After Hitler's rise to power in 1933, a group of regime opponents from various backgrounds consolidated under the leadership of Harro Schulze-Boysen and Arvid Harnack.

Claus, son of the executed organization member Walter Küchenmeister, intended to make a documentary about the activities of his father.

[6] On 4 October 1971, director Horst E. Brandt, cinematographer Günter Haubold and the Küchenmeister couple were awarded the National Prize 1st class for their work on the film.

[7] Alongside dramatist Anne Pfeuffer and actors Horst Drinda, Irma Münch, Horst Schulze, Klaus Piontek, Barbara Adolph, Jutta Wachowiak, Manfred Karge, Ursula Karusseit, Harry Pietzsch, Eberhard Esche and Günther Simon they were granted the Art Prize of the Free German Trade Union Federation in the same year.

[3] Daniela Bergahn noted that, while the film still "inflated" the role of the communists in the resistance to the Nazis, it "at least acknowledged" the participation of other groups.