Franz Müntefering

The film shines a light onto federal chancellor Angela Merkel and her now ending 16-year-long tenure. An era, not an episode. And a vagarious relationship history between the chancellor and the Germans. Who has changed whom here?

As Governing Mayor of West Berlin, as Foreign Minister of a grand coalition, as Chancellor of the Bonn Republic and as SPD Chairman for many years, Willy Brandt played a decisive role in shaping German and European post-war history. He helped shape German society in the 1960s and 1970s and gave political life a new direction. The documentary shows important stages of his life and gives him himself - in archive footage - as well as many friends and political companions a chance to have their say.

The film documents the life and political career of Angela Merkel. It shows archive images and interviews with contemporaries, including Franz Müntefering, Edmund Stoiber and Norbert Blüm, as well as an exclusive interview with Angela Merkel.

Gerhard Schröder was the last SPD chancellor. He was always a controversial figure within his party. To some, he was a self-centered individual and a careerist; to others, he was a gifted campaigner and a successful modernizer. It is undisputed that his popularity played a decisive role in helping the SPD seize power in 1998. But what remains of the Red-Green coalition project that came to such an abrupt end in 2005? The Agenda reforms? The energy transition? The SPD’s identity crisis? Since Gerhard Schröder’s defeat by Angela Merkel in 2005, the party has been in decline; the label “people’s party” no longer seems to apply. What responsibility does the SPD’s most recent chancellor bear for this decline? How did the unprecedented Agenda 2010 reform program come about in the first place?