The Human Odyssey

Authors: Hannes Schuler, Manfred Baur. History & science - ZDF - 2001 - 45 min

2001 – the future is now. Six billion people live on planet Earth. People with fundamentally different hopes, fears, experiences. Six billion fates. But all of us share the ability to think and to feel – and our common roots.

2001 – The Odyssee of Mankind tells us how human beings populated the Earth across all continents over hundred thousands of years, from the beginnings in Africa to the south of America. We make a journey to the cradle of mankind, and on this journey decipher the secrets , which fossils from all over the world tell us about our origin and our spread over the globe. 2001 – The Odysse of Mankind follows the traces of the first human beings who left to conquer the Earth.

The scene is Africa. We accompany human beings making their first erect steps, visit the most important habitats and from the excavations develop the dramatic scenarios, which lead to these fossile witnesses (Zeugnisse). We ask how man could become man, and we show how many preconditions had to act together to make this step in evolution possible.