Gregor Gysi

One hundred years after the assassination of German revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919), we look back at the struggles of this pioneer of the Workers' International.

A documentary that offers an intimate portrait of Guido Westerwelle, Germany’s former Vice-Chancellor, balancing his political career with his groundbreaking role as a gay pioneer. Released for the 10th anniversary of his death, the film explores the sharp contrast between his polarizing public persona and his private vulnerability. The narrative anchor consists of never-before-heard audio recordings from 2014, captured in Mallorca by journalist Dominik Wichmann as Westerwelle battled acute leukemia. The movie weaves these raw archives with emotional interviews from his husband, Michael Mronz, and key political rivals. It charts his rise within the FDP, his historic 2004 public coming out, and his legacy as Germany’s first openly gay cabinet minister. The plot highlights the unique diplomatic challenges he faced visiting nations hostile to LGBTQ+ rights, his sudden fall from political grace, and his final fight against cancer alongside Mronz.

Is the WHO sick? The filmmaker and mother Lilian Franck reveals clandestine influences by the tobacco, pharmaceutical and nuclear industries on the organization. She shows a frightening portrayal of our present society, in which governmental politics is becoming obsolete. "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane." - Martin Luther King

He has always been there. No one has been in German politics as long as Wolfgang Schäuble. He looked back on 50 years as a member of the German Bundestag. Schäuble was a man who helped shape the fate of the Republic for decades. He shaped politics - as the manager of German unity, for example. In 1990, he was the victim of an assassination attempt and fought his way back to life. He died in December 2023.

On October 10, 2005, Angela Merkel becomes German Chancellor. After 16 years, she now wants to clear the field. We take a look back at the many different faces of our Chancellor. In addition to Wolfgang Bosbach, Gregor Gysi and Kai Diekmann, extreme mountaineer Reinhold Messner, presenter Nina Eichinger, comedian Wigald Boning, former minister Annette Schavan, former President of the Bundestag Nobert Lammert, actress Uschi Glas and entrepreneur Gloria von Thurn und Taxis share their very personal views.

Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx formed one of the most famous duos in world history. In contrast to Marx, however, Engels seems to have fallen into oblivion today. Unjustly so. Moving archive images, documentary footage and graphic novels lead us back to the time of Friedrich Engels, who shaped the Communist movement like no other.

No synopsis available yet.

Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has fundamentally changed the German-Russian relationship. This is especially a special topic for those people who grew up in the GDR. Because what the USA were to many in the west, the Soviet Union was to many in the east: “the big brother”. And now? The invasion of Ukraine by Russia calls old certainties into question, rocked convictions, and runs like a rift through families. In this film, the ARD journalist and host Jessy Wellmer embarks on a very personal journey through the east of Germany. Born in 1979 in Güstrow in Mecklenburg, the Russian war of aggression also caused intensive discussions in her family which ultimately were the cause for this film. How do the East Germans think with regard to Russia? Why is there often a greater deal of closeness to Russia here? And what does it say about the divide which still exists in the German populace more than 30 years after the fall of the wall?

Monday demonstrations against Hartz IV, labor disputes, highway blockades against tuition fees. It is primarily anger that drives people onto the streets: anger at the shameless enrichment of "those at the top" and ever-increasing cutbacks "at the bottom." Behind this anger often lies sheer fear. The fear of falling into social decline for good. And a feeling of powerlessness.

No synopsis available yet.

Behind The Wall documents what life was like on both sides of The Berlin Wall through the eyes of ordinary citizens from East and West Germany. They give an in-depth and overlooked perspective of life before, during and after The Wall fell. Beginning with the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the 'Fall of the Wall' then through the voices of the people, weaves a true history of what life was like living on both sides of The Wall.

He is versatile, he is unmistakable, he is one of Berlin's best-known and most popular artists: Frank Zander. The singer and entertainer, who many of his fans affectionately call "Franky Boy", is still not thinking about retiring after more than 50 years on stage. Today, the man with the unmistakable grating voice celebrates his 80th birthday. After training as a graphic designer, Zander began his career as a singer and guitarist with the Gloomy Moon Singers, who later became the Gloomys. He began his solo career in the early 1970s and landed numerous hits with songs such as "Der Ur-Ur-Enkel von Frankenstein", "Ich trink auf dein Wohl, Marie" and "Oh, Susi", and was also discovered by television in the mid-1970s: Together with Helga Feddersen, he hosted the legendary "Plattenküche" and wrote a piece of television history. This was followed by quirky music and comedy shows such as "Bananas", "Vorsicht Musik" and "Känguru".

Left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht’s working day is marked by applause and admiration but also doubts and intrigues. This film follows her and her team: from the 2017 election campaign to her withdrawal from political leadership in 2019.

Erich Honecker ruled the GDR for 18 years. His fall in 1989 heralded the downfall of the state that had called itself "the better Germany" for 40 years. Nazi victim and autocrat, bourgeois and power-conscious: Honecker was an ideological hardliner who coordinated the construction of the Wall in 1961 and whose regime was known as an unjust state for Wall deaths, firing orders, the Stasi and forced adoptions. In the wake of the fall of communism, the former model socialist fell into homelessness and found himself on the run in his own country. Suffering from cancer, he managed to evade responsibility before a court by emigrating to Chile, where he died in 1994. This gripping documentary portrays the rise and fall of this contradictory German politician with an impressive array of top-class international and national contemporary witnesses. Erich Honecker would have been 100 years old on August 25, 2012.

This documentary explores the creation of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin as designed by architect Peter Eisenman. Reaction of the German public to the completed memorial is also shown.

Harald Juhnke was a great entertainer, actor, comedian, singer, emcee and charmer. The stage was his life and success his drug, a life and a career with many ups and downs, triumphs and crashes. He loved his audience and the audience loved him. The film portrays the great entertainer. His family, friends, fellow artists and companions have their say.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.