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.
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From Lower Saxony and North Rhine Westphalia, from Osnabrück to Paderborn, one of Germany's most beautiful forests extends for some 150 kilometers - the Teutoburg Forest. The low mountain range became famous due to the Varus Battle that took place in 9 AD. It was here that Hermann, or Arminius, the Cherusci Prince vanquished the Roman occupation army.
In Cologne in 1212 a boy named Nicholas captivated thousands of children between the ages of eight and fifteen with his fanatical speeches. They had been chosen, he said, to liberate Jerusalem. Likewise, in the French town of Cloyes a young shepherd gathered numerous children around him with the same proclamation.
In February 1917 World War I is raging when Mata Hari is arrested in Paris and taken to the examining magistrate. Her very life is at stake: she is accused of high treason. The famous exotic dancer has come to represent beauty and the power of feminine seduction. The documentary Mata Hari - the Beautiful Spy tracks down the true story of this fascinating woman.
The symbol of the SS, Hitler's Schutzstaffel, stands for terror and the murder of millions. The penniless graphic artist Walter Heck was given the job of designing the jagged, rune-like characters in 1929. The “sig” rune was rooted deep in the ideological cosmos of the Nazis and their supporters. They saw themselves as the descendants of the Teutons and declared the runes to be humanity's original Germanic script. The symbol was meant to unite Heinrich Himmler's “Black Order.” But did it escape their notice that it was originally of Semitic origin? In October 1945, the Allies passed a law banning the Nazi Party and all associated organizations, including the SS. The young Federal Republic even forbade all Nazi symbols. This documentary tells the gripping story of the SS symbol, from the Middle Ages to the present day.
North Korea is a country of stark contrasts. On the one hand, it presents real socialist stereotypes like cryptic messages from a frozen time loop, combined with shocking reports on shortages. On the other hand, polished Pyongyang lures with a futuristic skyline, flashy amusement parks and department stores with a range of goods equal to those in western consumer meccas.
At the end of WWI, the Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of Sèvres stood for a new world order. This is where the victorious powers decided the Ottoman Empire was to be broken up.
Having previously been dominated by the Empires of Russia, Germany and Austro-Hungary, many peoples of Eastern Europe had cherished hopes of gaining freedom after World War I.
Sex is at the heart of everything. It's the only real way of leaving a legacy - in the genes of the future. But there's more than just the act - it's the build up to it when wildlife shows its incredible diversity. It drives touching courtships and fierce battles. Hormones and sex drive are forces that shape behaviour and can change an animal's purpose and persona. This is the story of how wild things get sexy.
The Story of Europe - State of Play: Europe has never experienced such a long period of peace and prosperity as after the Second World War. When the Iron Curtain falls in 1989, the dream of a Europe united in peace and freedom seems finally to become reality. But whether financial or refugee crisis - the European euphoria has disappeared, nationalists are on the rise again.
The Story of Europe - Commonalities and Division: Europe has been a battle concept for centuries: it often takes foreign enemies to weld the Europeans together. But for centuries, they are primarily fighting against themselves. It was not until the Enlightenment and the French Revolution of 1789 that a new idea of Europe emerged based on common values: freedom, equality and fraternalism.
The Story of Europe - Achievements and Rewards: Europe's history has many dark sides, but its culture is more than a small gleam of hope, it radiates in many areas far out into the world. The old continent sets standards in art, literature and science. Starting with the ancient Greeks, Europe produces a number of smart and creative minds: from Aristotle to Michelangelo and Einstein, from Beethoven to the Beatles.
Animals That Changed History - Season 1 - Inspiration: As a species, we believe we are more than just animals. We are inspired to express ourselves through words, art, music, and scientific endeavours. Our ancestors painted animals on cave walls - usually large mammals, like bison and deer. Animals were out first artistic subject, our first inspiration.
Animals That Changed History - Season 1 - Plagues: For most of our history, people have fallen victim to crippling disease, and not had a clue where it came from. Despite our best efforts, we are vulnerable - not, perhaps, to lions, tigers, and bears - but more to the killers we can't even see. In America during the early 1980s, a mysterious new disease claims the lives of 159 people, most of them gay men.
We mostly know the nimble predators from the depths of tropical seas. At the same time very little is known about the sharks of the icy North.
A brook in the Serengeti is the home of a leopardess. The secret queen of the shadows took care of her son and has done a good job so far but the adventure continues.
The gallery forests of the Serengeti are the realm of a phantom. The shadowy thickets are the domain of a Leopardess.
Anacondas have fired people's imagination since time immemorial. Hardly any other animal is so feared and yet at the same time so revered as the biggest snake in the world.
The Lauenburg Lake District is located between Lübeck and Lauenburg on the River Elbe. With more than 470 square kilometres, it is the third largest natural reserve in Schleswig-Holstein. Due to its extensive forest areas, 40 lakes and its proximity to Mecklenburg's biosphere reserve Lake Schalsee, it forms the largest protectoral area alongside the former inner-German border.
Eagles are top predators who battle fiercely for survival and work hard to raise their young. There are 60 members of the eagle clan, all united by their acute eyesight, powerful wings, sharp talons and hooked beaks. To explore the world of the eagle we follow one individual from hatching to leaving the nest and setting up a home. Her fight for survival reveals what it takes to become a queen of the sky.
In the waters surrounding New Zealand live a number of dolphin species - each of which has evolved unique strategies in their family pods to survive and thrive in the different habitats around these islands in the Pacific Ocean. On the east coast of the south island off the iconic Kaikoura peninsula, an underwater canyon pushes water seething with nutrients to the surface which provides a year round banquet for huge pods of dusky dolphins. These athletic and highly social dolphins spend their nights feeding out in the canyon, and in early morning they return closer to shore where they rest socialize and play. One of their favourite activities is the “seaweed game” where individuals pass pieces of seaweed to each other practicing fancy maneuvers where they'll catch it on their tail, dorsal or pectoral fins. Down in the south west corner of New Zealand in the majestic landscape of Fiordland live the southern-most bottlenose dolphins. At almost 4 metres long these dolphins have adapted physically to the extreme winter conditions down here by growing bigger and fatter with extra insulating blubber and evolving stubbier beaks and shorter fins and tail flukes to reduce heat loss through their extremities. These fiords are different to the coastal environment in that freshwater sits on top of the denser seawater in a distinct layer, and is much colder than the saltwater and can prove lethal to the pods' calves in winter, so every year the bottlenose dolphins make a short migration to the outer fiords where there is less freshwater to enable their calves to survive. Off New Zealand's north island, in the middle of the Bay of Plenty, the country's most active volcano erupts from the sea, sending plumes of toxic gases rising skywards. In the water surrounding this volcano roam common dolphins - the nomads of the dolphin world. They are pelagic predators which mean they roam the open ocean searching for prey.
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