GERMANY FROM ABOVE
2nd Season
Episode 5: Country
Germany’s cities shine when seen from satellites — but between those luminous clusters lie vast dark patches of apparently empty land. Germany is an industrial nation, yet it is also one of Europe’s most forested countries: almost a third of its entire surface is covered by woodland. And trees have traditionally held a far deeper meaning in Germany than almost anywhere else in Europe.
In the second episode of the new season of Germany From Above, the camera floats over the treetops of oaks and firs — the very essence of the German Romantic tradition. Above the treeline, we enter the territory of ibex and chamois, soaring at 2,500 metres over crests and chasms, across the Geißhorn and Nebelhorn in the Alps above Oberstdorf.
Even in the remote Berchtesgaden National Park, modern helicopters remove trees infested by bark beetles from steep slopes — a controversial practice, since human intervention in natural processes is generally discouraged in national parks. Just 30 kilometres from the vast urban sprawl of the Ruhr, Germany’s last 500 wild horses roam the Merfelder Bruch, receiving human help just once a year when the young stallions are separated from the herd.
The collision of nature and heavy industry, of wildlife and high technology, is very typical of Germany as an industrial nation: four fifths of the country is covered by forests, heath and agricultural land. Yet truly unspoilt wilderness is rare, found only along the former inner-German border or in inaccessible mountain areas.
It is a country where astonishing opposites are compressed into a surprisingly compact area: from the lunar landscapes of the lignite mining regions of the Lausitz in eastern Germany, where mining waste tips are laser-measured from the air, to the flying display of Sky, a tamed golden eagle, and his falconer Paul Klima in Lenggries in Bavaria; from the grape harvest on the dramatic terraces of the extinct volcano Kaiserstuhl in southern Baden, to the world’s biggest heavy metal festival in Wacken, a village of 1,800 in Schleswig-Holstein that receives 75,000 concert guests every year. Both the traffic chaos at the beginning and end of the festival, and the vast tent city that comes to life for three loud days each summer, are monitored from the air. In the Hunsrück, a helicopter carries a 40-metre flying buzz saw to cut the branches that encroach on the corridors beneath high-voltage pylons.
Never before have we witnessed from the air the spectacle of cranes gliding over the meadows of the Elbe valley, or of 100,000 wild geese gathering at the Ems estuary or along the Lower Rhine; or of young storks gathering for their first migration south. Or of the foals of the wild horses in Dülmen taking their first steps.
In the second episode of the new season of Germany From Above, the camera floats over the treetops of oaks and firs — the very essence of the German Romantic tradition. Above the treeline, we enter the territory of ibex and chamois, soaring at 2,500 metres over crests and chasms, across the Geißhorn and Nebelhorn in the Alps above Oberstdorf.
Even in the remote Berchtesgaden National Park, modern helicopters remove trees infested by bark beetles from steep slopes — a controversial practice, since human intervention in natural processes is generally discouraged in national parks. Just 30 kilometres from the vast urban sprawl of the Ruhr, Germany’s last 500 wild horses roam the Merfelder Bruch, receiving human help just once a year when the young stallions are separated from the herd.
The collision of nature and heavy industry, of wildlife and high technology, is very typical of Germany as an industrial nation: four fifths of the country is covered by forests, heath and agricultural land. Yet truly unspoilt wilderness is rare, found only along the former inner-German border or in inaccessible mountain areas.
It is a country where astonishing opposites are compressed into a surprisingly compact area: from the lunar landscapes of the lignite mining regions of the Lausitz in eastern Germany, where mining waste tips are laser-measured from the air, to the flying display of Sky, a tamed golden eagle, and his falconer Paul Klima in Lenggries in Bavaria; from the grape harvest on the dramatic terraces of the extinct volcano Kaiserstuhl in southern Baden, to the world’s biggest heavy metal festival in Wacken, a village of 1,800 in Schleswig-Holstein that receives 75,000 concert guests every year. Both the traffic chaos at the beginning and end of the festival, and the vast tent city that comes to life for three loud days each summer, are monitored from the air. In the Hunsrück, a helicopter carries a 40-metre flying buzz saw to cut the branches that encroach on the corridors beneath high-voltage pylons.
Never before have we witnessed from the air the spectacle of cranes gliding over the meadows of the Elbe valley, or of 100,000 wild geese gathering at the Ems estuary or along the Lower Rhine; or of young storks gathering for their first migration south. Or of the foals of the wild horses in Dülmen taking their first steps.
Facts
Awarded the German Camera Prize (Deutscher Kamerapreis)
First aired 15th May 2011, 7:30pm on ZDF
Credits
Written, directed and produced by: Petra Höfer and Freddie Röckenhaus
Aerial Photography: Peter Thompson
Director of Photography: Marcus von Kleist, Ingmar Lindner u.a.
Video Editor: Jörg Wegner, Maren Grossmann
Producer: Friederike Schmidt-Vogt, Kay Schlasse, Francesca D`Amicis, Johannes Fritsche
Line Producer: Svenja Mandel
Narration: Leon Boden
Commissioning Editors: Alexander Hesse (ZDF), Katharina Rau (ZDF)
A colourFIELD production commissioned by ZDF
