Hans Mittermüller

NAPOLEON UND DIE DEUTSCHEN shows that it was, of all people, a foreign emperor—the French ruler who dominated the continent for a century—who catapulted the Germans into their national era through conquest and reform. Bonaparte, in collaboration with the German princes, put an end to the Old Empire and its territorial fragmentation. Fundamental changes take place—both with and against Napoleon. In the end, larger German states emerge from the territorial fragmentation. As a reformer, Napoleon sows the desire for freedom; as a tyrant, he awakens German national sentiment. Hardly any emperor before him has ever contributed so much to bringing the Germans closer together. Against his will, he becomes the awakener of the “nation.”

Die Deutschen is a German television documentary produced for ZDF that first aired from October to November 2008. Each episode recounts a selected epoch of German history, beginning with the reign of Otto the Great and ending with the collapse of the German Empire at the end of the First World War. In November 2010 the second season of Die Deutschen was published in German television, beginning with Charlemagne, the Frankish King, and ending with Gustav Stresemann, the Chancellor and Foreign Minister during the Weimar Republic. Historical events are recreated through a combination of live action scenes and computer generated animations. The series was filmed at over 200 different locations in Germany, Malta, and Romania at a cost of approximately €500,000 per episode.