Deutschland. Ein Sommermärchen, or Germany. A summer's tale is a 2006 documentary film

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

, written, filmed and directed by Sönke Wortmann

Sönke Wortmann

Sönke Wortmann is a German film director and producer.- Biography :Wortmann’s father was a miner. After Wortmann’s A-Levels he wanted to become a professional football player and started playing with Westfalia Herne at the third best category and with SP Vgg Erkenschwick...

. The film records German national football team's World Cup 2006

2006 FIFA World Cup

The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six...

 journey, all the way from boot camp in Sardinia

Sardinia

Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...

 to the 3rd-place play-off with Portugal

Portugal national football team

The Portugal national football team represents Portugal in association football and is controlled by the Portuguese Football Federation, the governing body for football in Portugal. Portugal's home ground is Estádio Nacional in Oeiras, and their head coach is Paulo Bento...

. The title ironically refers to Heinrich Heine

Heinrich Heine

Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...

's poem "Germany. A winter's tale". As opposed to Heine's melancholic view on Germany this movie illustrates the sanguine and optimistic atmosphere during the World Cup 2006.

The film premiered on 3 October 2006, the German Unity Day

German Unity Day

The Day of German Unity is the national day of Germany, celebrated on 3 October as a public holiday. It commemorates the anniversary of German reunification in 1990, when the goal of a unity of Germany that originated in the middle of the 19th century, was fulfilled. Therefore, the name addresses...

. As of end November 2006, circa 4 million people had seen the film in German cinema theaters, making it the most commercially successful German documentary film. The film was shown on December 6, 2006 on German public TV channel ARD

ARD (broadcaster)

ARD is a joint organization of Germany's regional public-service broadcasters...

 and was viewed by more than 10 million people. The DVD was released on 8 February 2007. Parts of the proceeds of the film's merchandising are earmarked for SOS Children's Villages

SOS Children's Villages

SOS Children's Villages is an independent, non-governmental international development organisation which has been working to meet the needs and protect the interests and rights of children since 1949. It was founded by Hermann Gmeiner in Imst, Austria...

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