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Documentary series about 1,000 years of German history. Reviewing the history from about 955 A.D. to the modern-day monarchy and World War I.

Talk show in the night studio with Volker Panzer.

1,300 years ago, the east of today's Germany between the Elbe and the Oder was almost deserted. But then strangers from the east, Slavs, enter the fertile land. They settle in the 7th century AD.

He was a patron of science, a reformer, and might even be called the first modern ruler. Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1212 to 1250, was an exceptional figure on the Roman-German imperial throne. Born and raised in the multi-ethnic state of Sicily, his reign was influenced by Byzantine and Norman traditions that allowed Jews and Muslims a large degree of freedom. All the royal houses in Europe are said to have looked up to him in awe. He saw himself as successor to the Roman emperors and ruler by the grace of God - a notion that was bound to collide with the Pope's claim to universal power. Frederick waged a bitter battle to maintain his power with five different popes. The Church excommunicated him several times and branded him a heretic and anti-Christ. Frederick responded with the sword, for the power-hungry emperor was prepared to resort to brutal violence to defend his supremacy. He even arrested his own son and left him to rot in the dungeon. A ruler rife with contradictions and a man who, 800 years after his death, has lost nothing of his fascination.

Frederick I, called "Barbarossa", fought for "the honor of the empire" - as king of Germany, Burgundy and Italy and as emperor of the Roman Empire.

In January 1077, the German King Henry IV kneels in penitential robes in front of the castle of Canossa in northern Italy. He begs for the lifting of the excommunication imposed on him by Pope Gregory VII.

He is the forefather of Germany, and German history begins with him: Otto the Great. Under him, the four original tribes on German soil saw themselves for the first time as a community of destiny.

1000 years Mainz Cathedral - 1000 years of German history.

Some contemporaries called Frederick II of Hohenstaufen (1194-1250), whose empire stretched from Sicily to the North Sea coast, "the wonder of the world".

"Hildegard von Bingen and the Power of Women" shows the most popular German of the Middle Ages. She was a visionary, natural scientist, politician, composer, theologian and monastery manager.

The reign of Charles IV is one of the most dramatic periods in German history. Around the middle of the 14th century, the plague killed a third of the German population.

Even his contemporaries considered him the "Father of Europe": Charlemagne (probably 748-814). He created a foundation that shaped the continent.