16 Films & TV Shows Set In Germany During The Middle Ages
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Narcissus and Goldmund
🇩🇪 Germany The 12th CenturyIn the dark middle ages young unruly Goldmund is sent to a monastery by his father to atone for the sins of his mother, who abandoned them. It is there that he meets Narcissus, a brilliant, scholarly novice, who is introverted and aloof. A unique and deep life-long friendship is born. Narcissus chooses to remain detached from the world in prayer and meditation. Goldmund, who is passionate, sensual and impulsive, runs away from the monastery to live a picaresque wanderer’s life, his amorous and artistic adventures leading him to discover the extremes of both ecstasy and pain. Several thrilling years pass, until one day these friends cross paths again...
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Hagazussa
🇩🇪 Germany The 15th CenturyA Heathen's Curse — In the 15th century, a young goatherd living alone in a mountain hut feels a dark presence in the woods.
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Transformers: The Last Knight
Illinois South Dakota District of Columbia England 🇨🇺 Cuba 🇩🇪 Germany 🇳🇦 Namibia The Middle AgesFor one world to live, the other must die. — Autobots and Decepticons are at war, with humans on the sidelines. Optimus Prime is gone. The key to saving our future lies buried in the secrets of the past, in the hidden history of Transformers on Earth.
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Pope Joan
🇻🇦 Holy See 🇩🇪 Germany The 9th CenturyA 9th century woman of English extraction born in the German city of Ingelheim disguises herself as a man and rises through the Vatican ranks.
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12 Paces without a Head
🇩🇪 Germany The 14th CenturyThe era of the feared sea pirates Klaus Störtebeker and Gödeke Michels is coming to an end. After a long period with no booty at last a bulging ship appears on the horizon. However, Störtebeker is badly wounded in the attempted capture and the pirates suffer ignominious defeat. Not only their ship is down the drain - Störtebeker himself is suddenly plagued by anxiety and doubt about his very existence as a pirate. He is drawn to the beautiful country girl Bille, while Michels gets rebuffed by the friesian princess Okka. In the very moment that the crew have mutinied and co-captain Michels is literally at the end of his tether, they discover on board their ramshackle old tub a most unique wonder weapon. Glory days are quickly revived - until the mighty Hanse consolidate their power and weaponry and go to war against the pirates. Störtebeker and Michels are forced to decide: To live as a farmer or to die as a pirate.
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Crusade in Jeans
🇳🇱 Netherlands 🇩🇪 Germany 🇮🇹 Italy The 2000s The 13th CenturyDolf a 15 year old boy is sent back in time by a timemachine. Accidentally he is sent back to the Middle Ages. He is rescued by children who are part of a childrens' crusade, on their way to rescue Jeruzalem. During the trip Dolf finds out the danger is not coming from outside the crusade, but from within.
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Ring of the Nibelungs
🇮🇸 Iceland 🇩🇪 Germany The Middle Ages The 5th CenturyThe Nordic legend that inspired J.R.R. Tolkien to write the Lord of the Ring trilogy. — In this swords-and-sorcery tale, good-hearted blacksmith Eyvind hides away infant Prince Siegfried after two malevolent kings murder his father. But a fiery meteor sent by the gods reveals Siegfried's destiny, sending him on the quest of a lifetime. To save a crumbling kingdom claim the heart of his true love, he'll have to slay the nefarious dragon, Fafnir.
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The Death of the White Stallion
🇩🇪 Germany The 16th CenturyThis somewhat superficial historical drama is about the 1525 Peasants' War in Germany when the lower classes rebelled against oppressive conditions imposed by the clergy and nobility and then committed many acts (including atrocities) that did not morally set them far apart from the people they were fighting. It was a time of upheaval: Martin Luther (1483-1556) had broken away from the Catholic Church, calling for reform, and Anabaptists in Germany, like Thomas Munzer fought on the side of the peasants (opposed by Luther). This complex age and its political and religious turmoil are summed up in a story about an attack on a small monastery whose monks used a forged document to confiscate some land from the peasants. When their wrong-doing is revealed by the monk who forged the document in the first place, the peasants attack.
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Jörg Ratgeb - Maler
🇩🇪 Germany The 16th CenturyThe painter Joerge Ratgeb was a contemporary of Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528). Based on the evidence in paintings discovered to be Ratgeb's work, and on fragments of the historical record, he is believed to have been one of the rare craftsmen who supported the Peasant's War (1524-26). This East German film recounts his efforts as an ancient ally in struggles prefiguring the rise of communism and workers' movements. In the film, set in 1517, Ratgeb (a resident of Herrenberg) has been asked by the peasant's group to paint a flag for them for their coming protests, but he refuses, claiming he is an artist, not a politician. During a trip to visit Albrecht Dürer, who is his artistic hero, he has occasion to see the oppression of the peasants and serfs and comes to believe that something must be done.
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The Pied Piper
🇩🇪 Germany The Middle AgesCome children of the universe, let Donovan take you away, far far away. — Greed, corruption, ignorance, and disease. Midsummer, 1349: the Black Death reaches northern Germany. Minstrels go to Hamelin for the Mayor's daughter's wedding to the Baron's son. He wants her dowry to pay his army while his father taxes the people to build a cathedral he thinks will save his soul. A local apothecary who's a Jew seeks a treatment for the plague; the priests charge him with witchcraft. One of the minstrels, who has soothed the Mayor's daughter with his music, promises to rid the town of rats for the fee. The Mayor agrees, then renigs. In the morning, the plague, the Jew's trial, and the Piper's revenge come at once.
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Thomas Müntzer
🇩🇪 Germany The 16th CenturyIn 1523, young Thomas Müntzer arrives with his wife Ottilie in the Thuringian village Allstedt to assume the rectorate. As a follower of Luther′s teachings, he finds in the Bible not only reasons for clerical, but also for secular reforms. But when Luther turns away from the rural population after a discord with Müntzer, it is Müntzer who becomes the peoples′ spokesman. He is forced to go to Southern Germany, where he convenes with revolting farmers. But his way leads him back to Thuringia. In 1525, he and Heinrich Pfeiffer form the centre of the Thuringian peasant uprising in Mühlhausen, but their success is diminished by the fact that peasants and craftsmen don′t seem to be able to work together. In Frankenhausen, Müntzer becomes the leader of a peasants′ army that is set to fighting the ruler′s army – and sustains a devastating loss. Müntzer is arrested and sentenced to death by decapitation for his insurgency.
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Judgement of God
🇩🇪 Germany The 14th CenturyBavaria, 1433. Reason of state rules that Prince Albert is to marry Princess Bertha of Wurtemberg. But the fine-looking young man is loath to become the husband of a woman with pimples,flat feet and no breast. Nevertheless, he has to obey his authoritarian father, Duke Ernest, and accompanied by faithful Count Törring, he mounts his steed and sets out for Würtemberg. Stopping in Augsburg, he falls in love with the daughter of a local barber-surgeon, pure and beautiful Agnès Bernauer. The couple is soon secretly married and both take refuge at the castle of Margravine Josepha, Albert's aunt, waiting for Ernest's consent. Unluckily Albert's father will not accept his son's union with a commoner and Albert, supported by Josepha and an army of common people, declares war on the Duke. They seem about to be victorious when Brother Enrique, a monk formerly in the Holy Inquisition, finds a way to reverse the situation: accusing Agnès of witchcraft...
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Der Ochsenkrieg
🇩🇪 Germany The 14th Century -
Der Klosterjäger
🇩🇪 Germany The 14th CenturyKnight Dietwald von Falkenau returns from his trip to see the Pope through Berchtesgaden to his cloister. He was unsuccessful in his mission to have the papal ban against his emperor lifted. The young Walti, who works in the cloister, jokes with the cloister' cook, Severin, because Dietwald's cold stare scared him. Severin rebukes him, saying that Dietwald has been carrying a heavy burden. Once, Dietwald had his own fortress. This, however, was destroyed during an attack and his wife killed. Since then, he has not seen his daughter again.
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Der Klosterjäger
🇩🇪 Germany The 14th Century