FUGGER

At a time when all power emanated from the nobility and the clergy, the Augsburg merchant and banker Jakob Fugger discovered an even greater power: the power of money. As a cunning investor and aggressive monopolist, through insider knowledge, speculation, bribery and huge loans, he puts himself in a position that rulers and popes come to depend on him. Jakob becomes the richest man who ever lived, the most powerful economic leader, the universally courted and feared financial emperor of Europe. He marries above his station, but the marriage is childless, and Augsburg’s nobility and his debtors are always sure to remind the ambitious social-climber of his humble origins. Many times, his empire threatens to collapse like a house of cards when he raises the stakes too high doing dangerous deals with rulers and popes alike. Fugger is always struggling to secure his loans and protect his company. But his biggest fear is eternal damnation.

Series
Idea: Uwe Kersken
Screenplay: Christian Schnalke
Co-production: Bavaria Fiction
Executive Producers: Uwe Kersken, Jan Kaiser and Anna Oeller