100 years - the countdown

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Television series
Original title 100 years - the countdown
Country of production Germany
original language German
year 1999
length 10 mins
Episodes 99
genre documentation
idea Guido Knopp
production ZDF
music Sound space
First broadcast September 13, 1999 on ZDF
occupation
speaker
Guido Knopp
Christian Brückner
Rolf Schult

100 Years - The Countdown is a historical documentary series by ZDF about the 20th century . The series is written by Guido Knopp . The individual documentaries mostly deal with the events of a particular year. The total length of the series is approx. 16½ hours. The programs were broadcast for the first time on the last 100 days of 1999, each time according to the heute-journal on ZDF. From New Year's Eve 1999, 100 Years was broadcast in full at least twice a year on Phoenix .

construction

Each of the ten-minute episodes begins with the opening credits. First you see the earth from space. As the gaze draws closer and closer, outstanding quotes from the century are played back, underlaid by the theme song. These are:

After the opening credits, three events from the year are briefly addressed, before another short opening credits follow. In this one again sees the globe before the year is faded in and the view zooms in to the respective continent through the closed counter of the 9 in second position. Now the actual episode begins, which deals with the last mentioned event. This is used as a hook for a closer look at the topic, which is not limited to the year. Many of the topics that were only briefly mentioned above are taken up in other episodes.

The individual episodes are shot in such a way that they are meaningful in themselves and that prior knowledge from older episodes is not absolutely necessary. For example, in the episode Der Kniefall von Warsaw ( 1970 ) there is again a report about the Warsaw Ghetto, which already has its own episode with Der Junge von Warsaw ( 1943 ).

The first contribution deals with the year 1900 , which still belongs to the 19th century . The years 1902 , 1904 , 1905 , 1908 , 1910 , 1915 , 1921 , 1931 , 1935 , 1950 , 1952 , 1957 , 1971 , 1973 , 1984 and 1996 did not have their own episode . The year of publication 1999 and thus also the year 2000 , the last year of the 20th century , are no longer mentioned. The years 1922 , 1936 , 1937 , 1938 , 1941 , 1943 , 1945 , 1954 , 1967 , 1968 , 1972 , 1974 , 1986 and 1991 are available twice, in 1953 there were even three programs.

The zooms on the continents are mostly Europe , followed by North America and Asia . Africa rarely occurs, South America twice ( 1960 - Operation Eichmann , 1982 - The Falklands War ), Antarctica once; Australia not at all.

Contemporary witnesses have their say in the individual episodes, e. B. Otto von Habsburg , Nikolai Romanowitsch Romanow , Millvina Dean , Indro Montanelli , Reinhard Spitzy , Shimon Perez , Reinhold Messner , Edmund Hillary , Edward Teller , James Dougherty , Conrad Schumann , Egon Bahr , Sergei Khrushchev , Karl Mildenberger , Uwe Seeler , Geoff Hurst and Wolfgang Weber .

Episodes

Hints:

  • The series was released on DVD. However, the posts are cut and the episodes marked with * are missing.
  • In the outro, more than 400 archives and over twelve hundred interviews are mentioned as sources.
  • The following links are to be understood as a reference to the thematic background knowledge.
  • The documentation series is divided into ten sections with the following subtitles.

Chapter 1: World on the move

Chapter 2: Trench Warfare

Chapter 3: Crazy Years

Chapter 4: Hitler in power

Chapter 5: All Out War

Chapter 6: New Beginning

Chapter 7: Cold War

Chapter 8: World in Transition

Chapter 9: Turning Years

Chapter 10: World in Transition

literature

  • Guido Knopp, Alexander Berkel: The pictures of the century: 100 years . Econ, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-430-15502-9 .

Web links