DW Documentary gives you information beyond the headlines. Watch top documentaries from German broadcasters and international production companies. Meet intriguing people, travel to distant lands, get a look behind the complexities of daily life and build a deeper understanding of current affairs and global events. Subscribe and explore the world around you with DW Documentary from Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany’s international broadcaster.
From DW Documentary. Angela Merkel has been Germany’s Chancellor for 16 years. In that time, she has steered the country through countless international crises, frequently crossing swords with other world leaders. When Angela Merkel was sworn in as the first female Chancellor in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany on 22 November 2005,…
From DW Documentary. Child labor is common in Myanmar. Impoverished families are often faced with the hard choice of exploiting or abandoning their children. Some underage workers are even adopted by their employers, leaving them exposed to physical and emotional abuse. In September 2016, it was revealed that a locally well-known tailor shop had enslaved…
From DW Documentary. The Soviet deployment in Afghanistan triggered a 10-year conflict that changed the world. This film unveils the full story of this war, which marked the beginning of the fall of the USSR. In April 1978, Afghanistan’s President Mohammed Daoud Khan was overthrown and murdered in a coup d’état led by communist rebels.…
From DW Documentary. Dairy cows are calculated to be profitable for only six years in industrial farming. After that, the long-suffering dairy cows get sent to the slaughterhouse. An association in Germany is working to save as many animals as possible from this fate. Matthias Obenhack runs a family farm in central Germany. But he…
From DW Documentary. The pharmaceutical industry exerts a huge amount of influence on health policy. Some companies develop highly profitable drugs with public money, while others have been found to have covered up serious side effects. The fight against Covid-19 is further fueling the greed of pharmaceutical companies. Does the industry’s influence threaten public health…
From DW Documentary. The attacks of September 11, 2001, changed the lives of many children and young people dramatically. But they are committed to overcoming their harrowing experiences — despite the shadow the Twin Towers cast over their lives. "Those pictures… Nothing is the way it was, but I’ve made my peace with it. I…
From DW Documentary. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 sent the world into a state of shock. Yet some had been loudly and publicly warning of the dangers posed by terrorism. Ahmad Shah Massoud, an Afghan Mujahideen commander, was among them. It’s September 9, 2001, two days before the terrorist attacks on the World…
From DW Documentary. Twenty years after 9/11, clean-up workers are fighting for recognition. Jorge Roldan is one of them. Twenty years on, there are still unsung heroes of 9/11. Many of the workers who cleared up after the attack on the World Trade Center were undocumented immigrants and their contributions remain unrecognized. Jorge Roldan hopes…
From DW Documentary. After the withdrawal of international troops, the Taliban swiftly seized control of Afghanistan. Just a few months prior, a team of journalists had the opportunity to film in a village already under Taliban control. At that time, the Islamist fundamentalist group controlled almost half of the country. They especially had a firm…
From DW Documentary. In mid-August, a major earthquake struck Haiti. Over 2000 people were killed, and 160,000 families lost their homes. In the worst-affected areas in the south, tensions are running high. Aid shipments are subject to looting. Plastic sheets are highly sought-after in the parts of Haiti devastated by the earthquake; homeless families can use them to…
From DW Documentary. Iran is the cradle of a great civilization. It’s also dry: arid land makes up close to a third of the country. In its center lies a vast tableland of rocky plateaus and desert. Yet this merciless climate has been home to humans for thousands of years. Central Iran, with its sand…
From DW Documentary. The battle line in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict runs between the border towns of Sderot and Gaza. Nothing but a wall and a few hundred meters separate these neighboring communities, yet their residents almost never meet. Amidst bombs and war, there is also plenty of hatred in these towns. But there are also…
From DW Documentary. A country falls into the hands of kleptocrats, a state is taken over. This happens again and again, all over the world. Including in South Africa, of all places, where the fight for democracy against a brutal apartheid regime was so hard-won. For years, a small group of investigative journalists in South…
From DW Documentary. In June 2021, all eyes in Europe were on Azerbaijan as it co-hosted EURO 2020. Some football matches were held in Baku, the capital of the oil and gas rich country. Behind the rich glitzy façade, Azerbaijan is ruled by autocratic president Ilham Aliyev and his family. Aliyev’s regime has been accused…
From DW Documentary. Refugees trying to enter Europe now head for the Spanish exclave of Ceuta on the North African coast. Sabah Hamed gives them food, medicine and advice. While the influx is overwhelming Ceuta, she says the migrants only want a better life. They come by the thousands, seeking refuge in Europe yet remain stuck in North Africa: migrants in the Spanish exclave of Ceuta. This autonomous city on the Moroccan coast is Spanish territory, yet most of the refugees who reach here are being barred from entering mainland Europe. Resident Sabah Hamed…