The history boom on German Television continues. An average 150 minutes of historical documentary programming is being broadcast each day, mainly by the public service channels. Most of these programmes focus on the Third Reich period, its origins and aftermath from Weimar to the Cold War. In the first six month of this year, three elaborate mini-series dealt with "Hitler's Henchmen" (Hitlers Helfer/ZDF), "Hitler's Soldiers" (Soldaten für Hitler/ARD) or "The Nazis" in general (the BBC series was shown on the public third channel).
After having been largely confined to late-night slots in the past, good ratings now also merit prime time scheduling for these and other historical documentaries. However, the historical as well as academic reliability of many such documentaries is heavily disputed. Especially the current Hitler's Henchmen series of the ZDF Contemporary History Department under Guido Knopp sparked off a major controversy. The debate centres on the so-called "scenic quotations", in which Knopp and his team have historic events re-enacted if there is no original film or photographic material at hand.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung dubbed this a "dressage of history" and an "abuse of the documentary genre". Guido Knopp argued that enlightenment needed good ratings to be effective, and indeed an average seven million Germans who watched the first six programmes of the Hitler's Henchmen series, which has been sold to 32 countries today, speaks for itself. "Der Hauptmann von Muffrika" (The Colonel of Muffrika, a production by London-based film producer Paul Meyer) represents a novelty in historical TV documentaries. In contrast to almost all other historical programmes, the story of private soldier Willi Herold was previously untold, making the Grimme-Prize winning documentary one of the few original historical programmes exclusively researched and presented for television.
In today's international TV-market, historical documentaries also count among the important programming assets. In the U.S., Canada, France and the United Kingdom, special interest channels like the "History Channel", "Histoire“ or "History Television“ provide historical programmes for up to 24 hours per day. The "History Channel“, which only launched in 1995, boasts the fastest growing number of subscribers of all American cable channels. Picture and footage archives, too, no longer provide library services only, but offer fully-fledged packages and programmes themselves. However, the range of what falls into the "history" category is interpreted much wider by the international market leaders than most of the German broadcasters would tolerate. Nevertheless, preparations for a German history channel are under way. With the strong presence especially of public service channels such as ARD, ZDF, arte, Phoenix and 3sat in historical documentary programming, the success of such a channel remains to be seen.
Host: Randy Crott, Journalist, Cologne ______________________________________________________________________________________
10.00 hrs - 10.30 hrs
Problems of Fact and Fiction in the current Contemporary History-Boom
Keynote address
Prof. Dr. Omer Bartov, Rutgers University, New York ______________________________________________________________________________________
10.30 hrs - 11.30 hrs
Presenting Contemporary History for Television: Case Studies
Presentations and roundtable panel
"Hitler's Henchmen"
Stefan Brauburger, Deputy Head of Contemporary History, ZDF, Mainz
Jörg Müllner, Author, ZDF Zeitgeschichte, Mainz
"The Nazis"
Tilmann Remme, Producer, BBC Documentaries and History, London
"Der Hauptmann von Muffrika"
Paul Meyer, Paul Meyer Filmproduktion, London ______________________________________________________________________________________
11.30 hrs - 11.45 hrs Coffee Break ______________________________________________________________________________________
11.45 hrs - 12.30 hrs
Podium
Prof. Dr. Eberhardt Jäckel, University of Stuttgart
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Herbert, University of Freiburg
Prof. Dr. Omer Bartov, Rutgers University, New York ______________________________________________________________________________________
12.30 hrs - 14.00 hrs Lunch Break ______________________________________________________________________________________
14.00 hrs - 15.30 hrs
History and the International TV Market
Presentations and panel discussions
hosted by George Leclere, Executive Director-Elect, The International Council, NATAS, New York
Archives and Output
Julian Aston, Managing Director, British Pathé, London
Special Interest Channels
Michael Yorick, Director, European Operations, The History Channel, New York/London
Nick Comer-Calder, General Manager, Discovery Networks Europe, London ______________________________________________________________________________________
15.30 hrs - 16.00 hrs Coffee Break ______________________________________________________________________________________
16.00 hrs - 17.00 hrs
Does Germany need a History channel?
Panel
Nick Comer-Calder, General Manager, Discovery Networks Europe, London
Bengt von Zur Mühlen, Managing Director, Chronos Film, Kleinmachnow
Dr. Walter Konrad, Director European Satellite Programmes, 3sat, Mainz
Rainer C. Wagner, Managing Director, Haus des Dokumentarfilms, Stuttgart
Prof. Dr. Norbert Frei, Chair of Modern History, University of Bochum