The Best TV Shows on DFF 1

This five-part East German biographical drama chronicles the life and religious reforms of Martin Luther, the 16th-century monk who sparked the Protestant Reformation. Produced by DEFA Studios for East German television to commemorate Luther's 500th birthday, the series follows Luther from his early protests against the Catholic Church's sale of indulgences in 1517 through his translation of the Bible.

A man who has just become unemployed kills his closest relatives before he judges himself. Commissioner Schimanski determined.

A story about German resistance group fighting SS units during WWII.

Two-part miniseries about Einstein's escape from Germany in 1932 and his influence in the invention of the nuclear bomb in 1939.

An adventures of a Berlin family spending summer in haunted house.

Polizeiruf 110 is a long-running German language detective television series. The first episode was broadcast 27 June 1971 in the German Democratic Republic, and after the dissolution of Fernsehen der DDR the series was picked up by ARD. It was originally created as a counterpart to the West German series Tatort, and quickly became a public favorite.

Love, intrigue, favouritism and corruption at the Dresdner Hof.

Treffpunkt Flughafen is an East-German television series produced by the DEFA-Studio für Spielfilme on behalf of Fernsehen der DDR in 1985/86. The show follows the life and adventures of the crew of a IL-62 operated by the East-German airline Interflug. Filming locations were East Germany, Vietnam, Angola and Cuba among others.

The show was meant to compete with those on West German television. To this end it was fairly successful even attracting a following in parts of West Germany which could receive Eastern TV. Its production values were high. Apart from song and dance numbers and appearances from East German celebrities, almost every broadcast featured well-known stars from the west, often after their popularity had peaked in their home countries.

Der Staatsanwalt hat das Wort was an East German television series.

Der schwarze Kanal was a series of political propaganda programmes broadcast weekly between 1960 and 1989 by East German television. Each edition was made up of recorded extracts from recent West German television programmes re-edited to include a Communist commentary.

Russian soldier Grisha escapes from a German prisoner-of-war camp in the spring of 1917. He is caught and is to be shot as a spy. This decision is controversial. The dispute continues. Grisha is executed on the orders of the army high command.

Four-part miniseries about the theologian Thomas Müntzer, who became a revolutionary and opponent of Luther during the Peasant War in 1525.

The film is set in the 1930s in Germany. Maria Rheine and Mark Löwenthal, two young actors working in a small theater, are in love with each other. Their love affair is interrupted by Nazi racial policies; Mark is no longer allowed to perform in German theaters because he is a Jew. In order to continue acting, he joins the newly formed Jewish Theater in Berlin. Maria, who is not Jewish, faces no restrictions on her career, and she becomes a successful actress at a big theater in Munich. But her love for Mark eventually leads her to decide to sacrifice both career and security to remain close to him. She fakes a suicide, assumes a Jewish identity and, as Manja Löwenthal, joins the Jewish Theater.

Familie Neumann is a German television series.

Johanna is a German television series.