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Siegbert Stuempke as a boy, pictured with his family

'Catastrophe was inevitable': How World War Two ended in Germany

On 8 May 1945, Britain, the US and many other countries were rejoicing. Germany had surrendered, and World War Two was over, at least in Europe. Yet it was not a day of celebration for everyone. For Germans, it marked the end of bombings and of Nazi rule, but it was also a time of deprivation, chaos and soul-searching. Lore Wolfson Windemuth unearths the stories of six ordinary Germans who lived through that time.

'Hitler was no longer alive - but I was'

Discover more documentaries from the BBC World Service

A Māori protester with traditional Māori face tattoos (Credit: Dee van Wel)

How equal are Māori people in New Zealand?

Māori in New Zealand have been resisting moves to abolish certain indigenous-specific rights aimed at combating disadvantage. Alex van Wel examines the country's inequalities.

'In every social statistic, we are at the bottom'

Kurdish people celebrate the spring festival of Nowruz in Amuda, Syria, 20 March 2025 (Credit: Orhan Qereman/Reuters)

What future do Kurds face in the Middle East?

Kurds are one of the largest stateless groups in the world, with a population of millions scattered across Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq. But could a surprising piece of news change their future?

'The ruling establishments refuse to recognise you'

How the super-rich got super rich

Simon Jack and Zing Tsjeng chart the stories of how some of the world's richest people made their billions - and the effect their wealth has had on everyone else.

Listen to Good Bad Billionaire

A visitor reads a book written in braille at a specialized library for blind and partially sighted people in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Russia (Credit: Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

'Braille is an extraordinary passport to other lives'

More than 200 years after the invention of braille, Emma Tracey celebrates the system of raised dots that has given her and other blind people a way to read, learn and discover the world.

'I can't imagine my life without braille'

Shuji Nakamura speaks during a news conference with LED lights on display (Credit: Kevork Djansezian via Getty Images)

Inventing a lightbulb that changed the world

In 1993, the first white light-emitting diode, or LED, was invented. Natasha Fernandes meets one of the scientists whose discovery changed the way the world is illuminated.

'My colleagues saw me as a very strange person'

Bolortsetseg Minjin and a colleague with a dinosaur fossil in the Gobi Desert (Image supplied by Bolortsetseg Minjin)

'We found 67 dinosaurs in a week'

Paleontologists Bolortsetseg Minjin and Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan share stories from their careers studying dinosaurs and fossils. What have they learned about life on Earth?

'I'm quite humbled by the immense scale of time'

'It was a question of reacting to the reality around you'

Since the 1960s, minimalist composer Steve Reich has been one of the world's most influential musicians. Now aged 88, he's still searching for new adventures in sound.

'Can we work out a piece just for two people clapping?'

Tu Youyou receives her Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on 10 December 2015 in Stockholm, Sweden (Credit: Pascal Le Segretain/WireImage via GettyImages)

How traditional medicine led to a modern breakthrough

Tu Youyou's work on treating malaria has saved millions of lives. Her voyage of discovery began as a secret mission for the Chinese government during the Vietnam War.

'It almost made me feel that it's not true'