''100 Jahre – Der Countdown'' (English - ''100 Years - The Countdown'') is a German documentary television series produced by Zolcer TV. It was first broadcast in 1999 on

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

. The host of the series is

Guido Knopp Guido Knopp (born 29 January 1948 in Treysa, Hesse) is a German journalist and author. He is well known in Germany, mainly because he has produced a great number of TV documentaries, predominantly about the "Third Reich" and National Socialism, b ...

. Most of the 100 episodes focus on a single event in a given year. The total length of the series is about 16 hours. The series was first broadcast on the last 100 days of 1999, one episode after the daily news cast . Since New Year's Eve 1999 the full length of "100 Jahre" is broadcast several times a year by

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

Structure

Each of the ten-minute episodes begins with a title. It first shows the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

from space. As earth comes closer into view, the series title track plays along with historic recordings. These are: ''" Three, Two, One"'' -

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, ...

countdown ''" I Have a Dream"'' -

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

''" Do you want total war?"'' - Joseph Goebbels ''"We choose freedom!"'' -

Konrad Adenauer Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (; 5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman who served as the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of the Christian Dem ...

''" I am a Berliner"'' -

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

''"

The wall ''The Wall'' is the eleventh studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released on 30 November 1979 by Harvest/EMI and Columbia/ CBS Records. It is a rock opera that explores Pink, a jaded rock star whose eventual self-imp ...

must go!"'' -

Willy Brandt Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and served as the chancellor of West Ge ...

''"We are the people!"'' -

Monday demonstrations in East Germany The Monday demonstrations (german: Montagsdemonstrationen in der DDR) were a series of peaceful political protests against the government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) that took place in towns and cities around the country on various d ...

After the opening credits three events of the year are briefly shown followed by an introduction. In this we see the Earth again before the featured year is displayed and the view through the closed hallmark of the second-ranked 9 on the respective continent zooms. After this begins the actual sequence that is about the last-mentioned event. This is used as a hook for a more detailed consideration of the topic, not limited only to the year. Several of the previously mentioned issues are addressed briefly in other episodes. The individual effects are rotated so that when taken by itself conclusive, and the knowledge from previous episodes is not necessarily required. For example, in the wake of falling to his knees in Warsaw (1970) again reported a lot about the

Warsaw ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (german: Warschauer Ghetto, officially , "Jewish Residential District in Warsaw"; pl, getto warszawskie) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the G ...

, with The Boy from Warsaw (1943) having its own segment. No known episode was made for 1902, 1904, 1905, 1908, 1910, 1915, 1921, 1931, 1935, 1950, 1952, 1957, 1971, 1973, 1984 and 1996. The year 1999 is also omitted. The years 1922, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1941, 1943, 1945, 1954, 1967, 1968, 1972, 1974, 1986 and 1991, however, had two episodes, and for 1953, three. The zooming into the continents is usually to

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

, followed by North America and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

was rarely shown, only twice (1960 - Operation Eichmann, 1982 -

The Falklands War The Falklands War ( es, link=no, Guerra de las Malvinas) was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland I ...

);

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

and Australia are not shown at all.

Episodes

The documentary is divided into ten chapters:

Chapter 1: World on the Move

* 1900 - Long Live the Century * 1901 - The grandmother of Europe * 1903 - The Dream of Flying * 1906 - The Earthquake in San Francisco * 1907 - The Magician and the Empress * 1909 - Votes for Women! * 1911 - The Race to the South Pole * 1912 - The Sinking of the Titanic * 1913 - The Last German Emperor*

Chapter 2: Trench Warfare

* 1914 - The Assassination in Sarajevo * 1916 - The Hell of Verdun * 1917 - The Red Revolution * 1918 - Long Live the Republic! * 1919 - The Dictated Peace*

Chapter 3: Crazy Years

* 1920 - The Big Prohibition* * 1922 - Mussolini's March on Rome* * 1922 - The Grave of Tutankhamun * 1923 - Hitler's Coup * 1924 - Stalin's Grip on Power * 1925 - Chaplin in the Gold Rush* * 1926 - The Black Venus * 1927 - The first Atlantic flight * 1928 - The Medicine of the Century * 1929 - The Black Friday * 1930 - Gandhi's Salt March * 1932 - Weimar at its End*

Chapter 4: Hitler in power

* 1933 - Hitler's Subreption of Power * 1934 - Mao's Long March* * 1936 - At the Moment of Death* * 1936 - The Beautiful Illusion * 1937 - The Zeppelin Inferno* * 1937 - Stalin, the Dictator * 1938 - The Bought Peace* * 1938 - The Pogrom Night

Chapter 5: Total war

* 1939 - The Raid * 1940 - Hitler in Paris* * 1941 - "Operation Barbarossa" * 1941 - Attack on Pearl Harbor * 1942 - Crime Scene Auschwitz* * 1943 - Decision at Stalingrad * 1943 - The Boy from Warsaw (was not originally aired on television) * 1944 - The Longest Day * 1945 - The Red Flag over the Reichstag* * 1945 - The Bomb

Chapter 6: New Beginning

* 1946 - The Tribunal of the Victors * 1947 - The Struggle for Israel* * 1948 - Berlin Candy Bomber * 1949 - Birth of the Federal Republic* * 1951 - Churchill's Last Battle* * 1953 - Triumph on Everest * 1953 - The Coronation* * 1953 - Stones Against Tanks * 1954 - Marilyn Myth * 1954 - The Bombing of Bikini * 1955 - The Return of the Ten Thousand*

Chapter 7: Cold War

* 1956 - The Hungarian Uprising * 1958 - The King of Rock 'n' Roll * 1959 - The Victory of Fidel Castro* * 1960 - Operation Eichmann* * 1961 - The Shock of Berlin * 1962 - On the Edge of Nuclear War * 1963 - The Murder of the Century * 1964 - Cassius Clay becomes World Champion* * 1965 - Beatlemania* * 1966 - The Third Goal * 1967 - The Death of Benno Ohnesorg* * 1967 - War in the Holy Land * 1968 - The Fatal Shot* * 1968 - Words Against Tanks*

Chapter 8: Changing World

* 1969 - Departure to the Moon * 1970 - Warschauer Kniefall * 1972 - The Girl from Vietnam * 1972 - The Munich Massacre * 1974 - The Chancellor Spy* * 1974 - The Watergate Scandal * 1975 - Escape from Saigon* * 1976 - Uprising of the Children* * 1977 - The Assignment * 1978 - The Test-tube Baby* * 1979 - The Power of the Ayatollah

Chapter 9: Reversing years

* 1980 - The Strike of Gdansk* * 1981 - Shots at the Pope * 1982 - The Falklands War* * 1983 - Hitler's Fake Diaries * 1985 - Patient Zero * 1986 - The Challenger Tragedy * 1986 - The Meltdown at Chernobyl * 1987 - The Case Barschel* * 1988 - The drama of Gladbeck* (was not originally aired on television) * 1989 - The Miracle of Berlin * 1990 - The German Unity*

Chapter 10: Changing World

* 1991 - Operation Desert Storm * 1991 - Coup in Moscow * 1992 - The Bosnian tragedy * 1993 - Debacle in Somalia* * 1994 - Mandela's victory * 1995 - Murder in the Holy Land* * 1997 - Death of a Princess * 1998 - The President and the Maiden The series has been released on DVD. The contributions marked with * are not included on the DVD release.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:100 Jahre - Der Countdown German documentary television series 1999 German television series debuts 1999 German television series endings German-language television shows ZDF original programming