Die Deutschen is a German television documentary produced for ZDF that first aired from October to November 2008. Each episode recounts a selected epoch of German history, beginning with the reign of Otto the Great and ending with the collapse of the German Empire at the end of the First World War. In November 2010 the second season of Die Deutschen was published in German television, beginning with Charlemagne, the Frankish King, and ending with Gustav Stresemann, the Chancellor and Foreign Minister during the Weimar Republic.
Historical events are recreated through a combination of live action scenes and computer generated animations. The series was filmed at over 200 different locations in Germany, Malta, and Romania at a cost of approximately €500,000 per episode.
No other person in the twentieth century has triggered more discussions among biographers and historians than Adolf Hitler. More than 120.000 books and articles on the dictator that have appeared in the past 50 years have documented the full extent of the most horrible crimes in history that were committed by him and his followers. Developed with the assistance of internationally renowned historians, using newly discovered documents, films, sound recordings and interviews with eye-witnesses, relatives, and victims, 'Hitler - A Profile' is the first comprehensive television portrait of the German dictator. Each episode focuses on one character aspect of the man who plunged an entire nation into collective madness and unparalleled savagery.