With its popular Tuesday format "Deutschlands große Clans" (Germany's powerful clans), ZDF has been portraying world-class domestic corporate families for years. And although this one seems a bit, well, provincial compared to global players from Adidas to Otto and Lidl to VW, it has been able to increase sales, turnover, profits in such a way that it's worth taking a look at its history. 

What is the secret of major German family enterprises? Who is behind the brands Otto, Tchibo, Dr. Oetker, Aldi and more? The popular ZDF documentary series "Germany's Great Clans" explores these questions and shows cinematic portraits of the founders and their families. The current episode tells the story of Heinz-Horst Deichmann, who was the founder of Europe's largest shoe retail chain "Deichmann Schuhe." He turned a small cobbler's shop into Europe's largest shoe retail chain, Heinz-Horst Deichmann. With his slogan "Fashionable shoes at low prices" he conquered the world market.

When the accomplished documentary filmmaker Birgit Thanner sketches the deeply religious founder of the company from humble beginnings as a selfless shoemaker from next door, who once shoehorned shoes for the poorest and showed solidarity with Jews during National Socialism, there is definitely something to the glorification of German entrepreneurial spirit that is customary in the format.

"The Deichmann Story" will be broadcast for the first time on ZDF on March 17, 2020. (Source: ARD Mediathek)