Who were the players in the “ultimate poker game” between East and West? Who really had their fingers on the trigger, and who was just bluffing? What were the stakes? This series sets to shed new light onto the history of the Cold War, not merely as a series of events, but focusing on the multi-faceted stories behind the images we all know so well.

Most of us have experienced it, it is our history. The Cold War brought mankind to the edge of an abyss. It was fought on all fronts – political, military, business, culture, sport – in secret, as well as publicly through the media. Images of enemies and ideologies have survived, just like our atomic and conventional weapons arsenals, secret services, propaganda or fake news, and – state surveillance. The world we live in today is, in many ways, characterized by the decades-long conflict between East and West. The fear of a “new Cold War” actually defines people’s perception of the current relationship between the USA and Russia.

So far, the Cold War has mostly been seen either as a purely political or military issue. In this new series, we pursue a multi-perspective approach: on the one hand, by telling the story of the Cold War in the fields of politics, the military, economy and everyday life; on the other, by deliberately contrasting the two enemy camps and perspectives: East vs. West; United States vs. USSR; West Germany vs. East Germany.