Born in the southwestern city of Heidelberg, Hofman’s elaborate television series have been broadcast in countries all over the world. In Talking Germany, Nico Hofmann speaks with us about his fascination with German history.

Nico Hofmann was born to journalist parents in Heidelberg in 1959. A class spokesman at high school, he then worked at a newspaper before following his true passion and applying to film school in Munich. Hofmann shot his first Super-8 films as a young lad, showing them to audiences in his parents’ garage for a token fee. His big breakthrough as a director came in 1995 with the TV thriller Der Sandmann. Many of his movies around this time won critical acclaim although without being major box-office hits. In 1998 he subsequently agreed to create a production division for the UFA film company. Since then Hofmann and his team have produced a continuous stream of big-budget films, primarily for television. A major focus of his work has been modern German history – from the bombing of Dresden to Berlin during the Cold War. The rights to his films have been bought by up to 100 countries. His most recent high-profile work was the fictional TV mini-series Generation War, which incorporated the wartime experiences of his own family. Nico Hofmann lives in Berlin.