Jan Peter
Author/Director/Showrunner
Born in 1968 and grew up in Merseburg/Saxony-Anhalt.
Starting in 1984, he became active in the Merseburg Junge Gemeinde (Youth Congregation) under the then city youth pastor Lothar König, with whom he has shared a lifelong friendship ever since. In 1987, he moved to Leipzig, working as an underwear salesman, a mail carrier, and eventually training as a nurse at the District Psychiatric Hospital Leipzig-Dösen.
In the autumn of 1989, he was a co-founder of the Neues Forum (New Forum) in Leipzig.
He was the founder of the Leipziger DAZ—the first independent East German weekly newspaper in 1989/90—as well as the Leipzig city magazine KREUZER. From 1993 to 2011, he was a co-founder and partner of the production company LE Vision, which included offices and operations in Moscow and Beijing, alongside long-term projects and residencies in Rome.
His extensive cinematic body of work focuses on documentary storytelling, particularly documentary series and docufiction with an international scope. Peter consistently succeeds in expanding, shifting, and ultimately shattering the boundaries of the genre—driven by the conviction that nothing is as thrilling as reality itself.
In addition to countless primetime series and films for ARD, ZDF, and ARTE, his projects include directing the first German documentary series for Netflix (Rohwedder, 2020), the first German docufiction series for Netflix USA (14 – Diaries of the Great War, 2014), as well as productions for BBC Primetime and Al Jazeera.
Awarded multiple times, nationally and internationally.
Lives in Leipzig.
”LUBI - Ein Polizist stürzt ab“
Showrunner/writer/director
2023
Screenplay: Jan Peter, Sandra Naumann // Genre: Docuseries/Documentary // Director: Jan Peter // Production: Frisbeefilm Berlin in co-production with Studio Bummens, Fortis Imaginatio GmbH and Wolffpack Vision // Editors: Mirjam Dolderer, Susanne Gebhardt, Martina Treuter (all SWR) // Channel: SWR // Broadcast: ARD media library, Das Erste
”DER LETZTE FLUG - Ein deutsches Geheimnis“
Author/director
2022
Genre: documentary series / documentary // Screenplay: Jan Peter & Sandra Naumann // Director: Jan Peter // Production: DOKfilm // Editorial team: Jens Stubenrauch (RBB), Dagmar Mielke (RBB/ARTE) // Channel: ARTE, RBB // Broadcast: ARTE, Das Erste, RBB, NDR, WDR, SWR and others.
”ROHWEDDER - Einigkeit und Mord und Freiheit“
Direction
2020
Genre: Documentary series // Director: Jan Peter, Georg Tschurtschenthaler // Production/development: Christian Beetz/Gebrüder Beetz Berlin // Channel: NETFLIX worldwide
”KRIEG DER TRÄUME 1918-1939“
Showrunner/writer/director
2018
Genre: Documentary drama series // Screenplay: Jan Peter, Frédéric Goupil // Director: Jan Peter, Frédéric Goupil // Production: LOOKSFilm Leipzig with Les Films D'Ici Paris and IRIS Group Luxembourg // Editor: Gerolf Karwath (SWR), Fabrice Puchault (ARTE France), Anne Grolleron (ARTE France), Peter Gottschalk (ARTE G.E.I.E.), Alexander von Sallwitz (NDR), Jens Stubenrauch (RBB), Barbara Schmitz (WDR), Gudrun Wolter (WDR), Gerhard Jelinek (ORF) , Markéta Štinglová (CT), Anna Ferens (TVP), Anna Kowalewska-Onaszkiewicz (TVP) // Channels: ARTE, SWR, NDR, WDR, RBB, ORF, CT, RTBF, SVT, TVP, Toute l'histoire, BBC Alba, YLE, BBC Alba, NRK, DR, Radio Canada // Broadcast: ARTE, Das Erste, ORF, CT, SVT, BBC and others.
”GREAT WAR DIARIES 1914-1918“
Author/director
2014
Genre: Documentary drama series // Screenplay: Jan Peter, Maarten van der Duin, Yury Winterberg // Director: Jan Peter // Production: LOOKSFilm Leipzig with Les Films D'Ici Paris and Filmoption International/Montreal // Editor: Toni Lazzerini // Broadcast: BBC/NETFLIX USA/AL JAZEERA