Hoferichter & Jacobs

More than two decades ago, a country in Europe existed that marked the border to a different political and economic system, yet was the very heart of the continent. This country called the German Democratic Republic, made Socialism a reality and was home to 17 million people. Born in the deep eastern provinces, Ringo Rösener witnessed East Germany's collapse as a nation. Ringing in the new millennium, he leaves his hometown of Anklam to live out his homosexuality – something he had never dared to do. Would an openly gay life even have been possible in the real Socialist system? Ringo Rösener meets six gay men who lived in the GDR. Some of them speak openly about their sexuality for the first time in their lives. Little by little, they open up, share their stories, and talk about their lives in the supposedly uniform state.

It is the birth of neutrino astronomy. For the first time, astrophysicists can detect extra-terrestrial neutrinos in ice on the South Pole. The fundamental questions of science remain unanswered., how did the universe come to be? What keeps our world together? The newly discovered extra-galactic neutrinos may hold the keys to answering these questions.

A look at the past, present and future of NATO, which has shaped Europe's security and defense policies since 1949.

Explration of today’s East German identity, shaped by history, hopes, and upheaval. Through multimedia storytelling, it explores lives between the Elbe and Oder, intergenerational socialization, and self-perception three decades after reunification. Are the new Länder lost to nostalgia and extremism or still salvageable?

Origin sticks like shit to your shoe! That's what Marlen Hobrack says, who grew up as a working-class child in Bautzen. But the promise of the old Federal Republic was that you can become anything if you just try hard enough. But that no longer applies. So is class in Germany fixed from birth? Have we long been living in a country in which origin and family background are more important for future prospects than individual performance and commitment? In Germany, it takes six generations to rise from poverty to the middle class, in Denmark only two generations. Those affected reflect on their life stories, the burden of their social origins, the wrong and right turning points for social advancement, as classified by social researchers. They talk of pride and shame, of financial hardship and wealth, of origin and future, of growing up and moving up in this Germany with its entrenched selection mechanisms for social advancement.

The AfD, founded in 2013, is a right-wing party that has become increasingly radicalized in recent years. To illustrate this, only those who enthusiastically joined the party in its early years are heard. They describe what they looked for and found in the party, but also how and why they left, disillusioned and frightened by the AfD's developments. How did they experience the party's radicalization process? How did friends and family react? When and why did they decide to turn their back on the party? How difficult was the exit process? The documentary provides an illuminating inside view of this party, which has been driving the established parties and the political establishment ahead of it for over ten years, gives viewers a unique look into the AfD's chronicle and world of thought and is at the same time a film about the mechanisms of political radicalization.

Thirty years ago, in 1991, the Soviet Union, founded in 1922, disappeared, giving birth to fifteen new states, located between the Baltic Sea and the Pamir mountain range, which went their own way. How many of these republics have succeeded? How much real influence does Moscow exert over them? What role do NATO and the European Union play in this very complicated economic and political maze?

The market regulates everything! Diligence and work create prosperity! Capitalism needs growth! What is the truth behind the great principles of capitalism? And how do they work in Eastern Germany - a region that has been a capitalist test laboratory for around 30 years? It is symbolic of various places in the world that are going through similar processes. Renowned economic experts answer questions. How does a large-scale settlement of a global corporation like DHL take place and what must politics make possible for this? What happens when investors pour around a billion euros into one of the largest real estate projects in Europe in the Baltic Sea resort of Binz (Prora) on the Island of Rügen and no place is created that is worth living in? And how are the people in places like Zeitz, which capitalism has obviously forgotten? The film takes you through various stations, through the strongholds of Eastern German capitalism and the places where capitalism has not yet arrived.

Cats are the most popular pets in Europe, with twelve million living in Germany alone. And yet: hardly anyone knows how they live and what they do as soon as they leave their home. Where do they go? Martina Treusch's documentary takes a closer look at the nature and fascination of these popular animals.

Using diary excerpts, photographs and memories from companions, the film paints the portrait of the artist Jürgen Baldiga who sensitively and authentically captured the West Berlin queer scene of the 1980s and early 1990s with his camera.

This documentary feature addresses the question of how gay men lived and could live their lives under 'real socialism'...

From 1938-1939, the systematic anti-Semitism of Adolph Hitler and the Nazis led to violence and despotism towards Jewish citizens, along with the exploitation of Jewish property. Tax inspectors, bailiffs, pawnbrokers, and auctioneers were among the major profiteers of the Holocaust. This documentary goes on a hunt for relics of the past and those who've profited most from the injustices of WWII.

We Were Kings is a documentary about the legendary German grunge band Union Youth. 15 years ago they made it from the province to L.A., and then failed in the most brutal way. Now attempting a comeback as the band "Pictures" with some new members, they face their demons in order to make music once again. A gripping musical drama about drug addiction, responsibility and the power of friendship.

In 1990, when Bischofferode entered the market economy, potash production in East Germany was in third place in the world's export ranking and in West Germany in fourth place. Bischofferöder Kalisalz is of a special quality and the plant therefore had loyal customers in Western Europe, especially in Scandinavia, even before the fall of the Wall. In the West, there is a major competitor - BASF subsidiary Kali und Salz AG from Kassel. The film reconstructs the mega-deal in one of the world's most important raw materials markets. The so-called potash merger was the biggest economic deal of German reunification, which has cost the taxpayer almost two billion euros to date. The Free State of Thuringia - the federal state with the best potash deposits in Germany - is still the big loser of the mega-deal today. Thuringia may be rich, but it loses almost all its potash mines, along with Bischofferode, and now has to spend millions of euros each year to rehabilitate and secure its mines.

Harry Belafonte wrote music history. How did the black boy from Harlem manage to become one of the greatest artists of the 20th century in the middle of racist America? The film portrait tells the story of the famous singer, actor, producer and activist.

Looking for a forgotten city: off the coast of Egypt, just a few metres under the surface, but blanketed by sand and mud, slumbers the ancient port of Heracleion.

In 1987 the Central Institute for Youth Research in the GDR starts asking then 14-year-old pupils in great detail about their lives and their political attitudes. Two years later, everything changes. The land disappears and the young people grow up in a new state. The former director of studies Prof. Peter Forster manages to continue the study after the political upheaval until today. Thus, a remarkable collection of material has emerged, fully spent yet in the GDR over the last born, childhood, and adolescence. There are the personal biographies of the study participants who bear witness to the process of transformation from a socialist system of the GDR into the capitalist system of the Federal Republic.

In September 2015, the world of science experienced a sensation: researchers in the USA succeeded in proving the existence of gravitational waves for the first time in the history of physics. A milestone. This proof opens up a completely new perspective on our universe - perhaps even on the birth of the cosmos itself, nothing less than the Big Bang. Gravitational waves are created when something gigantic happens in the universe: a stellar explosion, the merging of neutron stars or black holes.

Scientists regard it as one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world. Time and again, Merapi, the Fire Mountain of Java in Indonesia, has proved its deadly potential. The risk of another serious eruption is high and could even have global consequences. Now scientists are looking at a mysterious tectonic disturbance: a crack that has suddenly wound its way through the center of the volcano.