Blood & Iron: The Story of the German War Machine

THE GREAT WAR COMES (episode 1) takes the viewer back to the early days of German industrial development in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the development of its overwhelmingly impressive armaments industry, including major ocean-going battleships and the planes that would become part of World War I lore. It details the initial development of chemical weaponry in Germany by German scientists. It shows the outstanding prowess of German scientists and engineers. It culminates in the use of Germany's massive weaponry in World War I, the great war that killed millions in the greatest and most widespread conflagration the world had ever known.

FATAL ALLIANCES (episode 2) uses rare footage to show the development of Germany's war machine throughout the 1920s and 1930s, and how it led into World War II. With runaway inflation making daily life excruciatingly difficult for the average German, Germany evaded restrictions put on it after World War I, Hitler came to power promising economic restoration and the end of inflation. He secretly turned to the re-armament of Germany Firms like Krupp and Messerschmitt and E.G. Farben became major players in Germany's industrial revival and the creation of a potent war-making machine. Germany's leadership, under Hitler, adopted aggressive policies that threatened the peace of the world and led into World War II. Germany's impressive war machine dominated the battlefield in early years; but the Western Allies and the Soviet Union developed a fierce resistance, and the Nazis eventually had their upcoming, after incredible death and destruction.

FROM NUREMBERG TO NATO (episode 3) starts with the destruction of Germany in the waning days of World War II. German leaders faced trials at Nuremberg, a number were judged guilty and executed, and some such as industrial chieftain Alfried Krupp were sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Germany's industrial might was no more, but Germany began the process of what became known as an "economic miracle," in which Germany would become once again Europe's leading industrial power. Germany became divided. The Cold War forced the Western powers to integrate West Germany (the Federal Republic) into NATO's military structure. Within 10 years after the end of World War II, the German economic revival was in full swing, and Germany ironically became an integral (and soon, highly respected) part of the Western alliance.