While in Berlin to deliver a report he is given a day's leave, and on the stage of the cabaret theatre "Skala" sees the popular Danish singer Hanna Holberg.

When Etzdorf is killed, Paul writes a farewell letter to Hanna, to make the dangers of his missions easier to bear.

The last shots of the film show the happy couple, confident in the future, looking skywards where squadrons of German bombers fly past.

"Davon geht die Welt nicht unter" and "Ich weiß, es wird einmal ein Wunder gescheh'n" were two of the biggest hits of the National Socialist period, and because of their political subtexts were much approved of and promoted by the authorities.

After 1942, as the military situation became more and more unfavourable to Germany, they became a staple element of the prevalent informal propaganda geared to "seeing it through".

Nowadays, "Ich weiss, es wird einmal ein Wunder geschehen" and "Davon geht die Welt nicht unter" are idioms in German language.

The lesson that Hanna Holberg, and with her the entire public, has to absorb, is the insignificance of individual striving for happiness in times in which higher values - here, the military victory of Germany in World War II - come to the fore.

In the process Hanna learns that waiting and renunciation in war have not only to be accepted as fate, but constitute the really "great love".

When she was selected for the role she had already established a strong profile as an expressive portrayer of self-aware, mature, emotionally stable women, whose plans and lives were thrown into disarray by unexpected blows of fate.

The director Rolf Hansen, working with her here for the second time, had the good idea of teaming her up with a weak and relatively insignificant male lead, who was scarcely capable of playing against the weight of her presence.

The suffering laid upon Hanna Holberg by her unfulfilled love gained by the fact that she was profoundly misunderstood, an important additional element that deeply impressed the public.

[6] The depiction of Zarah Leander was also unusual, in that in this film she wore ordinary day clothes, lived in a normal Berlin rented flat and even travelled on the U-Bahn.

The original version of "Die große Liebe" was submitted to the FSK in 1997 and approved for release to audiences over the age of 18.