Best German documentary movies
A curated collection of popular documentary movies from Germany.
Lessons of Darkness (1992)
Lessons of Darkness (1992)
Shortly after the Gulf War, oil fires were raging all through Kuwait. In the week before this sea of fire would be extinguished, Werner Herzog filmed this apocalyptic landscape with its murky skies, scorched earth and capricious flames.
The Sorrow and the Pity (1971)
The Sorrow and the Pity (1971)
An investigation into the nature, details and reasons for the collaboration between France’s Vichy government and Nazi Germany from 1940 to 1944.
Hitler's Children (2011)
Hitler's Children (2011)
Their family name alone evokes horror: Himmler, Frank, Goering, Hoess. This film looks at the descendants of the most powerful figures in the Nazi regime: men and women who were left a legacy that indelibly associates them with one of the greatest abominations in history. What is it like to have grown up with a name that immediately raises images of genocide? How do they live with the weight of their ancestors' crimes? Is it possible to move on from the crimes of their ancestors?
Chariots of the Gods (1970)
Chariots of the Gods (1970)
Documentary based on the book by Erich Von Daniken concerning the ancient mysteries of the world, such as the pyramids of Egypt and Mexico, ancient cave drawings, the monuments of Easter Island, etc. and the fact that these things and modern civilization could have been influenced by extra-terrestrial visitations hundreds(or perhaps thousands) of years ago.
Rammstein in Amerika (2015)
Rammstein in Amerika (2015)
The concert film celebrates the band’s legendary show in New York’s Madison Square Garden – Rammstein’s return to the US after a ten-year absence. In HD and 5.1 surround sound. For the documentary, Rammstein provided extensive, previously unreleased footage and photos from the band archive. In numerous interviews from various periods in the band’s history, the band members speak about their experiences across the Atlantic.
Lewis Capaldi: How I'm Feeling Now (2023)
Lewis Capaldi: How I'm Feeling Now (2023)
An intimate, all-access documentary that will chronicle Lewis Capaldi's journey from a scrappy teen with a viral performance to a Grammy-nominated pop star.
Rammstein: Paris (2017)
Rammstein: Paris (2017)
During the “Made in Germany” tour, Swedish director Jonas Åkerlund filmed two acclaimed Rammstein concerts in March 2012 – each for an audience of 17,000 at the Bercy Arena in Paris. In the resulting film (with 16 songs from the entire repertoire),
B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West-Berlin 1979-1989 (2015)
B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West-Berlin 1979-1989 (2015)
The wild West Berlin of the 1980s became the creative melting pot of pop subcultures: music, art and chaos. Before the Iron Curtain fell, anything and everything seemed possible.
Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul (2005)
Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul (2005)
German musician Alexander Hacke explores Istanbul's rich music culture and attempts to create a portrait of Turkey through music genres. On this journey, he encounters a mosaic that covers countless genres from rock to arabesque, electronic to hip-hop.
Rammstein - Live aus Berlin (1999)
Rammstein - Live aus Berlin (1999)
The Rammstein - Live aus Berlin DVD is a compilation of two live concerts filmed at Berlin's open-air Parkbühne ("park stage") Wuhlheide in August 1998. The DVD offers 17 of the band's songs, most of which are found on the two CD albums "Sehnsucht" and "Herzeleid." The show itself is a very entertaining performance with plenty of the usual stunts, pyrotechnics, and lighting effects you'd expect from an industrial metal band.
Lindenberg! Mach dein Ding (2020)
Lindenberg! Mach dein Ding (2020)
Long before his big stage breakthrough in 1973 in Hamburg, and 4.4 million records sold, the rock musician Udo Lindenberg from the Westphalian province, the man with the long hair and the hat, had many adventures. Before it all started, he moved from the remoteness of Gronau to Hamburg, where he met Paula, who was not his great love, but was quite a hottie. When the team of three was complete with Steffi Stephan, the idea of founding a band developed. But the road to get there was a long one: he drummed as a jazz drummer in bands, had a highly dangerous performance in a US military base in the middle of the Libyan desert and always believed in making it to the very top.
Rammstein: Völkerball (2006)
Rammstein: Völkerball (2006)
Völkerball shows concert-performances by the band in England, France, Japan and Russia. The Special Edition is extended by a second DVD, which contains the documentaries "Anaconda in the net" by Mathilde Bonnefoy and the "Making of the album Reise, Reise" by Rammstein guitarist Paul Landers. The limited edition was released as a large black and white photo-book with photos by Frederic Batier.
100.000 – Everything I never wanted (2020)
100.000 – Everything I never wanted (2020)
An intimate documentary about the making of Fynn Kliemann's debut album "Nie". Without a label, without a marketing budget and excluding the charts, it became one of the best-selling albums in Germany.
Wacken (2014)
Wacken (2014)
Wacken Open Air is the biggest 3-day-rock- and metal-festival in the world. It's three days of raw energy, non-stop Heavy Metal music at full blast and 80.000 fans on a party frenzy. A true legend, taking place annually since 1990 in the sleepy German country town of Wacken, it attracts fans from all over the world.
Wild Heart (2018)
Bunch of Kunst - A Film About Sleaford Mods (2017)
Freddie Mercury: The Untold Story (2000)
Freddie Mercury: The Untold Story (2000)
Freddie Mercury (1946-91) was not just a man with one of the most pure and amazing voices the world has heard, but he was also the lead singer for Queen, the most enthusiastic rock band in history.
Sonita (2015)
Sonita (2015)
If 18-year-old Sonita had a say, Michael Jackson and Rihanna would be her parents and she'd be a rapper who tells the story of Afghan women and their fate as child brides. She finds out that her family plans to sell her to an unknown husband for $9,000.
Ordinary Men: The "Forgotten Holocaust" (2022)
Ordinary Men: The "Forgotten Holocaust" (2022)
Six million Jews died during World War II, both in the extermination camps and murdered by the mobile commandos of the Einsatzgruppen and police battalions, whose members shot men, women and children, day after day, obediently, as if it were a normal job, a fact that is hardly known today. Who were these men and how could they commit such crimes?
Hitler: A Career (1977)
Hitler: A Career (1977)
A keen chronicle of the unlikely rise to power of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) and a dissection of the Third Reich (1933-1945), but also an analysis of mass psychology and how the desperate crowd can be deceived and shepherded to the slaughterhouse.
One Day in September (1999)
One Day in September (1999)
The full story of the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and the Israeli revenge operation 'Wrath of God.' The 1972 Munich Olympics were interrupted by Palestinian terrorists taking Israeli athletes hostage. Besides footage taken at the time, we see interviews with the surviving terrorist, Jamal Al Gashey, and various officials detailing exactly how the police, lacking an anti-terrorist squad and turning down help from the Israelis, botched the operation.
Chuck Norris vs Communism (2015)
Chuck Norris vs Communism (2015)
In late eighties, in Ceausescu's Romania, a black market VHS bootlegger and a courageous female translator brought the magic of Western films to the Romanian people and sowed the seeds of a revolution.
Extinction (2018)
Extinction (2018)
The end of the Cold War did not bring about a definitive thaw in the former republics of the Soviet Union, so that today there are several frozen conflicts, unresolved for decades, in that vast territory. As in Transnistria, an unrecognized state, seceded from Moldova since 1990. Kolja is a silent witness of how borders and bureaucracy shape the lives of citizens, finally forced to lose their identity.
Costa Concordia: Chronicle of a Disaster (2022)
Costa Concordia: Chronicle of a Disaster (2022)
A reconstruction of the shipwreck of Costa Concordia, occurred on the night of 13 January 2012 in front of the Island of Giglio. A tragic night, full of emotions, that changed the life of those who were on board and the history of tourist navigation.
Hitler's Hollywood (2017)
Hitler's Hollywood (2017)
Film journalist and critic Rüdiger Suchsland examines German cinema from 1933, when the Nazis came into power, until 1945, when the Third Reich collapsed. (A sequel to From Caligari to Hitler, 2015.)
Paragraph 175 (2000)
Paragraph 175 (2000)
During the Nazi regime, there was widespread persecution of homosexual men, which started in 1871 with the Paragraph 175 of the German Penal Code. Thousands were murdered in concentration camps. This powerful and disturbing documentary, narrated by Rupert Everett, presents for the first time the largely untold testimonies of some of those who survived.
From Caligari to Hitler (2015)
From Caligari to Hitler (2015)
Film journalist and critic Rüdiger Suchsland examines German cinema from 1919, when the Republic of Weimar is born, to 1933, when the Nazis come into power. (Followed by Hitler's Hollywood, 2017.)
Chernobyl 30 Years On: Nuclear Heritage (2015)
Chernobyl 30 Years On: Nuclear Heritage (2015)
Thirty years after the Chernobyl disaster, which occurred on the night of April 26, 1986, its causes and consequences are examined. In addition, a report on efforts to strengthen the structures covering the core of the nuclear plant in order to better protect the population and the environment is offered.
It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives (1971)
It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives (1971)
Daniel, a young man from the provinces come to the city and moves from one gay subculture to the next. His adventures begin on the streets of Berlin, where the shy brunette Daniel meets the blonde Clemens, who invites him home for coffee and offers him a place to stay. Soon Daniel is living with Clemens and believes he has found the love of his life. The two try to imitate a bourgeois marriage and its lifestyle. But after four months of tedium, Daniel is cruised by a rich older man who entices him to move into his villa, where he encounters a group of older gays, pretentious in their appreciations of fine art and classical music, who fawn over him.