DW Documentaries

The largest private yacht in the world is the 180 meter-long Azzam, owned by the Emir of Abu Dhabi. Arab sheikhs, Russian oligarchs and American billionaires are battling to own the most luxurious and most expensive ship.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah now controls broad areas of political and social life. It has become a state within a state. How can the "Party of God" be confronted?

As the cultural sector is becoming more diverse, all eyes are on African pop culture. Its stars are gaining international attention. But culture from Africa has long influenced artists in the West. A look at current trends and their historical roots.

What kind of agriculture do we really want? How sustainable, regional, animal-friendly and expensive can it be? These and other pressing issues are part of a debate about radical agricultural reform of policy currently going on in Brussels.

1979 was a year that shapes our world even today. That was when three fundamental forces - the collapse of communism, neoliberalism, and politicized and radicalized religion, fused into a single potent force.

A train journey through the Elbe Sandstone Mountains between Germany and the Czech Republic. Peculiar rock formations and the river Elbe shape this beautiful region. Since the mid 19th century, a railway line has been meandering through its valleys.

Social networks have become battlefields for truth and power. They provide their users with great freedom. But they are also being utilized to manipulate people, and sway public opinion by means of "fake news."

Musician, orchestra founder, artistic activist and intellectual: Violinist Gidon Kremer is one of the most exciting artists of our age. This film follows Kremer on tour around the world for a year and looks back on important stages in his life.

The first successful transatlantic flight in 1919 was a milestone for mankind. This film tells the stories of the people who dared to undertake the dangerous journey. Discover the records and setbacks in this exciting chapter of aviation history.

Venezuela is experiencing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Hunger is widespread and there is a severe shortage of medicines. The UN estimates that more than four million people have now fled what was once South America's richest nation.

Youth unemployment cuts deep in Sudan. But a hit TV show has inspired young entrepreneurs. Start-ups compete in the show - and the format has done more than achieve high ratings in the struggling country.

The first successful transatlantic flight in 1919 was a milestone for mankind. This film tells the stories of the people who dared to undertake the dangerous journey. Discover the records and setbacks in this exciting chapter of aviation history. Ever since the invention of aircraft, pilots have dreamed of flying across the Atlantic non-stop. Daring men and women risked their lives in pursuit of this goal. Then, just 100 years ago, the first transatlantic flight succeeded. The story began in 1918. The British Newspaper ‘Daily Mail’ announced a 10,000 pound prize for the "aviator who shall first cross the Atlantic in an aeroplane in flight from any point in the US, Canada or Newfoundland to any point in Great Britain or Ireland in 72 continuous hours." In 1919, four teams would attempt the crossing from Newfoundland. They were all unemployed fighter pilots. Only two succeeded — John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown. On 15 June 1919, the two men wrote aviation history when they landed in Ireland in a modified bi-plane bomber. But their glory was short-lived. In the 1920s, several other attempts and records followed. Perhaps the most famous was made in 1928 by the two Germans Hermann Köhl and Ehrenfried Freiherr Günther von Hünefeld, and the Irishman James Fitzmaurice. The three men were scheduled to land in New York, and thousands gathered to watch their arrival. But flight conditions were treacherous. Köhl would later describe dramatic scenes when the engine stuttered, storms and fog, hunger and cold, and fear of being lost forever. In the end, the team missed their destination in New York. But they managed an emergency landing on Greenly Island. With that, they had successfully touched down on North American soil, making them the first to complete an east-west non-stop transatlantic flight. The film relays personal stories of courage and determination, from heroes and pioneers who changed the face of travel forever.

What do tomatoes have to do with mass migration? Tomatoes are a poker chip in global trade policies. Subsidized products from the EU, China and elsewhere are sold at dumping prices, destroying markets and livelihoods in Africa in the process.

Germany is the European champion when it comes to generating packaging waste - despite its longstanding system to separate trash. And the figures for plastic waste are nearly ach sotwice what they were 15 years ago.

Eva Mozes Kor was experimented on as one of Dr. Josef Mengele's twins at Auschwitz. After decades of anguish, she decided to forgive the Nazis - and came to be one of the best-known and most-active Holocaust survivors in the world.

More people around the world are fleeing from climate change than from war. If human-induced climate change continues at the current rate, the World Bank warns that by 2050 there could be as many as 180 million climate refugees.

Human blood plasma is an important raw material of the global pharmaceuticals industry. In recent years, it’s also become a global market worth billions, fed mostly by the US.

Xu Qing is training as a geriatric nurse in the Black Forest. The 23 year old Chinese woman encounters people in the last stages of their lives, a stern boss and endless sausage sandwiches. The film follows her through three eventful years.

Muslim separatists in the Philippines took control of the city of Marawi and held it for five months in 2017. The army of the mainly Christian country fought hard to oust them. Now, former Islamic State fighters are recanting.

It's difficult to forecast avalanches and impossible to stop them. This documentary follows scientists, snow profilers and trainers as they assess the risk of avalanches in the Alps.

Ghana is the second largest cocoa producer in the world. Still, many Ghanaians have yet to taste chocolate: The precious commodity is largely for export. The cocoa farmers in this resource-rich country also usually see little of the profit.

Hundreds of foreigners were involved in Mao's Cultural Revolution. Their children were raised as young communists. But as the class struggle in China escalated, the "Great Helmsman" started to question their unwavering loyalty to the "New China."

Two hundred years of the music of freedom, hope and protest: This two-part documentary tells the story of songs that have become iconic - from the "Marseillaise" to "Bella Ciao" and "I Will Survive."

Youth gangs are committing more and more brutal assaults in Italian cities. Known as "baby gangs,” the groups rob people on the streets, deal drugs, and beat up the homeless. Many end up in the Mafia.

The Nazis systematically plundered Jewish art collections in Germany. This documentary looks at selected cases to how art dealers profited from the persecution of Jewish collectors after 1933.

The world has become more insecure and a new arms race seems imminent. Disarmament treaties are lapsing and existing alliances crumbling. Will Germany be able to meet the challenges?

More than half-a-million people were killed in Allied air raids during the Second World War. The missions targeted more than 100 German cities - but none of them have achieved such tragic fame as Dresden.

Two hundred years of the music of freedom, hope and protest: This two-part documentary tells the story of songs that have become iconic - from the "Marseillaise" to "Bella Ciao" and "I Will Survive."

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was a revolutionary and the founder of modern Turkey. A brilliant military strategist, a womanizer and a popular educator who changed the face of Turkey, he was one of the most fascinating personalities of his time.

Ekhlas is a Yazidi. She was once a prisoner of Islamic State (IS) in northern Iraq. Today, she’s hitting back. This documentary tells the story of a young woman who managed to escape to Germany and is now fighting against terror.

Industrial agriculture is increasingly dominating the world market. It’s forcing small farmers to quit and taking over vast swathes of land. This documentary shows how destructive the lucrative agribusiness is.

Most northern Europeans like winter, even when the mercury falls below minus 40 degrees Celsius. But in the polar regions of Norway, Finland and Sweden even running daily errands in snow and storms can be quite an adventure.

Born a girl, René realized at puberty that he wanted to live as a boy. People who cannot identify with their innate gender are known as transgender. Our film follows René during his transition to his new self.

Huge quantities of raw materials are needed for mobile phones, copper pipes or wind turbines. Things that we Europeans naturally use are produced in South America under the harshest conditions. It's a filthy business.

Climate change in the Arctic is fueling not only fear, but also hope. Sea levels will rise and flood many regions. But the melting ice will also expose new land with reserves of oil, gas and minerals. New sea routes are also emerging.

Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was ousted during a revolution led by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. The Shah’s fall marked the end of more than 2500 years of the monarchy in Iran and the formerly western-oriented state became an Islamic republic.

Are people in North Korea allowed to laugh, dance and marry? This documentary provides unique insights on everyday life in the East Asian country, which most people associate with dictatorship, military parades and nuclear missile testing.

Chocolate reduces stress. Fish stimulates the brain. Is there any truth to such popular beliefs? The findings of researchers around the world say yes: It appears we really are what we eat.

A father fights to save his daughter who has run off to join the terror organization Islamic State. For four long years Maik Messing doesn’t know if she will survive the ordeal. And for those same four years he was joined by a camera Team.

Many women make a conscious decision not to have children. What are the reasons behind their choice - and what reactions does it prompt? The film [m]otherhood investigates these questions and examines the maternal myth inherent in all cultures.

Today, Marvel is one of the world’s best-known players in the comic industry. Spider Man and X-Man are just two of its popular superheroes. Thirty years ago, the company was on the brink of bankruptcy. How did Marvel make it back to the top?

For young people in Europe, the Second World War is safely in the past. But peace and the shared values of European unification are now under threat. Young Europeans are fighting to make sure that history does not repeat itself.

"Emission free" electric cars are being vaunted as the solution to climate change. They have the potential to earn billions for German carmakers , yet are they really so environmentally-friendly?

Islamic charities are highly committed to helping Muslims in need. Their missions aim to relieve the plight of victims of war, poverty and hunger around the world. But is there a political component to their work?

More than 700 thousand Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar into neighboring Bangladesh. Their villages were torched, civilians attacked, raped and massacred. A pattern of systematic persecution that the UN says is genocide.

Spring 1945: The Second World War was in its final phase. The Nazis were still pursuing their delusional goal of ultimate victory, unscrupulously sending the youngest of conscripts to the front. But the end of the war was already in sight.

The growing scarcity of water and rain on earth is a grave danger to humans and nature. Climate change is altering the precipitation cycle. Groundwater levels are falling. If humans don’t change course, water shortage could end life as we know it.

It was one of the biggest white-collar scams in German history. In the 1990s, Manfred Schmider and his company FlowTex took investors for more than two billion euros. Today, the conman himself can’t believe how easy it was to get away with a major fraud.

Can a video trigger a war in Africa? This documentary investigates a controversial 2012 charity film that went viral, and asks whether the video and US-led hunt for Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony served as a cover for US military operations in Africa.

Russia – a global power, confident and strong. That’s the image projected by President Vladimir Putin. Decades after the Soviet Union’s collapse, Putin is relying on Russian traditions and values from the tsarist past to kindle patriotism.

The world’s worst industrial disaster continues to claim new generations of victims. The 1984 leak at a chemical plant in the Indian city of Bhopal released a cloud of deadly gas that killed thousands. The site remains toxic to this day.

Many Spaniards perceive the Catholic Church as old-fashioned. A priest in Madrid is trying to change that by leading a modern, inclusive congregation ready to receive anyone 24 hours a day.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was ousted in 2017. One of the most brutal dictatorships in modern times, its legacy was economic devastation, famine, corruption and mass murder.

Germans love coffee, and the country doesn't really wake up without it. But is it sustainably produced and fairly traded? Not really. This documentary investigates efforts to improve the situation.

Scientists are testing new technologies they hope could counteract the effects of climate change. But how could that work on a global scale? And - if it is possible at all - what are the dangers?

A land dispute between European immigrants and the indigenous people of Chile has turned deadly. Hardly a day passes in the Chilean province of Araucanía without an attack by indigenous people on settlers.

On orders from Heinrich Himmler, the Nazis abducted children from Poland for forced Germanization. Hermann Lüdeking, Jozef Sowa and Alodia Witaszek have never met, but they shared the same fate.

As the Red Army closed in on Berlin on April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his bunker. But legends about the Nazi dictator's lived on. Was his body ever found? Did he manage to escape?

Thousands of soldiers were killed in the last battles of World War II. US troops who fought in the Hürtgen Forest nicknamed it the "Death Factory." This documentary features original film from US archives that bring the battle back to life.

Where are you from? Afro-German journalist Jana Pareigis has heard that question since her early childhood. In fact, black people have been living in Germany for 400 years. Pareigis travels through the country to speak with other black Germans.

The Nazis murdered 90 percent of Poland's Jews in the death camps. Seventy-five years after the end of World War Two, life is returning to the Jewish community in Poland.

Three-dimensional printing promises new opportunities for more sustainable and local production. But does 3D printing make everything better? This film shows how innovation can change the world of goods.

People from all over the world have been describing the drastic impact of the corona pandemic: The empty streets outside their homes, their fears and daily routines, the news, the regulations, the newly discovered sense of community as well as the small moments of hope.

Everyone is lonely at times. But now we know chronic loneliness can make you sick. Not only adults are affected, but increasingly young people as well. The reasons for loneliness are as diverse as the feeling itself.

Is the so-called "Islamic State" aiming to use the Philippines as its bridgehead in Asia? IS took control of the predominantly Muslim city of Marawi in 2017, and it took the Filipino army five months to take it back.

For a long time Indonesia was considered a model state for diversity and tolerance. There have been increasing indications that radical Muslims are gaining more influence in the most populous Muslim country in the world.

"People like to have a lot of stuff because it gives them the feeling of living forever," says social psychologist Sheldon Solomon, who believes today's materialism and consumerism will have disastrous consequences. How much is enough?

There are more and more cars and trucks on German streets. Cars are used for most journeys people take. But there are also ways to cut traffic - such as by changing the way you get around

After nine months of battle, Mosul was liberated from the so-called Islamic State in July 2017. It was here in Iraq’s second largest city that the militant group proclaimed its caliphate in 2014.

2020 marks the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth. Symphony No. 6 saw the composer set his romantic perception of nature to music. The ‘Pastorale’ is the starting point for the worldwide Beethoven Pastoral Project.

How high will the oceans rise due to climate change? The projections are the subject of dispute, with scientists continually correcting their estimates upward. Is this just panic-mongering or are these scenarios within the realm of possibility?

The GSG 9 is the German police’s elite tactical unit. It’s their job to take on dangerous terrorists and criminal mafias in the country. But who are the officers who make up the force? An exclusive look behind the scenes of Germany’s top police squad.

The Barenboim-Said Academy brings together young musicians from around the Middle East. Daniel Barenboim wants the experiment to be a protected place for intercultural dialogue between Jews, Muslims and Christians, away from war and daily hardship.

Manila is home to a gigantic shadow industry of digital cleaning. It employs tens of thousands of people working 10-hour shifts for the big Silicon Valley corporations, deleting offensive photos and videos from social media sites.

Sexual violence and mass rape have long been used as a weapon of war. It is not only the victims and survivors who suffer trauma - an entire generation of men, women and children are affected. All too often, the perpetrators remain unpunished.

A very private trip through Russia - a world power with a shrinking population, a myriad of ethnic minorities, and vast distances.

Like the Amish in the US, the Mennonite Christian community shuns the modern world. Most Mennonites live in secluded, self-sufficient colonies. We get a rare glimpse into the life of a devout and isolated community.

Climate change is leaving its mark on Morocco’s oases, too. Sandstorms are becoming more and more frequent, groundwater levels are sinking and palm trees are shrivelling up and dying. An age-old way of life is in danger.

Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" is probably the world’s most famous painting. But whose portrait actually is it? There are two clues to the identity of the mysterious young woman, but they are mutually exclusive. Can the riddle ever be solved?

People lie - usually several times a day. Lying is considered immoral, but we've been built for it. And we are not alone. Dishonesty is an integral part of the social world, and numerous animal species are also skilled deceivers.

Around 50 thousand people live on the Faroe Islands. But too many of them are men. Faroese women go abroad to study. Many don’t return. Men stay behind to live off the sea. Now the islands are enjoying a growing influx of women from the Philippines.

The Vatican opened once-secret records on Pope Pius XII on March 2020. This gave researchers a brand new insight into the Catholic Church during the Nazi era. What did the Pope know about the Holocaust?

The Nuremberg trials started 75 years ago and marked a milestone in the establishment of international law. The images of high-ranking Nazis in the dock are seared into our collective memory. The Nuremberg trials were a series of military tribunals staged by the Allies after World War Two. The first and best-known trial ended in October 1946 with the sentencing to death of 12 high-ranking Nazis. Adolf Hitler’s right-hand man, Hermann Göring, Germany’s foreign minister during the Nazi regime, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Armaments Minister and chief architect Albert Speer, anti-Semitic demagogue Julius Streicher and high-ranking SS officer Ernst Kaltenbrunner were among those in the dock. The court met for the first time in Nuremberg in November 1945 and was in session for 218 days. Flash-Galerie Memorium Nürnberger Prozesse By making the Nazi elite answer for their crimes in this hugely complex trial, the Allies ushered in the era of modern international law. Using photos and archive film material, the documentary reconstructs what went on in the court room, as well as revealing what went on behind the scenes.

US student Otto Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years in a North Korean labor camp in 2016. Warmbier was released the following year, but he died of brain damage shortly after his return to the United States. Was he really the victim of torture?

COVID-19 is far from the first pandemic to wreak havoc in the world. A long line of infectious diseases have devastated and in some cases destroyed entire societies. Almost all of them started in animals and made the jump to humans.