Spiegel TV

The first ascent of the Matterhorn was made on July 14, 1865 by Edward Whymper, Francis Douglas, Charles Hudson, Douglas Hadow, Michel Croz and two guides from Zermatt, Peter Taugwalder father and son. Douglas, Hudson, Hadow and Croz are killed on the descent after Hadow slips and drags the other three men down the north face. Whymper and the two Taugwalders, who survive, are later accused of having cut the rope that connected them to the rest of the group so as not to be dragged into the fall, but the ensuing investigation finds no evidence of their guilt and they are acquitted. The Matterhorn is the last great peak in the Alps to be conquered and its ascent marks the end of the golden age of mountaineering. One hundred and fifty years later, a team undertakes the same expedition in order to unravel the mystery.

Filmed just over a century after the first tank battle in 1918, this documentary series explores how the vehicles forever changed warfare.

The war in the Ukraine has changed the way many European countries view Russian politics. Suddenly it became clear how dependent countries had become on Russian gas imports for decades and what Vladimir Putin was up to. However, no country needs more gas than Germany. It was only after Russia's invasion of the Ukraine that the German government realized that Russia had long used gas as a weapon to impose its will on states. The instrument created for this purpose is the natural gas production company GAZPROM. So how did Germany become so dependent on Russian gas? The documentary shows how, over several decades and several changes of government, a broad alliance of politicians and business representatives did everything possible to secure Germany's energy supply with cheap Russian gas, while the Kremlin's foreign policy became increasingly aggressive and the warnings of experts went unheeded.

Thoughts of a diversity of public and private citizens on the virtues of democracy, its faults, its decadence, its fall and the rise of populism.

Crime is something that usually happens in secret, away from the public eye, indeed away from virtually everyone's view. This is all the more true for organized crime, whose representatives go to great lengths to conduct their brutal, lucrative business undetected and in secret. Perhaps it is above all this contradiction between crime and openness from which this documentary draws its shocking effect. For rarely before have high-ranking gangsters spoken so candidly - and here and there so brutally openly that you can hardly believe your ears - in front of the camera about their careers, about extortion and torture, robbery and murder.

The sun is the miracle that makes everything possible - but also the greatest danger. For the first time, a feature-length documentary is dedicated to the search for the significance of our home star for mankind, science and nature. Thanks to the researchers from the American space agency NASA, who work at the Canary Islands observatories in the hottest and coldest places on the planet.

D-Day marks the starting point for the liberation of Western Europe from the grip of the Nazi yoke. On June 6th, 1944, Allied soldiers attack German positions at no less than five sectors of the beach in Normandy. The assault takes place from the sea and is considered the largest amphibious landing operation in history. This event now sees its 80th anniversary. But so close, so authentic, this battle has never been shown before. American and British cameramen are at the scene in landing boats, under fire at the beaches, and during the rescue of wounded soldiers. Their original footage, shot in black-and-white, was extensively restored and colourized for this documentary. The historically unique footage appears in motion picture quality. The war gets colour. And thereby a different impact. We look directly in the faces of those, Americans, Canadians, Britons, and Germans, who are often not older than 20. In “24h D-Day”, they tell about their D-Day, the day they never can forget.

The heart of Islam beats on the Arabian Peninsula. For there lies Mecca, the holy city of the Muslims. Almost 100 years ago, one of the peninsula's many clans founded a kingdom there: Saudi Arabia. The rule of the Al Saud is based on a pact that combined, and still combines, strict religious zeal with political calculation.

The War in Color draws on unique color material from German, British, Russian and American archives. For the first time, 35mm color footage of the war in France in 1940, unknown images from the Norway campaign and impressive scenes from the advance in the Soviet Union in 1941/42 are shown here. The whole madness of the Second World War comes frighteningly close with these color recordings, in a way that is hardly possible from the stories of those involved at the time.

Young people are discovering pornography at an increasingly early age. How does this early exposure affect them? Filmed in Europe and the United States, this is a comprehensive and nuanced scientific overview of a massive phenomenon.

Cats are the most popular pet in Europe. Around 14 million house pets live in German households alone. But hardly anything is known about the nature of cats - their emotional life has been little studied by science. Until now! Scientists all over the world have begun to explore the secret nature of cats.

At the end of 1945, the Nuremberg trials against Göring, Hess, von Ribbentrop and other Nazi officials began. The young Jewish reporter Ernst Michel and the witness Seweryna Szmaglewska, both concentration camp survivors, struggle not only with their deep traumas, but also with some uncomfortable insights that the trial brought to light. Carsten Gutschmidt's thoughtful docudrama sensitively interweaves dramatised scenes, flashbacks, colourised original footage and new material in which witnesses and descendants visit the original locations and comment on the action.

This remarkable trove of color footage, assembled from far-flung private and state collections, presents Hitler's Europe as never seen before. Amateur film enthusiasts - soldiers, tourists, Hitler's own pilot, even Hitler's mistress, Eva Braun - began experimenting with color film in the late 1930s, their camera eye recording the Third Reich from every angle. Some of this film was only recently uncovered in former Soviet-bloc archives, hidden for almost 60 years; all of it, thanks to digital technology, has been newly transferred to video with surprising clarity. (This documentary was produced with two different narratives, both an English and German language version.)

People have always been fascinated by the tropics. Explorers from Europe were among the first to travel to the equatorial region centuries ago. Modern scientists are continuing what began with these pioneers. The documentary traces the historical exploration of the paradise belt at latitude 0 and looks at modern research at the equator.

A look at the parallel lives of Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler and how they crossed with the creation of the film “The Great Dictator,” released in 1940.

In Germany, left-wingers do not have to justify their views. They have established their opinions across the board, not among the people, but in the circles that set the tone, i.e. where they prefer to be at home. Those on the left have the wonderful feeling of always being right. In politics, the left has often been wrong, but somehow that doesn't matter, they are always credited with the best motives. Why is that? Jan Fleischhauer has spent a large part of his life among left-wingers - from his parents' home to school and university to the journalists' milieu in which he has worked for two decades. Now he takes a close look at them, with the detachment of someone who at some point discovered that he no longer belonged. The book is an analysis, polemic and personal experience report. A foray through the empire of the left.

If, at first, human being used stars to find its bearings, mankind can nowadays count on science to measure the Earth at a millimetric scale. Because land surveying of our planet is still in full swing. Satellites, cameras or drones : technology progress allows the scientists to explore it all. They can measure oceans, volcanoes, or even the atmosphere. But scientists are walking a tightrope, torned between their desire to gather more and more informations, and a population concerned about personal data's protection. This documentary shows a glimpse of actual scientifical research, and interrogate numerous scientists about the interest of land surveying in their specific field of research.

With his blue eyes, blond hair and boyish laugh, he conquered German cinema audiences in the 1950s and 60s: Berlin-born Hardy Krüger made it all the way to Hollywood as an actor. But he was just as passionate a writer, pilot and globetrotter.