Best movies like Denk ich an Deutschland – Das Wispern im Berg der Dinge

In a totalitarian society of the future, in which the government controls all facets of the media, a homicide detective investigates a string of bombings, and finds out more than he bargained for.

During a house concert, the Bach family gets a visit by their son Wilhelm Friedemann, who has just given up his position in Dresden because he no longer could endure the reprisals of his superiors.

This inventive, exhaustive seven-hour film looks at the rise, reign and demise of Adolf Hitler. German director Hans Jürgen Syberberg, who was a child during World War II, doesn't try to recreate history to the letter. Instead, he places his actors -- many of whom play several roles -- on a stage and has them reenact events based on and inspired by Hitler's life. The action combines traditional narration and historical characters, but also idiosyncratic tweaks, like the use of puppets.

Reflected in an artificial and bombastically staged illusory world with Wagnerian compositions, glossy and satirical time references, 19th century German figures and traditions are stripped of their mythology and interpreted by the Germany of 1972.

Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi once more explores the dilemma of intellectualism at the expense of humanity in 1982's Imperative. The story concerns math professor Robert Powell, who feels that there is something lacking in his ever-so-precise life. What is missing is truth, specifically philosophical truth. Thus he philosophizes at great length, allowing director Zanussi plenty of room for didactic but little room for warmth. Leading ladies Brigette Fossey and Leslie Caron occasionally melt through the cold logic of Imperative.

Director William Dieterle's 1956 film biography of classical composer Richard Wagner stars Carlos Thompson, Yvonne De Carlo, Rita Gam, Alan Badel and Valentina Cortese.

The movie deals with the championship-winning German soccer team of 1954. Its story is linked with two others: The family of a young boy is split due to the events in World War II, and the father returns from Russia after eleven years. The second story is about a reporter and his wife reporting from the tournament.

The Ethiopian intellectual Anberber returns to his native country during the repressive totalitarian regime of Haile Mariam Mengistu and the recognition of his own displacement and powerlessness at the dissolution of his people's humanity and social values. After several years spent studying medicine in Germany, he finds the country of his youth replaced by turmoil. His dream of using his craft to improve the health of Ethiopians is squashed by a military junta that uses scientists for its own political ends. Seeking the comfort of his countryside home, Anberber finds no refuge from violence. The solace that the memories of his youth provide is quickly replaced by the competing forces of military and rebelling factions. Anberber needs to decide whether he wants to bear the strain or piece together a life from the fragments that lie around him.

A showcase of German chancellor and Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler at the 1934 Nuremberg Rally.

In a small Swiss village, a school sports coach is accused of molestation by the mother of one of his pupils. The citizens are outraged…that the mother could make such a claim – for the coach she accuses is a local hero, a former world champion who has become the town’s closest thing to a sporting legend.

Patrick and Julia have an enviable, stable marriage, there is security and inspiration. But no sex. The couple's well-established life structure falls apart when they outsource the deficit with the help of a confident, attractive young woman, who completely underestimates her feelings.

After the end of the GDR, thrashings, threats and hunts were part of everyday life. In the years after the reunification of the early 1990s, hatred, racism and violence against foreigners and supporters of leftist ideology broken out in Eastern Germany. Most of those involved was young people. In many cities and towns, the streets and squares belonged to the right-wing scene, organized in neo-Nazi comradeships. Bomber jackets, combat boots and the Hitler salute showed the intimidated rest where they were. The baseball bat was a popular weapon. There were riots, attacks on asylum seekers' homes, mass brawls and hunt downs to those who look or think differently. It doesn't took long and the first deaths were to be mourned. The majority of the Eastern German population looked the other way or even applauded the deeds. A bad omen for the political development of later years. In six film segments, a team of authors take a look at the time reflected in interviews with contemporary witnesses.

Hans-Jürgen Syberberg’s epic interview with Winifred Wagner in 1975.

Dennis, an American private eye, is sent to Germany to find out as much as possible about typical Germans and typically German behaviour. Disguised as a TV reporter he sets sail for Germany where we follow him interviewing a wide variety of people, from politicians and intellectuals to policemen, demonstrants and ordinary people in the street. All this, however, is not what the film is really about, for "Deckname Dennis" is actually a satirical documentary about all those extremely odd people, groups and societies whose attitudes and behaviour are far too outrageous for anybody to take seriously. Therefore ALL the documentary bits are real, i.e. the people really thought they were being interviewed by an American reporter, and so they gladly presented an insight into their beliefs, ideas and goals.

A satire on the political and spiritual conditions in GDR by the end of the 80s.

In August 1988, two armed bank robbers keep German police at bay for 54 hours during a hostage-taking drama that ends in a shootout and three deaths.

1779. Eight-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven, called "Louis", is already known as a musical prodigy. He learns to go his own way - much to the dismay of the people around him. Some years later, he meets Mozart during times of political upheaval. The unconventional genius and French Revolution are sparking a fire in Louis' heart; he doesn't want to serve a master - only the arts. Facing times of family tragedies and unrequited love, he almost gives up. However, Louis makes it to Vienna to study under Haydn in 1792, and the rest is history. Who was this man, whose music has since touched countless hearts and minds? At the end of his life, the master is isolated by loss of loved ones and hearing. Surely though, he was way ahead of his times.

In 1818, when Joseph Mohr is assigned to be the new assistant priest in Oberndorf, a small Austrian town near Salzburg, the young man is full of ideas and ideals. His passion to bring the church closer to the common people sets him on a collision course with his new superior, Father Nostler. When Mohr organizes a church choir that includes outcasts from the local tavern and performs in German instead of Latin, Nostler threatens him with disciplinary action. Their relationship further deteriorates when Maria a regular tavern patron, surprisingly joins the performance of the all-male church choir. As Mohr's initial successes start to crumble and his efforts backfire on him, he loses all hope and faces a trial of faith. The night before Christmas, Mohr has to decide if he will accept defeat and leave Oberndorf or embrace the true significance of the Holy Night.

In his film version, Curt Goetz shifts the focus away from the poetic output towards the young Friedrich Schiller himself: on the misery of his soul whilst a pupil of the ducal military academy, his opposition to the strict physical drill and the narrow intellectual confines of the "Karlsschule", his juvenile passion for the works of Shakespeare, Klopstock and Lessing, his anger at unjust authorities, his devotion to women, and finally his inability to cope with financial matters

An account of the life and work of controversial German orchestra conductor Herbert von Karajan (1908-89), celebrated as one of the greatest musicians of the twentieth century.

Longtime best friends Sid and Jonesie are dumped by their respective girlfriends. Both without a living situation, they decide to become "bromates", bros who are roommates, which puts their relationship to the ultimate test.

A traumatized young man, abused by his father, imagines himself as Adolf Hitler when dreaming of revenge. Schlingensief released this film, which follows no linear narrative structure, at a moment when right-leaning German intellectuals argued for a coming to terms of the country’s relation with its Nazi past. Schlingensief disagreed. (MoMA)

A look behind the doors of the five-storey Paradise club in Stuttgart, exploring what life's like for sex workers and their clients in a country with some of the world's most liberal prostitution laws.

During the donations scandal of 1999/2000, Helmut Kohl gave his legendary "word of honor" not to name any donors. This documentary explores the question of what this word of honor was really all about

Wayne Lo is intellectually gifted, did well at school and plays the violin superbly. At Simon's Rock College in Massachusetts he shot dead two men unprovoked, injured many others and is now serving a life sentence. Troller draws a bold portrait that centres around one question: why?

Over the past 18 months, journalist Thilo Mischke has conducted research for ProSieben within right-wing networks and met supporters of various right-wing and right-wing extremist groups. In the "ProSieben Special: Right. German. Radical." he pursues the question: "Is our liberal democratic basic order in danger?

"Kruso" tells of the last summer before the Wall came down on the small island of Hiddensee in the Baltic Sea. Beyond state-organized tourism, the isolated island became a kind of artist colony every year and a place of longing for dropouts and alternatives. Due to its proximity to Denmark, Hiddensee was also the starting point for the flight across the Baltic Sea.

A psychological interpretation of the opera mixing in references to the history of Germany, Wagner’s life, German literature and philosophy. The action is centered on Wagner’s death mask. Kundry is the main character – one might read the film as the story of her redemption rather than that of Amfortas.

A young man gets caught up in a conflict between his friends, a skinhead and a gay anarchist.

This anti-coming-of-age film follows Generation Y characters as they chase the desire for radical self-realisation.

A documentary of the German national soccer team’s 2006 World Cup experience that changed the face of modern Germany.