Auf der Spur meiner Ahnen (ZDF)

Writer and Director: Dagmar Wittmers

Producer: Brigitta Schübeler

Production: Ulrike Römhild

Line producer: Anke Meyer

Executive Producer: Hartmut Klenke

Locations: Germany (Cologne and Stuttgart), England, Austria, USA

Broadcast:
July 18 and 25, 2007

Length: 2x 45’

 

Content:

The actors Mariele Millowitsch and Walter Sittler are accompanied not only by a great deal of curiosity but also a good portion of nervousness on their “trip back.” What relatives will they encounter when they begin researching not just decades but hundreds of years in history? With a little bit of professional help and some hard work, they find out who married whom when and where the names Millowitsch and Sittler come from. But what were their ancestors’ lives like? What kind of daily routines, professions, and private lives did they have? What constellation of relationships surrounded them, what characteristics did they have, what standard of living? How did they define the meaning of life for themselves, and how did they act on it? In which local, regional, social, political and economic reality were they at home? How does one find these things out? And above all: how can our hobby genealogists make sense of all this information in their own lives? For this two-part documentary, we accompany the actors Mariele Millowitsch and Walter Sittler on their journey into the past as they find their ancestors.