Thomas Schumann

Valentin, a destitute vagabond, seeks his fortune in the rat-infested city. It just so happens that Master Argus, the great wizard of the land and advisor to the queen, is in need of an apprentice. Valentin is sure that magic is just the thing for him. Although his amazing talent is revealed during the test, he is tricked by Katrina, the only competitor, and doesn't get the job. Instead, he finds shelter in the pharmacy of old master Zacharias. However, due to a terrible accident of his own making, he no longer works magic and for the time being only teaches Valentin the secrets of herbalism and medicine. Deeply dissatisfied with this, Valentin sets about learning the art of magic on his own. Beginning with the plague of rats that has appeared and disappeared overnight, he discovers a series of secrets that are all miraculously interlinked.

SOKO Leipzig is a German police procedural television programme, a spin-off of the earlier German police programme SOKO 5113. It was first broadcast on 31 January 2001, on German television channel ZDF. On 12 November 2008, the first part of a two-part crossover between SOKO Leipzig and British police procedural The Bill was aired, with the same version being shown on both ZDF and British television channel ITV1.

There is hardly anything we do more frequently and with more passion than eating. Thus the history of the food is rich in anecdotes, oddities and knowledge from cultural history to hard science. The taste of humans was very different at all times. Why do we eat what we eat and how has it developed? Star cook Christian Rach goes on a journey through the cultural history of cooking and eating. It is a journey in three courses - through kitchens, gardens, bakeries, palaces and huts, to chefs, cheese makers and winegrowers, experimenters and inventors. He learns how stone age people have cooked their soup. Why Europeans once were afraid of the potato. Why there used to be coffee-policemen in Prussia. And how things like baking soda and canned food, dishwashers and table manners were invented.