PIONEERS TURNED MILLIONAIRES - GERMANS WHO CHANGED AMERICAN INDUSTRY

A documentary series by Ira Beetz, Christoph Weinert, Kai Christiansen and Achim Scheunert

The legendary Levis jeans, Heinz tomato ketchup, Boeing planes, precious Steinway pianos and the legendary Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in NEW YORK.

Pioneers turned Millionaires, is a five-part limited series that dives deep into the stories of five German entrepreneurs who redefined the American economy and left a major imprint on American culture. Although their homeland is Germany, their stories are uniquely American. Each entrepreneur succeeded because their inventiveness, courage, perseverance and hard work enabled them to prove themselves in a strange new land, and allowed them to grow from immigrants to millionaires. Pioneers turned Millionaires, presents one of the most fascinating and exciting eras of German and American history. How and why did immigrants like Levis Strauss, Henry C. Steinway, John Jacob Astor and Henry Heinz succeed? And how did they become archetypical success stories that even now epitomize the success story that is America? The series visits the companies of Levi Strauss & Co., Steinway and Sons, Heinz Ketchup and Boeing. We’ll see how each man took a novel and brilliant idea, established a company and gained fame, honor, and wealth. These five biographical hours are the definitive portraits of these entrepreneurial giants; businessmen who have their homeland in common and their place in history secured. They leave for various economic, social, political, and religious reasons – but all to find a better life in America. These are the stories of five immigrants who made it big in America.