Dokumentarische

Dokumentarische is a German adjective meaning documentary or documentary-style. It describes works that foreground real events, real people, and verifiable facts rather than fictional content. The term is widely used across media and art forms to classify approaches that base themselves on documentary material or the appearance of factuality.

In film and television, a dokumentarische approach emphasizes observation, interviews, archival material, and naturalistic presentation. It may include voice-over narration or montage, but it aims to preserve a sense of reality. At the same time, such works are not automatically objective; editing, selection, and perspective shape the portrayal of events.

In theatre, the expression is associated with dokumentarisches Theater, which uses transcripts, testimonies, and other documentary sources to construct performances. This form often seeks to illuminate real processes or social situations, sometimes blurring the line between stage fiction and factual reportage. In literature and journalism, dokumentarische modes present non-fiction content with a documentary or report-like structure, relying on evidence, documentation, and observed reality.

Etymology and related terms: from Dokument, with the suffix -arisch, forming an adjective that denotes a documentary character. Related concepts include Dokumentarfilm (documentary film) and Dokumentation (documentation). The term is used to describe both methodological approaches and stylistic tendencies in German-language media and culture.