We travel to France, Germany and Italy to find out about the fascinating world of the medieval Cistercian Order. The old traditions of their monasteries are still preserved and maintained to this day. What was the secret behind their incredible achievements and skills that helped them make such an important contribution to the cultural development of the western world?
Before the eyes of the international community, the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Palmyra in Syria suffered severe damage. In a sophisticated virtual reality project the “queen of the desert” was digitally reconstructed. Now the cultural heritage of the Syrian people can at least be experienced virtually again.
Othmar Ammann, a structural engineer, designed over half of the eleven bridges that connect New York City to the rest of the United States. With his breathtaking constructions, he was himself an agent of progress in the midst of the fast-changing 20th century. We tell his adventure-filled story.
The story of Johanna Langefeld is the only known case of an SS guard being saved from a death sentence after the war by her own victims. In 1946, she escaped from a Cracow prison where she was awaiting trial. Her former prisoners not only helped her escape but also hid her from the Polish authorities for ten years. What were their motives?
Bernauer Strasse in Berlin is symbolic of the division of Germany. The border line ran along the walls of the houses that stood on the eastern side. Both sides of the street changed radically when the Wall went up. Thirty years after the fall of the Wall, we investigate a vanished place that brings into focus the history of the Berlin Wall like nowhere else.
Linz in Austria was supposed to become a model of “Aryan” culture, the perfect National Socialist city. Hitler spent nine years of his childhood in Linz. He planned to transform the provincial town into a cultural capital with the “Führermuseum” at its centre. A study of the object of Hitler’s visions and fantasies.
Until 1975, in the weekly radio programme “Letters without Signature”, the BBC read out letters written anonymously by GDR citizens. They were complaints about the economy, censorship, the socialist state. For the BBC, this was an act of freedom of expression, for the Stasi treason. The writers were mercilessly persecuted and some severely punished.
Once celebrated as a life saver, penicillin today is alarming researchers all over the world: over 70% of aggressive germs are now resistant to the alleged wonder drug. A development its inventor Alexander Fleming had foreseen. A fascinating film about the history and current state of antibiotics.
Between the end of the Middle Ages and the late 18th century, over 50,000 Europeans were persecuted, tortured and executed on charges of witchcraft. The pogrom was triggered by the book “Malleus Maleficarum”, published in 1486. Its detailed instructions for persecuting and annihilating alleged witches triggered a mass hysteria.
While leading middle-class lives in the GDR as a cook, forester and car mechanic, Norbert, Raimund and Eberhard spied for the BND and CIA between the 1950s and 80s. All three were exposed and imprisoned. They tell their extraordinary stories for the first time.
Life in Israel is stressful, but this is not the only reason why young secular, liberal Jews like Dan, Guy and Gil turn their back on the “holy land”. They decide to move to Germany and Austria – of all places. A slap in the face for their families. Why return to the land of the perpetrators? A process of emancipation with a special responsibility.
Bugatti was a family of fanatics and artists, engineers and architects who built cars, created sculptures and designed extravagant furniture. We tell the story of Ettore Bugatti and his family which is still a myth today despite – or perhaps because of – its turbulent past.
