Live & Upcoming Programmes

The Ascent of Civilization

This episode explores the Vikings not as ruthless raiders but as groundbreaking seafarers, traders, and explorers. Master shipbuilders, they forged vast networks of commerce stretching from Europe to Asia and even reached the shores of America centuries before Columbus. By challenging the stereotype of violent marauders, the documentary presents the Vikings as a tolerant and skilled people whose innovations in navigation and trade reshaped medieval exploration and left an enduring mark on global history.

2025-12-16 21:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-16 22:00:00 +0000 UTC (1h)

The Ascent of Civilization

The Romans created one of the greatest empires in history, built with the help of an incredible army of professional legionnaires and a well-oiled political machinery. At its height, a few hundred men ruled over a fifth of mankind and an area stretching from Britain to Syria and from Gibraltar to the Euphrates. They undertook some of the most ambitious building projects of their time: endless roads, gigantic bridges and imposing aqueducts formed a complex infrastructure and left a lasting legacy. This film is a revelatory and unique journey into the world of ancient Rome.

2025-12-16 20:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-16 21:00:00 +0000 UTC (1h)

The Ascent of Civilization

Ancient Greece – the cradle of modern Europe. Around 3000 years ago, the cultural foundations of western civilisation were laid right here, on the shores of the Mediterranean. It's the birthplace of democracy, where great thinkers forged the beginnings of scientific reasoning, where theatre was turned into mass entertainment, and where the Olympic Games began. Imaginative animation, stunning visuals and an entertaining narrative combine in an extraordinary exploration of Greece and the rise of an ancient super-power that would leave a permanent mark on western society.

2025-12-16 19:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-16 20:00:00 +0000 UTC (1h)

Heliopolis

A German-Egyptian team is looking for traces of the largest temple of the pharaohs in the middle of Cairo and for answers as to why the sanctuary was abandoned more than 2000 years ago.

2025-12-16 18:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-16 19:00:00 +0000 UTC (1h)

First Before Columbus

To many, Columbus is the man who discovered America. Yet, there had been others before him. This is their story!

2025-12-16 17:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-16 18:00:00 +0000 UTC (1h)

The A-Bomb Spies

Discover how and why several brilliant scientists divulged the secrets of the atomic bomb.

2025-12-16 11:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-16 12:00:00 +0000 UTC (1h)

The Spy who Saved the World

Discover how a Soviet Intelligence officer avoided WWIII.

2025-12-16 10:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-16 11:00:00 +0000 UTC (1h)

The Soldier who never was

Discover a darkly humorous British ploy that helped the 1943 landing in Sicily.

2025-12-16 09:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-16 10:00:00 +0000 UTC (1h)

The D-Days Spies

Discover how agents tricked the Germans to keep their troops out of Normandy.

2025-12-16 08:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-16 09:00:00 +0000 UTC (1h)

Crime in Post-War Germany

Germany, 1945. A nation faces up to the ruins of its past. Hunger and adversity shape daily life. What lengths did people go to? Over two episodes, Crime in Post-War Germany explores this transitional phase in German history by using the examples of individual, particularly serious criminal cases. Criminal psychologists and forensics experts go in search of traces.

2025-12-16 07:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-16 08:00:00 +0000 UTC (1h)

The West

Robbery, murder, rape. After the war, West Germany is the scene of brutal crimes. On the German-Belgian border, children risk their lives for something to eat.

2025-12-16 06:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-16 07:00:00 +0000 UTC (1h)

The East

After the war, hunger and adversity shape daily life in East Germany. Many Berliners go to the countryside in search of food. In the city, a notorious gang of youths is up to no good.

2025-12-16 05:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-16 06:00:00 +0000 UTC (1h)

The Limes, Season 1

The Limes, Season 1 - Danger on the Roman Frontier: Was the Limes Rome's "iron curtain", its bulwark against the barbarians? Along the Limes military camps evolved into flourishing villages, protected by an impressive boundary and the Roman legions. But how endangered were these cities? How did the Limes hold against the attacks from tribes from the north?

2025-12-15 23:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-15 23:45:00 +0000 UTC (45m)

The Limes, Season 1

The Limes, Season 1 - Fortification against the Barbarians: Warships secured the river borders formed by the Rhine and the Danube. The palisades, walls, trenches and forts of the Limes on land stretched across Germania, the wild "Barbaricum." The Limes was a bulwark that ran from northern Britain all the way to the Black Sea.

2025-12-15 22:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-15 23:00:00 +0000 UTC (1h)

The Reckoning 1945-1948

After the war, winners and survivors want to hold the Germans responsible. The reckoning with National Socialism is ambivalent.

2025-12-15 21:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-15 22:00:00 +0000 UTC (1h)

Armageddon 1943-1945

After the defeat of Stalingrad, the Nazis plan a kind of extended suicide on a global scale. Denunciations from the population ensure that the Gestapo can suppress almost any resistance.

2025-12-15 20:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-15 21:00:00 +0000 UTC (1h)

Genocide 1942-1944

Treblinka, Belzec Majdanek and Sobibor - the camps of "Operation Reinhardt," a Nazi murder campaign that took nearly two million lives within a few months in 1942/43.

2025-12-15 19:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-15 20:00:00 +0000 UTC (1h)

The Gates of Hell 1941-1942

On June 22, 1941, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. In the shadow of the war, Nazi regime gradually advances its "final solution to the Jewish problem".

2025-12-15 18:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-15 19:00:00 +0000 UTC (1h)

Up in Flames 1936-1940

At the end of 1939, the German Army has invaded Poland. They are followed closely by the SS (Schutzstaffel) task forces, which have only one mission: To murder the Polish intelligence.

2025-12-15 17:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-15 18:00:00 +0000 UTC (1h)

The Limes, Season 1

The Limes, Season 1 - Danger on the Roman Frontier: Was the Limes Rome's "iron curtain", its bulwark against the barbarians? Along the Limes military camps evolved into flourishing villages, protected by an impressive boundary and the Roman legions. But how endangered were these cities? How did the Limes hold against the attacks from tribes from the north?

2025-12-15 11:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-15 11:45:00 +0000 UTC (45m)