The documentary takes us behind the scenes of the Nazi state and looks back at the history of the women and men who were part of the court. With an extraordinary amount of film footage, some of which was even shot in colour. Black and white films are colourised especially for this production.

When US troops conquer Nazi Germany from the West in March 1945, they are followed by camera teams that document the defeated and occupied country. The special feature: they shoot in 16mm colour. The result is unique film footage of the destroyed cities and their inhabitants, but also depressing pictures of the victims of terror and the policy of annihilation.

June 6, 1944, 6.30 a.m.: A huge armada of western Allied troops reaches Normandy. Around 30,000 soldiers are to throw them back into the sea and secure Hitler's rule in France. The original black-and-white film footage was hand-colored shot by shot.

Fighting Rommel

To this day, Erwin Rommel is regarded as an apolitical general who brought the British to the brink of bitter defeat in North Africa with ingenious ideas. But the energetic military leader owes his myth primarily to Nazi propaganda.

In historical retrospect, "Blitzkrieg" is a synonym for the Wehrmacht's great successes in Poland and France. But what began in 1939 and ended in 1940 was anything but a long-planned strategy.

A State of Constant Change

Time travel that shows how the state of California, its lifestyle and innovative power have turned the world upside down since the 1950s. 

Reconstruction of a Tragedy

Seven dead people from a ski tour group of ten: The drama under the Pigne d'Arolla, on the legendary Haute Route, the ski tour between Chamonix and Zermatt, is the biggest accident of its kind in the Swiss Alps.

On 22 June 1941, Hitler's Wehrmacht invades the Soviet Union. Without declaring war, more than 3 million soldiers cross the borders. The invasion had been carefully planned under the code name "Barbarossa".

How the Germans became World Champion in Travel

In the 1920s, Germans were able to travel for the first time thanks to secure and paid holidays. Today, almost three quarters of Germans go on holiday once a year.

Tokyo's Secret Nuclear Programme

The race for the atomic bomb during World War II was not fought between the USA and the Third Reich alone. Japan also tried to develop its own atomic bomb. In top-secret research projects, the country's best nuclear physicists worked to build the ultimate weapon in the war with the Allies and thus avert the looming defeat. In the process, they also collaborated with Nazi Germany.

The images of the Third Reich, in the memory of generations they have been handed down in classic black and white. But hidden in film archives and private collections, completely different images have also been preserved - in colour.

The Final Month

In January 1961, a new generation in the guise of John F. Kennedy moved into the White House. All of a sudden politics were youthful, dynamic and sexy. During the brief period in which he was in office, the first pop star of politics accompanied America through the darkest days of the Cold War. 

1918 - 1933

The two-part documentary tells the story of the real “Babylon Berlin” during the time of the Weimar Republic on the basis of criminal cases in the context of political and social developments. In the 1920s, Berlin was regarded as the most modern metropolis in Europe. In times of economic crises and hyperinflation, people hardly knew limits and enjoyed living on the edge. At that time Berlin was a metropolis of crime.

The History of World War II

When German troops attacked Poland on the first of September 1939, only very few contemporaries suspected that the world would descend into war in the next 2194 days. At least 60 million people lost their lives in this conflict. They all paid the price for the National Socialist dictatorship's delusion of world domination. 

Life and Death with the Fuehrer

It was only after her death that Eva Braun entered the public eye in Germany. Together with Adolf Hitler, on April 30,1945 she took her life in the bunker beneath the Chancellery of the Reich in Berlin. The day before, the dictator had married Braun, his mistress for many years. Kept apart from the community at large, Eva Braun spent most of her time in Munich or at Hitler’s Berghof residence in the Alps.

Trauma Third Reich

In this three-part documentary we hear from contemporary witnesses whose childhood could not have been more different. Three children of the war with one thing in common: the trauma of the Third Reich. The scars of the Second World War remain. How can a child’s soul cope with so much pain? 

The Private President

In January 1961, a new generation in the guise of John F. Kennedy moved into the White House. All of a sudden politics were youthful, dynamic and sexy. During the brief period in which he was in office, the first pop star of politics accompanied America through the darkest days of the Cold War. 

Living in the Shadow of JFK

Jean Kennedy Smith is the last surviving member of her generation. She was the eighth of nine children of Joseph and Rose Kennedy. Her brother John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the youngest-ever president of the United States of America.

The Siege of Leningrad by the German Armed Forces began on 8 September 1941 and ended on 27 January 1944. For 872 days the city was surrounded. Within, the inhabitants fell into despair, starvation and cannibalism “A boy had died, and his mother put his body in the window frame. She didn't have the strength to bury him. Then she cut off pieces of him bit by bit to feed her daughter”.

The 1936 Nazi Games

Never before had the Olympics been this elaborate, never before had the production been this pompous, never before had the games been this controversial. The 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin marked a changing point. Sports and politics, two spheres that ideally do not mix, mutated into a gigantic symbiosis

At the Zeppelin Field in Nuremberg, the ruins of Hitler's stand are a reminder of the bombastic marches that were staged here during the Nazi party rallies. It is one of the few relics still left from the era of Hitler's favorite architect Albert Speer. »Even the pyramids«, Hitler told his protégé, »will be dwarfed by the masses of concrete and stone blocks, which I am building there«.

It was one of the most massive construction projects ever attempted by humankind. Late in World War II, the Nazis launched a bold plan to shelter armaments factories from the constant hail of allied bombs.

Did Hitler, responsible for 60 million deaths, die in 1945 – or did he perhaps survive the Second World War after all?

“The past is still with us and will not go away.” (Helmut Schmidt) Adolf Hitler was appointed Reich chancellor on 30 January 1933. Once they had seized power in Germany, the Nazi no longer relinquished it until their demise on 8 May 1945.

Legend has it that the triumphal march of television began in the United States in the 'fifties. But in reality its origins hark back much further. As early as the 'thirties, a bitter rivalry raged for the world's first television broadcast.

The true Story of Hitler's Downfall

Legend has it that the triumphal march of television began in the United States in the 'fifties. But in reality its origins hark back much further. As early as the 'thirties, a bitter rivalry raged for the world's first television broadcast.

The Soldiers' Story

In early June 1944, 1.5 million Allied soldiers stand ready in southern England to embark on the largest amphibious assault in military history: Operation Overlord. For tens of thousands of young U.S. soldiers, this war against the Nazis seems almost like an adventure. Only very few, if at all, have any combat experience. 

People and Places