About Generation War
Generation War (Unsere Mutter, unsere Vater, literally Our Mothers, Our Fathers) is an acclaimed German miniseries that opens in Berlin in 1941, where five young friends gather one last time before the war pulls them apart. They make a simple promise: to meet again when it is all over. Brothers Wilhelm and Friedhelm Winter head to the Eastern Front as soldiers, the aspiring singer Greta dreams of stardom, the gentle Charlotte trains as a nurse, and Viktor, a Jewish tailor's son and Greta's love, faces a Germany turning against him.
Over three feature-length parts, the series follows each of the five along very different paths, tracing how the conflict tests their friendship, their consciences, and their idea of who they are. The story moves between the front lines, a field hospital, and an occupied Europe in which ordinary choices carry enormous moral weight. As the years pass, the optimism of that final evening together gives way to disillusionment, and the characters are forced to reckon with what survival has cost them.
A landmark and much-debated German production, Generation War was praised for its ambition and its sober look at a generation swept into catastrophe, while also drawing serious discussion among historians and critics across Europe over how it portrays the era. The result is a sweeping, intimate portrait of innocence lost, told through five friends who set out believing the war would be brief and find themselves transformed by everything that follows.
