Germany from Above

Tatort Ostsee - Wer sprengte die Nord Stream-Pipelines?

A documentary of the German national soccer team’s 2006 World Cup experience that changed the face of modern Germany.

The real Great Escape didn't feature Steve McQueen racing through the Third Reich on a motorcycle like in the 1963 movie, but the big breakout was still thrilling in every way. This program sheds new light on the audacious escape of 76 Allied airmen from a Nazi POW camp during World War II.

The film tells the story of the Rote Zora, a militant women’s group in the FRG, which in the 1970s and 1980s carried out actions against various facets of patriarchal power relations. Narrations by various contemporary witnesses, interviews with a historian and former Zoras bring the history of the Rote Zora and the women’s movement of the time back to life. The film shows that many of the Rote Zora’s themes are highly topical and offers exciting material for discussion on how to deal with this history today.

Documentary about filmmakers of the New German Cinema who were members of the legendary Filmverlag für Autoren (Film Publishing House for Authors). Among them are Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Wim Wenders.

The trembling starts in his neck when Markus gets closer to the images that have chased him for 49 years. Now he steers his motor home south, as far away from his past as possible.

In World War II. African-American GIs liberate Germany from Nazi rule while racism prevailed in their own army and home country. Returning home they continue fighting for their own rights in the civil rights movement.

Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.

During the Nazi regime, there was widespread persecution of homosexual men, which started in 1871 with the Paragraph 175 of the German Penal Code. Thousands were murdered in concentration camps. This powerful and disturbing documentary, narrated by Rupert Everett, presents for the first time the largely untold testimonies of some of those who survived.

This DVD contains a filmed rehearsal of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention at the legendary Beat Club in Bremen, Germany, on 6th October 1968. The music is largely one long improvisatory continuous performance rather than a run-through of their greatest hits, but is punctuated by Zappa directing the band to play the opening themes of some of his more well-known pieces.

This documentary explores the creation of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin as designed by architect Peter Eisenman. Reaction of the German public to the completed memorial is also shown.

Home is where we grow up or settle permanently. And this home is always shaped by nature. Today, we human beings change and shape this more than any law of nature. HEIMAT NATUR is a visually stunning journey through the nature of our homeland, from the peaks of the Alps to the coasts and the depths of the North and Baltic Seas. In between is a cinematic foray through steaming forests, shimmering moors, over rose-blossoming heaths and the colorful cultural landscape around our villages and towns. In extraordinary images this nature is shown from its most beautiful side, examining the state of the native habitats. Slow-motion and time-lapse photography as well as intimate shots of familiar and unfamiliar species, some filmed for the first time, making the film a cinematic nature experience for the whole family.

The order comes in the summer of 1941 from propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels himself: The best animators are summoned to Berlin. Their task: Producing feature-length cartoons in ‘Disney-Quality’ with the newly founded ‘Deutsche Zeichenfilm GmbH’. To get trained, the Disney movie “Snow White” is re-traced frame by frame. After the final victory, one new feature-length production of quality shall be released every year from 1947 onwards. – that is the plan. Only in 1943, the first production is completed: “Armer Hansi” a 17-minute-long colour movie, realized with the effortful Multiplane-technology. The second film by the ‘Deutsche Zeichenfilm’ is only completed in 1946 – by DEFA. In the territories occupied by Germany, cartoons are produced as well, sometimes harmless ones, sometimes propagandistic ones. With excerpts from animated movies, life-action film documents, and witness reports by contemporaries, this documentary draws a picture of the cartoon production in the third Reich.

Max S. reveals how he built a drug empire from his childhood bedroom in this story that inspired the series "How to Sell Drugs Online."

How could a German Wehrmacht soldier become a celebrated soccer idol of the Britons in the post-war period? The documentary by Radio Bremen shows the moving life story of the soccer star of the 1950s in a torn Europe and how an enemy became a friend. With his legendary appearance in the English Cup Final 1956, in which he played until the end despite a broken neck, Bert Trautmann set up a memorial for himself in the history of sport. Already in the same year, he is chosen as England’s footballer of the year, and by his club Manchester City even as best player of all times. Bernhard “Bert” Trautmann is one of the most popular and best-known soccer players in England.

Uli Köhler and Nick Golücke have visited the protagonists of the 1990 World Cup 20 years after their championship win and looked back together. The Writers Nick Golücke and Uli Köhler have, 20 years after World Cup triumph of the German national soccer team in Rome in 1990, visited the protagonists of back then once again and indulge with them together in memories.

Documentary on the German luxury liner St. Louis that sailed from Hamburg to Cuba in 1939 carrying 937 German Jews. For 30 excruciating days the ship wandered the seas and was refused haven by every country in the Americas.

The rut of Dalmatian hinterland changes with the arrival of returning guest workers, and things they bring along: cars, radios and new way of life.

Is the solution to Switzerland's future to integrate Germany into the confederation? After all, like Michael Ringier, CEO of the Ringier media group, says, blithely ignoring all minorities, we're very close in culture and language. Oskar Freysinger takes out his guitar and sings his answer. Politicians from French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino think expanding will help the country survive. The former German foreign minister thinks the two countries' traditions are too different. The banker Oswald Grübel is worried about Germany's debts, although he'd be prepared to take over its assets. With serious interviews interspersed with gags (boat people on Lake Constance, the last Habsburger as a peasant), Giaccobbo gathers off-the-cuff reactions which reveal a lot about the different mentalities. The movie laughs at preconceived notions, redefines neutrality and reflects on what designates a nation. Switzerland, which loves to teach the world a lesson, will soon helvetize the planet, oder?

The film focuses on three male and one female soldier. They represent the challenges that the German army is currently facing: the Bundeswehr has too few personnel, too little equipment and for many years was not prepared for the type of war that it must now prepare for in the future. The film reflects the dramatic change from the perspective of those who have to shoulder the task of "national and alliance defense" in a very concrete and personal way in their everyday lives, at their location, in their unit.