Loopfilm

During the Cold War, many of those who tried to flee westward across the dangerous and blurred line separating communist Czechoslovakia from freedom were gunned down: the story of Europe's deadliest border.

Germany 1923: Inflation, starvation, unstable political conditions. During this time, 24-year-old Paula Schlier goes undercover at the “Völkischer Beobachter”, the Nazi Party’s official newspaper, and gets caught at the centre of Hitler’s attempted coup.

Today London, tomorrow Paris, the day after New York – the life of the "jetsetter." Long before the climate crisis and flight shame, flying was considered the epitome of luxury, freedom, and cosmopolitanism. Passenger aviation is making flight attendants and pilots the ultimate dream jobs. Modern aircraft are setting new standards in comfort, technology, and style. Flying is becoming a hobby of high society.

When the first railroads were built some two hundred years ago, they brought about a revolutionary change for mankind, linking cities and countryside, driving the industrial revolution and irrevocably changing the landscape: a history of the railroad from its beginnings to the present day.

In 1916, the name of the French fortress town of Verdun came to symbolize the greatest battle of attrition of all time - a portent of mass death on the battlefields of the 20th century. Based on selected individual fates, the film "The Hell of Verdun" tells the story of a military inferno in which people were regarded as material, not as individuals. More than 700,000 soldiers, German and French, died, were wounded or remained missing, without the course of the front changing significantly.

Docudrama examining the life of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who founded the Republic of Turkey from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire. Monuments to him can be found in every city; the anniversary of his death is commemorated every year; derogatory words about him are punishable by law. Rarely has a politician changed a society so radically in such a short time as Atatürk did Turkey.

Adolf Hitler consistently hushed up or denied his family lineage for fear that his ragtag bunch of ancestors and living relatives could tarnish his reputation or expose his imperfect Aryan background. His family had a history of psychiatric disorders, and his second cousin, Aloisia Veit, was locked up in an asylum for nine years before being sent to the gas chambers for being "unworthy of life". Hitler was embarrassed by his sister Paula, and made her live under the assumed name of Paula Wolf. Paula became engaged to Dr Erwin Jekelius, medical director of the asylum who sent hundreds of mentally ill patients, including Aloisia Veit, to their deaths.

People have always wanted to reach the horizon and go beyond it. It wasn't and isn't just about discovering for the sake of discovering. Exotic goods, wealth and power were the driving forces of these people. The steamship ultimately brought the breakthrough for global mobility and trade. In the past, as now, shipping is the engine of globalization.

The stories of The Arabian Nights (One Thousand and One Nights) have captivated mankind for centuries. However, two of its most famous tales do not belong to the original canon.

Part architectural genius, part kitsch fairytale, Neuschwanstein Castle is closely linked to the tragic fate of Ludwig II of Bavaria (1845-1886). The "Mad King" poured his heart and soul into this unique construction which looks back nostalgically to the Middle Ages. A focus on the history of a building filled with dreams and legends which has become an icon of Germany around the world.