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In July 1943, the Allies carried out heavy air raids on Hamburg. The day and night attacks, which lasted from July 25 to August 3, 1943, were codenamed “Operation Gomorrah.” Today, only a few survivors of the firestorm who consciously experienced and survived it are still alive. In the first part of this documentary, the so-called “experience generation” has its say. The second part is dedicated to the children of the survivors. What impact did their parents' traumatic war experiences have on those born in the 1950s and 1960s?

Observes the lives of three families - all victims of war. Three tragedies focus in particular on the way children and young people suffer.

In the middle of Berlin, in the old Scheunenviertel district, lies Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz - a rough place dominated by the monumental Volksbühne building. Eastern Jewish immigrants lived here before the war. It was a dreary area, but one with character. For it was here that the ideas of the 20th century were wrestled and fought over. It was about politics and world views, but also about art, cinema and theater.

Using the example of 16-year-old, physically disabled Wolfgang, the film shows how non-disabled people can help a disabled person and what should be avoided. It also shows that the tense behavior on both sides is caused by fear and insecurity and that the disabled person can also do something wrong, i.e. is a completely normal person.

Spring, 2022. Russian troops begin their destructive conquest of the coastal city of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov. In this film, survivors from war-torn Mariupol recount their traumatic experiences. It is the story of a crime against humanity, told from the survivors' point of view.

A good 20 years after the fall of the Wall, the film tells the story of Andreas Göbel, a homosexual colored man who was born in 1961 as an exotic in the GDR province and for whom it soon became too cramped in this state. Andreas Göbel wants out. And he wants a friend. A documentary about the pursuit of freedom and a film about the search for happiness.

Gays, lesbians and transgender people - more and more people are admitting that they feel differently than their biological sex suggests. How openly can they live out their sexuality today? The documentary "My Body, My Love - Lesbians, Gays and Transgenders" shows people who live outside the sexual norm: a gay soccer club in Munich, a lesbian couple in Zurich, a gay police officer in Vienna, a transsexual politician. How important was "coming out" for them? Where do they encounter social boundaries? What makes life difficult for them?

Intense interest in Japan by the West made it a favourite destination for filmmakers from the earliest days of film. This selection of films from 1901 to 1913, newly restored by the BFI National Archive, takes us on a fascinating journey through Meiji Japan.

A young German engineer is invited to Togo by the family of a West African student living in Germany. Here he observes the problems of the young state of Togo.

Nazis in the BND - new service and old comrades

At the Mosaik art studio in Berlin, artists with disabilities are able to produce their work unhindered. Sabine Herpich focusses on the artistic process and finds in so doing a form as precise as it is tender.

The documentary "Long Live the People of the Revolution" explores in what form and with what approaches filmmakers, concept artists, musicians, scientists and authors today formulate utopias or call them into question.

During World War II, Wehrmacht captain Harald von Vietinghoff-Riesch traveled in advance of the army scouting for barracks. An amateur cinematographer, he also made 16mm images behind the front. Part of a larger project, Die pferde des Rittmeisters, made by Vietinghoff-Riesch’s grandson, presents footage of the cavalry horses, the artist’s commentary never letting us forget that these attractive creatures were also Nazi machines.

Following Germany's transformation as a society from the Holocaust to becoming the moral leader of Europe as the country embraces hundreds of thousands of refugees.

Featurette with actor Eric Falk about the making of Jess Franco's 'Blue Rita'.

Documentary about documentarian Winfried Junge.

Mudar is a Syrian actor, flew to Germany by a visa from Beirut, he researches refugee’s journeys who came walking on their feet, for his theatre play and explores the real experiences that immigrants lived throughout their road. After his meeting with a Syrian filmmaker Ammar Obeid, Mudar wants to stand naked outside in the cold of his back yard.

An expedition decided to observe the life of the beavers - nature's engineer - in the woods of the Rocky Mountains: for the first time a beaver family was filmed in its den during the course of the season.

Investigates how the multi-billion-dollar weight-loss industry systematically buys scientific research and uses it in its favor.

The closure of a DIY store in Bruchsal, Germany. "Everything must go!": beyond the slogan, the film follows the material and human proceedings.

Eckhart Schmidt interviews Claude Chabrol.

For its reproduction, the megaloprepus dragonfly specifically relies on periodic puddles in tree holes and bromeliacea in tropical rain forests. Territorial males tenaciously defend these resources. Females lay their eggs in the water holes of the territorial males and are guarded by them. Any satellite male - i. e., one without a territory - who tries to grab a female is driven away by the territorial male.

What is a Schützenfest (shooting festival) and what is it for? A small German town breaks out the bunting to welcome the arrival of brass bands, hats and rifles, as the town's men march as one towards the throne. A quirky ethnographic exploration of the rituals of a bygone era.

A "life without work" - this is the idea propagated by the "Anarchist Pogo Party of Germany" (APPD). In order to spread its unique political concept and to make the background to its activities appear transparent and credible to the voting public, the APPD commissioned a renowned film production company to create a loose mixture of subliminal propaganda and sympathetic trivialization. The film was also to focus on the glorification of the APPD politicians appearing in the election campaign in order to create the basis for a profitable cult of personality. A film that makes it crystal clear, compelling and, of course, intentional that the mob is on its way to power.

Documentary about Alpine farming

The daily lives of a group of young people who use drugs are documented on film. The soundtrack features a mix of rock music and interview excerpts. The media distributor at the time wrote: »It clearly illustrates how people addicted to drugs »go to the dogs« physically, mentally, emotionally, and morally; to an aesthete, the film seems abhorrent; to a moralist, repulsive; to a philosopher, depressing.”«

Last chance saloon. In the high security prison of Moundsville, West Virginia, some convicted felons are tasked with getting a group of young delinquents back on the right track. A disturbing social experiment – fearlessly brought to the screen.

The photos show the cemetery in all its grandeur, with trees that are unusually tall for Berlin (many of the city’s forests were bombed during World War II). The audio track features former Berliners talking about the cemetery and its significance.

An advertising documentary about Mannesmann, a German industrial conglomerate.

A tribute to the players of the most successful football club in the Soviet Union, which rose to the European football elite in the 1970s with two international cups. The "dream eleven from the East" chased opposing teams across the lawn and surprised with a fast, offensive game. Western journalists wrote enthusiastically about the "football of the 21st century". Century". The players of the "Red Orchestra" were stars and were revered as heroes in their homeland. Today the players are around 50, their club has become a joint stock company, and some of the old footballers are still kicking in the veteran eleven.

Hardly anyone knows the artist, but almost everyone knows her paintings: Tamara de Lempicka, icon of the 1920s. Her art deco paintings of women in cars or in evening dress adorn book covers and break auction records. But who was she? The ARTE documentary by Grimme Prize-winning author Sylvie Kürsten ventures a self-portrait of Lempicka, narrated and played by Nicole Heesters.

125 employees of the Catholic Church come out as queer! In the exclusive ARD documentary, believers in the service of the Catholic Church in Germany dare to go public together. People who identify as non-heterosexual talk about fighting for their church - sometimes at the risk of losing their jobs as a result. There are priests, religious brothers, parish assistants, diocese employees, religion teachers, kindergarten teachers, social workers and many more who report intimidation, denunciations, deep injuries, decades of hide and seek and double lives. The Catholics report a system in which pressure, fear and arbitrariness leave employees uncertain as to what exactly happens when they stand by their sexual orientation or identity. The investigative documentary listens to those who live their faith every day and are nevertheless degraded by the church as an institution.

The "Carnival of the Animals" is Camille Saint-Saëns' best-known piece. Saint-Saëns did not want it to be published. On the 100th anniversary of the composer's death in December 2021, the documentary reports on the circumstances under which the piece of music was created, tells of Saint-Saëns' life and how the "Carnival of the Animals" ultimately became an evergreen in the music world.

One of them had never got to know his father and met him unexpectedly when he was older. For another, the father was a gloomy fixture in their life. Six stories that could not be more different and yet show how important fathers are to us all.

The title of this miniature heralds a series of tensions for which Siegfried A. Fruhauf has found a new form: "Still Dissolution" measures the relationship between photography and film, standstill and motion, formation and dissolution, now and then, and material reality and illusion, and does so in an interplay of analogue and digital visual technologies.

For three years, West Berlin is dependent on electricity from the Soviet zone. "City out of Darkness" describes the conditions before, during and after the Berlin blockade.

Thomas Grimm's second documentary about the East Berlin-based youth club "Friedrichsfelde Ost".

A group of senior citizens is trying to find their place in the digital age.

CAFÉ TOGO looks at the efforts to change street names with colonial connotations in the so-called Afrikanisches Viertel (African Quarter) in Berlin-Wedding. According to Berlin’s street law, every street named after a person honors that person. Petersallee, Lüderitzstraße, and Nachtigalplatz bear the names of persons whose biographies are tainted by the blood of the victims of German colonialism. According to the law, streets that do not correspond to today’s understanding of democracy and human rights should be renamed.

Filmmaker Hella Wenders follows four children – David, Jakob, Anita, and Lucas – who attend the inclusive Berg Fidel school in Münster, where students are accepted regardless of physical, mental, or social differences and all kinds of impairments are accommodated. She documents the careers of David, Jakob, and Anita, as well as their former classmate Samira, after they left their old school and transferred to different secondary schools. She shows the different dreams, hopes, worries, fears, and hardships of the four children and young people, but also their academic and personal successes.

July 29, 1986: At Hamburg police headquarters, contract killer Werner "Mucki" Pinzner pulls out a gun during interrogation and turns it on the investigating public prosecutor, his wife and finally on himself. All three die. "St. Pauli Killer" Pinzner had been arrested a good three months earlier, on April 15, 1986, and had been in custody ever since. After the bloodbath, Hamburg's judiciary and police came under fire. Two senators are forced to resign.