A six-part film series addressing the problems of rural Austria from 1900 to 1945. Contrary to the traditional "Heimatfilm", the Alpensaga detaches itself from typical clichés and tries to depict a critical view of societal structures of the time. World history is shown from the view of a peasant family living in a small village in Upper Austria.
The relationship between Germans and Austrians is illuminated in a satirical and tragicomic way. The main characters of the series are the members of the German Family Sattmann, who have been spending their holidays for years in the fictional village of Lahnenberg in the Tyrolean Zillertal.
The story begins with real excerpts from the TV show "Let's Go!" Asked by Fuchsberger, Austrian candidates explain that the Piefkes are the imaginary Germans who threw their marks around them and believed that something was better.
The outrage among German tourists is great, especially among the Berlin business family Sattmann. The Tyroleans are doing everything they can to contain the threat of a stornowelle of German tourists (which in reality also existed).
In the spring of 1873, people from all over the world come to the tiny village of Göschenen in the canton of Uri, to work on the biggest and most spectacular construction site of modern times: the tunnel through the Gotthard.
School of Champions tells the story of a freshman class at Austria's most renowned and prestigious ski-academy. There is only a thin line between love and jealousy, loyalty and betrayal, ambition and frustration....