The Best TV Shows on DFF 1

Archiv des Todes is a 1980 13-part television series German war television film series set during World War II.

This five-part East German biographical drama chronicles the life and religious reforms of Martin Luther, the 16th-century monk who sparked the Protestant Reformation. Produced by DEFA Studios for East German television to commemorate Luther's 500th birthday, the series follows Luther from his early protests against the Catholic Church's sale of indulgences in 1517 through his translation of the Bible.

A man who has just become unemployed kills his closest relatives before he judges himself. Commissioner Schimanski determined.

The film concentrates on the last days of the German navy during World War II.

A story about German resistance group fighting SS units during WWII.

On the run from police in America, Antonio Morena, a former World War II aviator and black-marketeer, finds himself in South America working for the all-powerful United Fruit Company, known to the natives as "the Green Monster".

200 years ago, innkeepers Jette and August Deibelschmidt led a rapacious life. Out of greed, they repeatedly got their guests drunk in order to steal from them. When police commissioner Friedrich Wilhelm Licht tried to put them out of action, the house caught fire and all three died. In his last words, he curses the pair of thieves, saying that they will not find peace until they have done seven good deeds after 200 years.

Polizeiruf 110 is a long-running German language detective television series. The first episode was broadcast 27 June 1971 in the German Democratic Republic, and after the dissolution of Fernsehen der DDR the series was picked up by ARD. It was originally created as a counterpart to the West German series Tatort, and quickly became a public favorite.

Love, intrigue, favouritism and corruption at the Dresdner Hof.

Two kids suddenly call three very enchanted persons to reality while spending summer in their grandma's village.

Treffpunkt Flughafen is an East-German television series produced by the DEFA-Studio für Spielfilme on behalf of Fernsehen der DDR in 1985/86. The show follows the life and adventures of the crew of a IL-62 operated by the East-German airline Interflug. Filming locations were East Germany, Vietnam, Angola and Cuba among others.

Large-scale, five-part film about the relationship between two men caught between friendship, rivalry and hatred during the first decades of GDR in the countryside.

The show was meant to compete with those on West German television. To this end it was fairly successful even attracting a following in parts of West Germany which could receive Eastern TV. Its production values were high. Apart from song and dance numbers and appearances from East German celebrities, almost every broadcast featured well-known stars from the west, often after their popularity had peaked in their home countries.

Der Staatsanwalt hat das Wort was an East German television series.

Blaulicht is a German crime television drama series, whose 29 episodes were based on crime case files.

Der schwarze Kanal was a series of political propaganda programmes broadcast weekly between 1960 and 1989 by East German television. Each edition was made up of recorded extracts from recent West German television programmes re-edited to include a Communist commentary.

Artur Becker, who, as a young communist during the Weimar Republic, faced his first major test during the Kapp Putsch, fought against Franco’s coup plotters during the Spanish Civil War, was seriously wounded, and arrested. After a failed escape attempt and numerous interrogations by Spanish and German coup plotters, he was eventually shot.

The film is set in the 1930s in Germany. Maria Rheine and Mark Löwenthal, two young actors working in a small theater, are in love with each other. Their love affair is interrupted by Nazi racial policies; Mark is no longer allowed to perform in German theaters because he is a Jew. In order to continue acting, he joins the newly formed Jewish Theater in Berlin. Maria, who is not Jewish, faces no restrictions on her career, and she becomes a successful actress at a big theater in Munich. But her love for Mark eventually leads her to decide to sacrifice both career and security to remain close to him. She fakes a suicide, assumes a Jewish identity and, as Manja Löwenthal, joins the Jewish Theater.