This is achieved by great acting (Tom Schilling is brilliant, but all the other actors are also very, very good) and excellent production values. In my opinion the three-part series gives a great and relatively balanced depiction what the war on the Eastern Front probably was like. By contrast, "Unsere Mütter, Unsere Väter" invites the last remaining men and women of this generation to get ALL their wartime memories off their chests - not only the crimes they may have committed but also the traumata and suffering they experienced. The difference is that on these occasions the (grand-)children of the Nazi generation rigorously DEMANDED that their (grand-)parents break their silence and confess their collective and individual participation in the atrocities of the 3rd Reich. Of course, it was not the first time that the question "Dad/Grandpa, what did you do in the war?" has been asked in Germany in the past this question has been triggered for example by the rearmament discussion in 1955, by the student movement in 1968, by the American TV-series "Holocaust" in 1979 or by the Wehrmacht exhibition in 1995. Whether you like "Unsere Mütter, Unsere Väter" or not, you cannot deny that Nico Hofmann (the producer) was successful with his expressed intention to initiate such a discussion.
I cannot remember another German mini-series since "Das Boot" that was as extensively discussed as this one - not only publicly in the media (TV talk shows, newspaper articles and internet blogs and forums) but also privately (within the families, between the generations).
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