GERMANY FROM ABOVE
3rd Season


Episode 8: Country

Many landscapes seem to fade when compared to the famous ravishing beauty of the Berchtesgadener Land or the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. Yet Germany´s forgotten landscapes have their own special magic.

From the castles to the endless woods in Pfalzen, to the „Hermann“-Monument in the Teutoburg Forests, from the gorges in Hartz to the mosaics of the 7,000 carp fish ponds in Aischgrund, from the rocks in the „Franconian Suisse“, to the fairy tale charm of the hill country near the river Weser and its castles and alleys where the stories of Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel and the Pied Piper of Hameling were born.

No matter if you take the landscape in Eifel or Ückermark: when you look at them from above you do understand why poets and philosophers, painters and story tellers fell under the spell of these remote regions. Only when you look a the satellite pictures, can you you realise the impact on Germany of the meteorites in the Nördlinger Ries, half way between Stuttgart and Munich, even if today it seems totally eventless from a geographical point of view. This happened 15 million years ago, but this almost circular and over 20 kilometre wide crater is still a mystery for geologists. An animation makes the impact of the meteorites visible for the first time.

A modern horror story can be detected up to the universe. West of Cologne strange geometrical greyish, brown spots immediately catch our attention on satellite pictures.This is the lignite mining in he Rhine area, the largest open mining area in central Europe.

From the castles to the endless woods in Pfalzen, to the „Hermann“-Monument in the Teutoburg Forests, from the gorges in Hartz to the mosaics of the 7,000 carp fish ponds in Aischgrund, from the rocks in the „Franconian Suisse“, to the fairy tale charm of the hill country near the river Weser and its castles and alleys where the stories of Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel and the Pied Piper of Hameling were born.

No matter if you take the landscape in Eifel or Ückermark: when you look at them from above you do understand why poets and philosophers, painters and story tellers fell under the spell of these remote regions. Only when you look a the satellite pictures, can you you realise the impact on Germany of the meteorites in the Nördlinger Ries, half way between Stuttgart and Munich, even if today it seems totally eventless from a geographical point of view. This happened 15 million years ago, but this almost circular and over 20 kilometre wide crater is still a mystery for geologists. An animation makes the impact of the meteorites visible for the first time.

A modern horror story can be detected up to the universe. West of Cologne strange geometrical greyish, brown spots immediately catch our attention on satellite pictures.This is the lignite mining in he Rhine area, the largest open mining area in central Europe.

Facts

First aired 25th May 2013, 19.30 pm on ZDF

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Credits

Written, directed and produced by: Petra Höfer and Freddie Röckenhaus

Aerial Photography: Peter Thompson, Irmin Kerck

Director of Photography: Tobias Kaufmann, Stephan de Leuw, Richard Koburg, Moritz Bauer, Marcus von Kleist u.a.

Video Editor: Johannes Fritsche

Producer: Kay Schlasse, Susanne Rostosky, Francesca D’Amicis, Silke Bojahr

Line Producer: Svenja Mandel

Narration: Leon Boden

Commissioning Editor: Friederike Haedecke (ZDF)

A colourFIELD production commissioned by ZDF

Full credits

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