That same year, while on vacation at the Millstätter See, he happened to see a movie being shot, Kitty und die Weltkonferenz, directed by Helmut Käutner, and first became interested in filmmaking.
[1] The footage may be part of the 1943 Nazi film Wir leben in Deutschland ("We Live in Germany"), archived at the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv; however, the credits don't mention Pehlke's participation.
[1] The Liebeneiner film contained a nighttime farewell scene at a darkened Berlin S-Bahnhof, complete with a background of "flak" searchlights in the sky and cascading Pathfinder flares,[n 1] to be produced with special effects.
[1] Even before the end of the war, Pehlke returned to the industry, continuing as the country came under Allied occupation, with licensing and denazification requirements, rationing and other difficulties.
[1] He worked on several television films based on novels, including Hans Fallada's Every Man Dies Alone and Gabriel Schilling's Flight, by Gerhart Hauptmann.