOfTwoEvils: Stauffenberg discusses this with Sauerbruch, referring to his planned attempt on Hitler's life. On the one hand, he has [[IGaveMyWord sworn an oath]] on the man, on the other, without Hitler, the entire rotten system of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany and the war will come to a stop.

* ArtificialLimbs: Martin lost the lower half of his right leg to a shrapnel in the early years of war. Sauerbruch has fitted him a nice prosthesis; he's barely limping.

* PlausibleDeniability: Anni's and Artur's compliance largely rests on this -- the full extent of the euthanasia programme is too terrible to be lawfully authorized, so ''of course'' there's no such thing. Nurse Käthe points out later that, in truth, they all knew to some degree, only [[ElephantInTheLivingRoom nobody ever talked about it]]. For a long time, not even Professor Sauerbruch can face the truth about the ongoing methodical murders of ''patients''.

* WhileRomeBurns: During an air raid in Berlin, Hans von Dohnanyi and his wife turn on the radio and dance, ground-shaking noise and flickering lights be damned. They have gotten so used to the permanent bombings that they might as well share some quality time as a couple while waiting out whether or not they have to die that night.

** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] with Anni, who passively went along with the Nazi horrors for long, but [[WrongSideAllAlong snaps out of it]] when she realizes the extent of the eugenics measurements.

** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] with Artur, who very well knows he has blood on his hands and is desperately looking for a way to avoid taking responsibility if he's charged for his participation in the eugenics programme. [[spoiler:He claims to be a Jew to get sympathies, and hopes that having a disabled child himself will make people believe he never approved of the euthanasia of disabled people. His attempts to get out of this are successful, but they make Anni lose all respect for him she has left, and the end up divorced.]]

* MentorShip: There are undertones of this between de Crinis and Anni. They never actually ''do'' anything; they're both married after all, but they're very warm with each other, Anni regards her doctoral advisor's words highly and he obviously keeps her close to the system, and de Crinis goes great lengths to help her dissertation. Anni grows more distant from him after Karin's health issues become obvious, but she still takes advantage of de Crinis' sympathy for and attraction to her to help Martin.

* HateSink: Professor de Crinis is a homophobic, racist, arrogant, system-loyal Nazi bully with a [[SmugSmiler disgustingly self-satisfied attitude]] and no redeeming qualities whatsoever. He defames an injured soldier, gives homosexuals a choice between concentration camp and castration, and generally thinks "substandard" people should be sterilized.

* GoodDocBadDoc: A rather unusual political version of this trope. Sauerbruch the good doc is anti-Nazi and tries to avoid handing over soldiers with self-inflicted wounds to the army for court martial, and he firmly protects resistance fighter von Dohnanyi. De Crinis the bad doc is an evil Nazi who fully supports all of Hitler's ideas.

* GoodDocBadDoc: A rather unusual political version of this trope. Sauerbruch the good doc is anti-Nazi and tries to avoid handing over soldiers with self-inflicted wounds to the army for court martial. De Crinis the bad doc is an evil Nazi who fully supports all of Hitler's ideas.

* TogetherInDeath: In the last episode, when de Crinis and his wife are stopped by a Russian checkpoint, they kill themselves. De Crinis's wife takes a cyanide capsule, and he [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes holds her hand]] for a moment while she spasms, until he takes one too.

* OverTheShoulderCarry: Martin when he finds [[spoiler:Otto]] with a bullet wound. With Martin's leg prosthesis and carrying a man his own weight down a ladder and through a half-demolished staircase during a bombing attack, it's nothing short of a feat of heroism.