Back with a Vengeance • 2023 • episode "S1E2" • Putin vs the West

59:47

"Had the party given me orders, maybe East Germany would still exist today. You can count on that." (Erich Mielke, Minister of State Security from 1957-1989) An informative and chilling account of the history of the notorious East German secret police, the Stasi. Up to 90,000 full-time employees and more than 180,000 unofficial informants work for the Ministry for State Security of the GDR, and about one in 50 adults in East Germany collaborated with East Germany's Secret Police. Relative to population, it was the largest secret service in the history of mankind. Headed by the sinister Erich Mielke, the Stasi kept the East German population under constant surveillance. The Stasi - just another intelligence agency, in just another country? "Shield and Sword of the Party" is what the Stasi calls itself. The Party dictatorship never dares to face its opponents. Instead, the Stasi has to keep all dissenting opinions under control. The goal is total total surveillance. In addition to the state security, the "Stasi" is responsible for foreign intelligence and counter-espionage, personal and property protection, border and passport controls. As the party's shield and sword, the MfS is supposed to keep all enemies of the state under control. "Die Firma: Stasi" takes a look at the extent of Stasi work and shows the omnipresence of state security - from the enormous headquarters of the Ministry in Berlin through district administrations, local offices, detention facilities, prisons, disguised isolation camps, hidden bunkers, reconnaissance planes, eavesdropping stations to the secret execution site of the GDR. Through tapping phones, reading mail, and installing informers they created an insidious culture of fear and suspicion. This definitive doc reveals the calculated cruelty and brutal repression committed by East Germany's most infamous organization.

2007 • History

44:12

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon are known to history as the Knights Templar. They were among the most wealthy and powerful of all of the western military orders and for the 200 hundred years of their existence, were at the forefront of Christian finance. A look at the wealthiest of all the western military orders. Endorsed by the Catholic Church around 1129, these are Templar knights, and this is their story. If any single image epitomises the medieval era in the popular imagination, it is that of the heroic, chivalrous Knight. Clad in shining armour, his story was first told by authors in the 19th century before being carried on by Hollywood. But what are the truths behind the myths and legends? The Crusaders aims to find out.

S1E1 • The Crusaders • 2019 • History

24:42

What would the Civil Rights movement in the USA have been like if Martin Luther King, Jr. had not been motivating change? How does the legacy of the American Civil War still affect the American democracy?

S1E3 • Butterfly Effect • 2016 • History

52:00

On June 28th, 1914, the assassination of an obscure Austrian archduke in Sarajevo triggers the most disastrous conflict the world has ever known. Germany becomes an enemy to France, invades Belgium, and in September arrives at the gates of Paris.

S1E1 • Apocalypse: World War 1 • 2014 • History

21:44

About 10,000 years ago we discover farming. But when crops fail, early farming communities face a new threat. War. It's the birth of the arms race.

1/12 • Mankind Decoded • 2013 • History

24:45

The dramatic story of the defense of France against Hitler's invading army in order to enable the desperate evacuation of over 300K men of the British Expeditionary Force and Allied troops across the English Channel to safety in 1940.

S2E7 • Butterfly Effect • 2018 • History