Overview
- The 45‑minute 37° film by Max Damm is scheduled to air on ZDF on Tuesday, August 4, at 22:15 and traces social divisions that grew during the COVID‑19 era.
- The documentary opens with a Demokratiemonitor 2025 finding from the University of Hohenheim that about one in four Germans suspect the government is hiding the truth, using that statistic to frame wider distrust.
- One case study profiles Fritz Düker, a 56‑year‑old oral surgeon and local politician from Offenburg who became a vocal critic of pandemic rules and was fined for issuing unlawful mask exemptions.
- Other portraits show private fallout: Cecilia, a teacher, describes a long estrangement from her mother over sharing pandemic 'fake news,' and Claudia recounts leaving a Christian online community that layered truths into larger falsehoods.
- Experts in the film, including Hartmut Rosa, Philipp Hübl and journalist Nena Brockhaus, debate free speech and media responsibility and the film concludes by urging practical ways to keep human encounters open despite unresolved differences.