Age of Iron: this is what the survivors called the Thirty Years War, which raged in Europe from 1618 to 1648.

For the people at the time, the war was a huge catastrophic event. It was a war about religion and about power in Europe. What began as a regional conflict between Bohemian rebels and the Habsburg emperor gradually became a conflagration of huge proportions. Millions of people lost their lives. Entire regions were depopulated by destruction, disease and famine. But by the end of this war, the idea of a new Europe had emerged.

This documentary drama series tells the story of the Thirty Years War from the perspective of the people who experienced it: like the soldier Peter Hagendorf, the “Winter Queen” Elisabeth Stuart, the famous artist Peter Paul Rubens and the “Grey Eminence” Father Joseph. Their gripping accounts, letters and diary entries are condensed into a fascinating and emotive portrait of the time. The top-class cast includes Gloria Endres de Oliveira (“Berlin Babylon”), Thomas Gerber (“Ku’damm 56”), Anna König (“Ku’damm 56”) and Christin Nicols (“Deutschland ’86”).