Originally, it focused on the character Anna Polauke — a shy and lonely woman — who began a job at the advertising agency "Broda & Broda", where she met her first love, Jonas Broda. As time went on, the focus was given to one of Anna's cousins, Mia Maschke, who began work in the same company as a cleaning woman.
Later, people died, "Broda & Broda" went bankrupt and Jonas was killed in a Russian mob operation, which led to the cast getting jobs at Lanford Luxury, a fashion firm.
Anna returned in season three to find a new love. She found one and won his heart with the help of Nina, a criminal she met in jail. Nina took the role as main character in September 2011.
The show is notable for having many montages (such as one while calculating debts) as well as eccentric, Large Ham characters.
AUDL provides examples of:
- Acting Unnatural: What Anna seems like sometimes.
- Actor Allusion: Bruno's (the creative boss of Lanford Luxury) once said he would make a good vampire in an offhand remark to a film producer. His actor Klaus-Dieter Klebsch was the German voiceactor of Devimon in Digimon.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Subverted, Luca wants the bad girl Nina.
- Alliterative Name:
- Kai Kosmar.
- David Darcy.
- Alternate Reality Episode: Anna, while about to be overrun by a truck, was shown a different reality by
herself where she never met Jonas and never got the job at Brodas. - And Now for Someone Completely Different: When Mia and Nina take over while Anna's actor goes on a concert tour.
- Anti-Villain:
- Kai Kosmar. A molester, but he just wants the best for his friend Luca Benzoni. Aw.
- Gerrit Broda, Jonas's brother, who always thought his parents preferred his brother and killed his father in rage without really wanting to.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Kai. Threatens people, attempts rape, but also likes to eat English steaks.
- Artistic License – Economics
- Ascended Meme: One of the few fan vids of this show was "Anna und die Drogen" (Anna and Drugs), a crappy fandub of the show where Anna took drugs. A few months later the show had Anna starting to take drugs to make her less shy and more productive in her job.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Nina and Kai, again.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Every villainess.
- Big Secret: Nina was in prison for the murder of Andreas Lindenberg, Carlas brother.
- Blatant Lies: Oh, Kai, you old Trope-dangler
- Brother–Sister Incest: David Darcy has got a crush on his sister Annett. But it turns out David got adopted.
- Brutal Honesty: Carla to Kai, right before his first huge bit of bastardry.
- Bus Crash: Fanni's imposter and her boyfriend were killed on the Serbian border, trying to flee with the painting that was one of Anna and Tom's wedding gifts.
- Butt-Monkey: Kai. He is insulted by every woman he talks to and never gets laid and acts like he owns Lanford.
- The Casanova: Mr. David Darcy, Luca Benzoni and Jonas Broda. Kai likes to think of himself as this.
- Catchphrase: The word Heldenhaft! (Heroically!) is uttered suspiciously often.
- Caught with Your Pants Down: Maik Majewski once went out to the countryside to inhale some Indian smoke to free his spirit. After he fell asleep some people stole everything he had with him.
- Character Death:
- Gerrit's father got hit on the head with an award statue by Gerrit.
- Gerrit was killed by blood poisoning from an earlier accident some time after he kidnapped Anna and Jonas during their wedding.
- Richard Darcy had a heart attack.
- Jonas Broda was run over by a truck during a Russian mob operation where they had stolen his and Anna's new fashion collection.
- Steve Welder got stabbed in the stomach and thrown down some stairs by Carla and David.
- David Darcy was blown up with a car bomb by Carla.
- Chekhov's Gun: Kai Kosmar's suit provides blackmail material for any given situation.
- Chekhov's Skill: Luca's five-second Kung-Fu training seems to be this
- Chewing the Scenery:
- Bruno. He is just the boss.
- Steve Welder. After he fled from prison for him being responsible for Jonas´ death he got crazy and started stalking Carla and Mr. Darcy to get some money for his taking all the flak.
Carla: "Let´s just all calm down."Steve: "Wooohooooooohooooooo."- Kai does this on purpose whenever he tries to intimidate people. Most notably: He drank a glass of milk with ridiculous enjoyment and requested soft sugar for it shortly before he threatened Nina to report her to the police for pushing Luca down some stairs (accidentally). When she went away, he complimented the restaurant manager for the quality of the single glass of milk.
- Clip Show: During Christmas/New Year 2010 they recapped the first season over five episodes.
- Continuity Nod: Every other episode.
- The Couch: The Broda elevator, later the Lanford elevator.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Steve the Austrian to Anna.
- Crossover: With Richter Alexander Hold, a German courtroom show.
- Deadpan Snarker: Carla Lindenberg, Gerrit Broda, Kai Kosmar and Mr. Darcy
- Dead Person Conversation:
- When Gerrit died, he talked to Anna and Jonas who were in some kind of near-death coma in a deep-freeze warehouse.
- Subverted with Jonas Broda when he was a ghost. He could only talk to living people if they had a near-death experience and even then, when they recovered, they couldn't remember any of it.
- Demoted to Extra: Natasha Broda, Jonas mother, seems to be around only because they don't want to finish off the complete Broda family. She is still in the intro, even though she is probably the least important character to any of the current stories.
- Did You Just Have Sex?: Kai once thought this was the case with Luca, but he simply didn't make his bed after cuddling with Nina.
- Double Standard: Kai stalks several people and is evil because of it, but no one wants to mention that Jojo Maschke did the exact same thing with Lily.
- Dynamic Entry: Luca's first scene. He was flown in by a red chopper with Korn playing on the soundtrack in the background.
- Drop-In Character: Brunos personal assistant Virgin basically lived in the same apartment as Jojo, Maik, Paule and Paloma after he used their place as a decoy to make his father think he wasn;t gay. It got lampshaded recently and he got some duties even though he doesn't live there.
- Empty Promise: Kai does this with Carla.
- Establishing Character Moment: Kai's rape attempts.
- Evil Tastes Good: Kai is constantly eating or drinking something.
- Evil Versus Evil: Darcy and Carla against Steve, the mad Austrian.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin:
- It's about Anna and finding her true love.
- Averted when another character takes over and Anna's only credit is the opening.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Kai's attempts to have sex can be summed up with this.
- That problem is ticked off, but he still hasn't come any closer to becoming manager of Lanford.
- Fantastic Drug: Anna was addicted to some kind of anti-shyness pills.
- Fate Drives Us Together: Whoever is in the final shot of the opening.
- Finagle's Law - Kai. He tries raping women - it never works out, gets his groin grabbed (not in a good way). He tries to rescue his friend from a savage woman, he gets fired. He tries to get Nina out of town: she comes back and works in the same company again.
- First Guy Wins: You can see who gets together with the female lead through this and the opening.
- Flashback: At least once an episode.
- Freudian Excuse: Jonas was favored over Gerrit by their parents, or at least Gerrit thinks so.
- Friend Versus Lover: Kai versus Nina over Luca.
- Girl on Girl Is Hot: Jasmine's relationship with Lily had this as its only reason for happening.
- G-Rated Drug: Anna's drugs looked like pink M&Ms.
- The Good Guys Always Win: Averted in season finales when the company everyone is working for sells out, goes broke or both.
- Hammerspace: Kai Kosmar's suit provides threats for any given situation.
- Happily Married:
- The main couple in the season finales.
- Averted with Anna and Jonas when Jonas dies a few episodes into season 3.
- Heroic BSoD:
- Kai has one in the elevator, after Luca (his best and only friend) accused him of molesting Nina.
- Nina had one when Kosmar told her that Luca would report her to the police if she doesn't leave Berlin.
- Enrique when being left by Mia and Anna respectively takes a break from the show for several weeks. When Anna left him a second time he was sufficiently pissed off to anger a punk with sunglasses but was pissed off enough to bring him to leave him alone.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Kai and Luca, also Tom Lanford and Enrique Vegaz.
- Historical In-Joke: "But Mia, this is Russia. You can't just march in there!"
- Hit Me, Dammit!: Enrique to Tom, when he was left by Anna a second time and returned to Lanford.
- Humiliation Conga: Kais last few plans are utter disasters. He installs spy cams in the cloth storage hoping to catch Nina and Luca again and instead his sister bangs a model. He tries to get on better terms with Bruno and he is demoted to decorating the Christmas tree.
- Iconic Outfit: Kai Kosmar and Mr. Darcy seem to wear only suits.
- If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Luca to Kai
- Inner Monologue Conversation: Every female lead gets them.
- Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: Happened to Enrique and Paloma's party in Denmark.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Enrique to Mia and Anna.
- Jerkass: Gerrit, Katja, the Darcys, Carla and Kai
- Karma Houdini: Mr. Darcy. That is, until his death.
- Kick the Dog: Kai.
- Lampshade Hanging: Kai often says what the viewer is thinking.
- About Enrique's constant work skipping: "Mr. Vegaz, who did you choose—OH! He isn't even here!"
- About Jojo Maschke's character: "If you weren't such a loser, you wouldn't have to run after such cheap women."
- Large Ham: Bruno Lanford.
- Left Hanging: Jonas when he became a ghost met Heinrich, someone who died several decades ago and was forced to live on earth as a ghost, only observing, never being able to interfere. Heinrich's plan was to get into heaven with Jonas but he was never seen again after a random scene and when Jonas left on screen it apparently was without him.
- Like a God to Me: Tom Lanford's face was this to Kai once when Luca reminded Lanford that he owned the place.
- Likes Older Women: Mr. Darcy at first, but he recovered.
- Limited Social Circle: Everyone on the show. Averted when the main characters greet random extras whom they are never shown to have had any contact with.
- Limited Wardrobe: Kai always wears the same suit: only the shirt and tie varies.
- He got better and bought several new ones after he accidentally spilled some acid onto his old suit while sabotaging Anna's collection.
- Local Hangout: The Ego Bar.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Kai thought Luca would do this with Nina in the store room, so he installed a camera to get them both on tape, so he could kick them both out and ascend as manager of Lanford. Of course Kai's sister had to do it with Maik in there.
- Man Hug: Kai and Luca, after Luca arrived by helicopter where Kai was waiting with a limo for him.
- My Sister Is Off-Limits: So averted with Kai. His sister Olivia is engaged with his friend Luca and Kai seems to approve of this but weirdly has nothing against Luca cheating on her with other women at the same time.
- Nice Guy: Luca Benzoni.
- Noodle Implements: The night Andreas was murdered
- Paloma and Enrique waking up in Tom Lanford's office with a huge dog, weird party snapshots on the internet and a bill for a chopper to Denmark for their Hangover storyline.
- Not So Great Escape: Happens every few episodes.
- Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Maik is friends with Brad Pitt, but no one believes him.
- Once an Episode:
- Montage, two or three per episode.
- Cliffhanger endings with a special fanfare, too.
- One-Hour Work Week: Enrique Vegaz had only two assignments in season three: The first one he pushed on his assistant Paloma and the second one he had outscoruced to a friend of his from another advertising agency.
- Only Friend: Luca is Kai's only friend.
- Alexander got Julian. He was introduced a bit later to the show so that Alex could have at least one friend. Lampshaded with Julian's surname Freund, which is German for "friend". After Alexander married Mia and left the show, Julian got teleported to Los Angeles through a fake magic-box and was never heard from again.
- The Plan: Kai seems to want Lucas place as manager.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Virgin, the Camp Gay assistant of Bruno, Enrique Vegaz and Kai Kosmar.
- Product Placement: The C&A Campaign (a German fashion company).
- Promotionto Opening Titles: Enrique Vegaz and Maik Majewski.
- Race for Your Love:
- Anna had to race after every single one of her love interests.
- Parodied with Alexander Zeiss who raced after Mia with a tractor when she was out to fly a two-seater plane to her marriage in Spain. He got her anyway.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Carla gave one to Kai Kosmar where she described him as a boy wanting to play the villain game without even having a real degree as a lawyer. He promptly proved how heroic he can be.
- The Reveal: Comes hand in hand with some of the Cliffhangers.
- Relationship Sabotage: Kai tries this with Luca and Nina.
- Romantic False Lead: Jannick Juncker, Alexander Zeiss, Enrique Vegaz (for two female leads, no less) and apparently Jojo Maschke.
- Running Gag: Kai eats or drinks something in most of his appearances.
- Sad Clown: Kai is the Pausenclown (half-time entertainment, literally the intermission clown) for Luca according to Carla.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Luca, Bruno, the Darcy men, Kai and the Broda men except Jonas.
- Shipper on Deck: Kai ships Nina and Jojo.
- Shipping: Kai approves of the pairing Nina and Jojo. "Oh, how wonderful! The small, clubbing cook and the prison-bitch: You two deserve each other. You've got my blessing for sure!"
- Ship Tease: Paule and Maik twice now.
- Shout-Out:
- Bruno's actor was Devimon in Digimon.
- Vegaz once introduced a friend of his as his brother Vincent Vegaz.
- Some minor characters even talked about the ending of a movie that sounded like it certainly was James Cameron's Avatar.
- Ed Wood.
- Smug Snake: Michael Jung, talkshow host of "Die Nacht ist jung" (The night is still young).
"Ah now I understand, you like the chick! Yes fairly cute but sorry i can´t help you getting into her bed."
— Michael Jung (moments before getting punched in the face)
- Stepford Smiler: Kai. Behind that smile is a sad, lonely boy who attempts rapes to satisfy his ego which has no basis in reality.
- Stock Footage: Random buildings of Berlin
- That Didn't Happen: Kai denies molesting Nina.
- Team Mom: Anna, since her second marriage, is much more of a supportive role and only gives advice to her friends instead of really interacting with them.
- Tender Tears: Kai, after Luca accused him of molesting Nina.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Favorite beverage; Espresso, for Kai Kosmar.
- The Unseen: Edward Wood until the fourth season.
- Villainous Breakdown: Kai Kosmar when Luca accused him of molesting Nina.
- Wham Episode: Most Friday episodes are one.
- Wham Line: Happens all the time. For example, "You killed my brother!"
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Poor Heinrich seems to still be in the world between heaven and reality.
- Whole-Plot Reference: Enrique and Paloma's drunken marriage in Denmark is The Hangover.
- Will They or Won't They?: Whoever appears in the last shot of the current opening.
- Wolverine Publicity: Anna & Die Liebe has Anna as the main character only in season 1 and 3. In 2 and 4 she got replaced by Mia Maschke and Nina Hinze respectively because her actor Jeanette Biederman was trying to have a musical career.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Kai thought that Nina wanted to blackmail Luca.
- You Will Be Spared: Kai, when dreaming about being at the top of Lanford, promises this to Carla.
