"What would the world be like without Beethoven?" That’s the provocative question posed by this music documentary from Deutsche Welle. To answer it, the film explores how Ludwig van Beethoven's innovations continue to have an impact far beyond the boundaries of classical music, 250 years after his birth.

The documentary accompanied the work of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela.

In the Durban South Basin, Themba lives with his father near to an oil refinery. He’s in love with Khanya, his best friend. Khanya has a new boyfriend, KG, who promises her a safe future. The more their relationship grows, the more Themba must fight to get her back, until he goes one step too far.

Berlin’s Museum Island, the cultural center of the German capital on the Spree river, houses a large number of art pieces from all over the globe, from the Stone Age to the present day. A walk through their great institutions to marvel at their masterpieces.

The Hamas terror attack had dramatic consequences for people in Israel, the Gaza Strip and around the world. Here, we hear individual stories from people living in Tel Aviv. What were their lives like before 7 October 2023? What’s their current perception of the war? What do they see, when they look to the future? In the summer of 2023, Tel Aviv was a lively, liberal and open metropolis, known as the “Mediterranean Capital of Cool”. Then came October 7, and changed everything. Here, people’s lives are forever divided: into ‘before’, and ‘after’. Club owners, culture workers, restaurateurs, LGBTQ activists and architects share very personal insights into a traumatized society. And they’ve not given up hope for better times once the war is over.

The Russian war of aggression in Ukraine is not only waged with bombs, rockets and rocket-propelled grenades, but also in the media. It is a "propaganda battle" internally and externally. Russia spreads targeted disinformation in order to systematically devalue news. At the same time, their own population should be convinced that they want to liberate Ukraine from Nazis. Ukraine's narrative wants to emotionally mobilize its own population and strengthen resistance to the aggressor. Spindoctors are of particular importance in the propaganda battle over Ukraine. On the Ukrainian side, it's often influencers like Oleksiy Arestovych. On the Russian side, Vladimir Solovyov, Putin's snout, is supposed to sell the war to his own people with his daily TV talks. The documentary shows the new front lines of virtual warfare and provides insights into the populists' bag of tricks on social networks.

A detailed reconstruction of the events from Nov. 9th to 11th, 1989, which led to the Berlin wall tumbling down, on a local, national and international level.

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

Ai Weiwei is a global star and an enigma. DW followed him for a year for this intimate portrait. The film shows Ai Weiwei at home, at work, and on the road for work, as he prepares his latest series of works focused on refugees and their fates.

Philipp Melanchthon decisively shaped the history of the Reformation in Germany and renewed German education. In the shadow of his fatherly friend Martin Luther, he tirelessly tried to reconcile Reformation and humanism, Protestantism and Catholicism.

The stories of Jewish cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who survived Auschwitz, and of star conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, who worked with the Nazis, provide insight. The film centers around two people who represent musical culture during the Third Reich - albeit in very different ways. Wilhelm Furtwängler was a star conductor; Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, the cellist of the infamous Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz. Both shared a love for the classical German music.

They are clad in the religiously correct abaja, are not allowed to drive and yet still go their own way with confidence. In pioneering work, a new generation of women in Saudi Arabia are fighting for positions as politicians, lawyers, editors-in-chief and entrepreneurs for the first time. A documentary about courageous women who are developing ideas about what the strictly conservative kingdom needs for its future.

Documentary about the connection between diet and the brain.

The race for supremacy in the age of artificial intelligence is on: between the USA, China and Europe. Between big tech companies and start-ups. Who will win the competition? Will Europe be left behind? And who will determine a technology that will shape the future of humanity?

The 9th Symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven is one of the most popular pieces of classical music in the world. Even those who are not passionate about the classical music recognize the famous Ode to Joy. Despite the grim context in which it was created, the 9th Symphony leaves us fascinated, moved and uplifted by its creativity, its power and its culmination in the Ode to Joy. More than 160 years after it was written, Beethoven’s hymn to brotherhood was adopted by the European Union as its official anthem. But Beethoven’s Ninth is also met with enthusiasm far beyond the borders of Europe. What’s the explanation for its never ending success? What is it about this work of art that fascinates people all over the world?

The Vatican opened once-secret records on Pope Pius XII on March 2020. This gave researchers a brand new insight into the Catholic Church during the Nazi era. What did the Pope know about the Holocaust?

In April 1994, the parents of two-year-old Samuel Ishimwe were murdered in Rwanda. Like them, up to one million people died in the genocide against the Tutsi minority. 30 years later, Samuel wants to know how this could have happened.

The Mexican Maestro Alondra de la Parra has taken the world's concert halls by storm. Born in 1980 in New York, she decided early on she wanted to become a conductor. Her great dream has taken her on a long journey - and it is not over yet, by any means. Alondra de la Parra'a roots are in Mexico - but her orchestras and her audiences are to be found all over the world. Alondra de la Parra is one of those trailblazers who has made history by being appointed the first conductor and music director of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in 2017. She began playing the piano at age 7 and the cello at 13. After she studied in England and the United States - with mentors such Kurt Masur and Kenneth Kiesler, she founded the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas (POA) at age 23 in 2004.

For more than a decade, wildfires of unprecedented force have been devouring our lives, homes and forests at a steady pace. Each year, 350 million hectares of forest go up in smoke, the equivalent of six times the size of France. In the US, the fire season now lasts up to two months longer than a generation ago, and the surface burnt annually has multiplied by three. This film sets out on a gripping journey of investigation from Europe to the US, Canada, Brazil and Indonesia to follow the work of a global team of dedicated firefighters, scientists and fire experts as they investigate why our forests are going up in flames, and act on an unexpected discovery: if we want to save our forests, homes, health and our climate, we need to radically change our attitude towards fire and the way we fight wildfires.

It's the smallest and most mysterious army in the world: the Swiss Guard. The film follows these men of faith and combat, from their recruitment in Switzerland to their military training in the heart of the Vatican. Made up of 150 men, this elite corps lives in barracks in the center of Vatican City. All must be Swiss citizens and devout Catholics. They have all sworn to fight to the death to protect their faith and the Holy Father. They are heirs to a 500-year-old tradition in which the Pope's protection and security were ensured by Swiss mercenaries. Trained in the use of both halberds and semi-automatic rifles, the Swiss Guards form a unique army. But who are they really? What motivates these young men to join this military and religious body? A dive into a world normally closed to the cameras.