Press Release: Autentic Distribution celebrates high-end doc “Berlin 1945” ratings success

Autentic Distribution celebrates high ratings success of the premiere of “Berlin 1945” on French-German broadcaster Arte, which was immensely well-received by critics in Germany.

The French-German channel aired Volker Heise’s World War II series “Berlin 1945” about the last moments of the metropolis before its liberation by the Allied forces on May 8th and scored an excellent market share of 1.9% for the first episode and 3.2% for the second episode. The groundbreaking historical series has captured up to 1.4 million viewers (part 1: 650,000 viewers; part two: 800,000 viewers) with never before seen archival footage.

The archival series was described by critics as “a multi-perspective mosaic” (Berliner Zeitung) with “strong images that drag the viewer into the events” (Berliner Zeitung), “a series that must be seen” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), and ”a two-part series that paints a startling picture of the war” (Weser Kurier Online). Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung concluded that Volker Heise’s doc is “not a symphony but an oratory in which the voices of eyewitnesses resonate together”.

“Berlin 1945” is produced by zero one film in co-production with bauderfilm, Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (rbb), in cooperation with Arte, funded by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. Autentic Distribution is in charge of the worldwide distribution of the docuseries, which comes as a 3×50’ series, a 2×90’ series and a 1×180’ special.