Last Sunday....via ZDF (the Channel Two network from public-run TV)....I had the first installment of 'Germany Saga'. It's a six-part series from Professor Christopher Clark from Cambridge University. Later this week, I caught the second part of the series.
Each of the episodes run for approximately forty-five minutes, and does a five-star job of telling a piece of history that you'd expect out of a Cambridge University professor. In some ways, it was a great lecture and he guides you through to meet Karl the Great, and later brings you to the vast Roman period and what meant to the average German.
It is a fine series. Rarely do I say great things about state-run TV in Germany...but they did a great job in hiring the professor, and letting him tell the remarkable history of Germany, in his own way.
If you were reviewing or taking a university program through German history....I'd strongly recommend Germany Saga and just spend an entire Saturday going through the entire series. Things would make sense, and you'd more easily piece together the 100 pieces of the German puzzle.
This Sunday (10th) will feature the episode "What Unites Us" at 7:30PM, the third segment.
2 comments:
Since you are someone interested in history and an American, you may want to have a look at this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCToMDEaefo
Something in german tv worth watching I suppose, or do you think he's completly wrong?
After watching the whole thing...I'd say thirty percent was accurate and on the spot. Between the remaining effort? Some misquotes, some deeds in history tied to singular causes but reality would lists numerous causes, and some efforts would require a historian an hour or two to explain the whole singular episode to the crowd.
Germans tend to start middle eastern history, like Americans...at 9-11. You basically need to go back to WW I and examine Lawrence of Arabia and what came to be after his efforts. The impact of oil, the Saudis, the PLO, the American relationship....all go back to WW I.
And as for the Iranian flip over the Shah....there's volumes of text (with humor) over what happened, and why. Same with the Iran-Iraq War, which barely ever gets mentioned today.
Yeah, I'm a skeptic to the ninth degree now. You have to be, with so many people writing ten versions of history, and each saying they blame so-and-so as the basis of their version.
As silly as it sounds...the Wall only comes down on 9 November because some guy said the wrong thing on the nightly news episode in DDR. Historians would hate to relate this story because it sounds so foolish, but it's the blunt truth.
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