Films

Everyone knows Columbus, but no one knows Vespucci. Nevertheless, Vespucci’s first name “Amerigo” became the name sponsor for the America discovered in 1492. How did it come about? And who was this hardly known Italian? A swindler, as was often claimed later?…

The last witness of Native American civilization was a Prince from Prussia. A feat that not even Alexander von Humboldt had achieved was accomplished by the Prussian Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied: in 1815, he ventured on an expedition along the Eastern coast of Brasil….

Prince Pückler – Playboy, Pasha, Parkomaniac watch the film in german in the ZDF Mediathek The name is associated with a brand of ice-cream rather than with a man’s life work. A dandy who had travelled the East, Prince Pückler was one…

No-one has been as famous for his art of seduction and love affairs as he: Giacomo Casanova. In his memoirs, the 18th century libertine writes extensively about his numerous amorous encounters. Far from being a Don Juan or a cold-hearted womanizer, however,…

It’s one of greatest literary mysteries of all time: who wrote Shakespeare’s plays? And there really is a mystery. How could the Stratford grammar-school boy, son of a glove-maker, become the universal genius who wrote the greatest plays of all time? Why…

As a young boy, he hated going to school, and his father thought he was a failure. He dropped out of medical school, because he couldn’t see blood. Finally, he decided to become a priest. However, fate decided that this unstable young…

Early morning, 19th of May 1536. A young woman, barely thirty years old, ascends the steps to the scaffold in the courtyard of the Tower of London. She has been accused of adultery and witchcraft: Anne Boleyn, the wife of King Henry…

In the winter of 53/52 B.C., the Gallic leaders gather in a remote forest to prepare for the approaching war. For years, Caesar had continually weakened their country, kidnapped their women, robbed their grain and taken hostages. Using his skilful policy of…

On the 8th of July 1497, the Portuguese discoverer Vasco da Gama left the stormy Lisbon coast, with a fleet of four small ships. No one knew if he would reach his goal. His plan was to discover the sea route to…

In 1556, in the city of Delhi, a thirteen-year-old boy named Akbar ascended the throne. He was to become the greatest ruler of his era on the Indian subcontinent: a fierce warrior and a founder of peace, a rigid autocrat and a…

Siddhartha Gautama was no liberator or reformer. He was the “enlightened” one – a title, given to him by his followers. In his state of total enlightenment, Buddha could have left the world forever, and entered long awaited Nirvana. He remained, however,…

A Christian monk was said to have recognized the boy Mohammed, as the successor to Jesus, by the signs of a birthmark, and a cloud above him in the Syrian Desert, that protected him from the desert heat. The boy from Mecca…

„Leave the world and go to Zion!“, the Mormon missionaries had been preaching, since their church was founded in 1830. Where is Zion located? It’s in America! One of the greatest migrations moved in direction of Utah, the new Mormon settlement. Dragging…

In the middle of July, in 326 B.C., on the bank of Hydaspes, a tributary of the Indus. Monsoon rain lashes the country for weeks. Used to victory, Alexander’s soldiers are demoralized by illness and the extreme climate. They marched 8,000 kilometers…