Peter Aufschnaiter

Mountain climbers, jungle explorers and desert foxes - many of them ended up in the claws of the Nazi Party, the SS or the Wehrmacht because of their careers, scientific curiosity or their love of travel. Were these adventurers aware of the consequences of this association or were they simply interested in pursuing their own interests regardless of the price? That's the question that this documentary seeks to answer for the search for pre-historic sites in the Sahara led to the development of maps for the Wehrmacht, while an airborne expedition in the Amazon helped to develop aerial photographic analysis. The stories of explorers like Heinrich Harrer and Laszlo Almasy, better known as the «English Patient», are retold using spectacular pictures and footage from places like India, Egypt and Peru.

Peter Auschnaiter from Tyrol took part in the first German Himalayan expeditions in 1929 and 1931 and then led the Nanga-Parbat expedition in 1939. There he was captured together with Heinrich Harrer and fled to Tibet. In Lhasa, the agricultural scientist became a development aid worker. The film wants to snatch Aufschnaiter and above all his achievements for the peoples of the Himalayas from oblivion.

Nanga Parbat - Die herausforderung is a documentary about alpinism that takes place in Nanga Parbat. It was directed by Gerhard Baur in 2005 and produced by Gerhard Baur Films. It is a part of the series Nanga Parbat (1/2). It features Michi Wärthl, Markus Walter, Markus Kronthaler, Günter Jung, Christian Walter, Fred Aschenbrenner and others.

The movie tells the story of Austrian mountain climber Heinrich Harrer, who during an himalayan expedition to Nanga Parbat, at the start of World War II, is captured by the British and confined to a prision camp. He escapes fleeing north across the Himalayan mountains into Tibet. There he met and befriended the young Dalai Lama, only to have to escape back into India some years later when the Red Chinese Army invaded his adopted home.