However, filmmaker Lukas Hoffmann has also tracked down other contemporaries who describe the moment when their lives changed completely - for example Harro Remmert, a successful Cologne jockey who had a serious accident in 1976 that left him in a wheelchair for life.
He fought his way back and achieved a remarkable series of successes in his second life as a trainer.
But 1976 is not just the year of heroes.
In Aachen, the first casino in North Rhine-Westphalia was reopened after a 100-year ban on gambling.
In Düsseldorf, the relocation of the Oberkassel Bridge became a mass spectacle.
And in Duisburg, Inspector Bernd Jägers solved his most spectacular case - that of the murderer of the century, Joachim Kroll.
The film is narrated by presenter Sabine Heinrich, who was born in Unna in 1976.
First broadcast: Friday, September 22, 2017 at 8:15 pm on WDR