Udo Wachtveitl

White Winter

In southern Germany, winter can still be admired in all its glory every year. With its white coat of snow and icicles and myriads of small crystals that look like geometric works of art. In the valleys and on the slopes the snow is still so thick every year that the alpine huts are snowed in up to the windows. Cows and dairymen are safe in their farms at lower altitudes. But not the wild creatures of the mountains! They need strategies to survive the cold season and to defy snow masses, cold and ice. And some seem to do it so easily that they even raise their young in the middle of winter. But how do animals, plants and fungi cope with the annually recurring ice age, which from our perspective is a time of need? The many adaptations in nature prove that winter is an integral part of the natural cycle of the year and the living environment of species. They are adapted to cold and frost. That is why the animals and plants at the edge of the Alps suffer particularly from climate change!

Keas - New Zealand's Witty Daredevils

Here are parrots that totally break the stereotypes! The keas in New Zealand just love the snow and the cold, harsh mountain climate. To survive here, these mountain parrots have developed exceptional intelligence and resourcefulness. Watch these incredibly unique birds in action!

Vera Brühne

Inas Nacht

Monsters and Myths

Monsters have always been part of our nightmares and fairy tales. But where do they actually come from? How much of it is truth, how much is myth? Going to great lengths in this documentary, the filmmakers join scientists to explore a number of the best-known sagas and legends in the world. The search for the origins of what is likely to be the oldest legendary creature, the dragon, leads to snake pits, archaeological dig sites, gold mines and the inside of an Icelandic volcano. They also travel to Texas, hunting for traces of the “chupacabra,” literally the “goat-sucker,” a modern mythical creature with vampire-like teeth that was first spotted in Central America, and accompany palaeontologists to Kazakhstan in search of the remains of what might be the origin of the alluring unicorn, whose horn the Vikings used for trading.

Alpha Alpha

Alpha Alpha was a 1972 German science fiction fantasy television series which aired on ZDF. It starred Karl Michael Vogler, Lilith Ungerer, Arthur Brauss and Horst Sachtleben. Each episode was only 25 minutes long, the series lasted only one season. Karl Michael Vogler played agent alpha of an unnamed secret organization, investigating mysteries, technical and psychic phenomena and even alien encounters. Alpha Alpha's tenor is comparable to the later X-Files drama television series.

Peter in Magicland

After Sumsemann the beetle loses one of his arms to a troll, he invites brother and sister Peterchen and Annaliese to join him on a journey to the moon in a quest to retrieve his lost arm.

Itinerary of a Spoiled Child

A foundling, raised in the circus, Sam Lion becomes a businessman after a trapeze accident. However, when he reaches fifty and becomes tired of his responsibilities and of his son Jean-Philippe, he decides to disappear at sea. However, he runs into Albert Duvivier, one of his former employees. He comes to realise that he has ignored the important things in his life.

Die Harald Schmidt Show

The Harald Schmidt Show is a German late night talk show hosted on Sky Deutschland by comedian Harald Schmidt. The show first aired from 5 December 1995 to 23 December 2003 on Sat.1. Schmidt then moved his show to Das Erste as Harald Schmidt and Schmidt & Pocher, but he returned to Sat.1 on 13 September 2011. After cancellation on Sat.1, the show continued on Sky Deutschland in September 2012.

The Alps from Above: Symphony of Summits

The most important mountain range in Europe is more than a holiday destination for sports and relaxation. The Alps are not just an unpredictable force of nature against which humans have to assert themselves again and again, or an area steeped in history, but also a landscape that enchants. The documentary takes a foray through the history and geography of the Alps.