Original subtitles

(whooshing)

(bright upbeat music)

(jubilant music)

(gentle music)

- Our journey begins on the outskirts

of Potsdam in Brandenburg, the land of 3000 lakes,

a primary residence of Prussian kings and German kaisers.

From there we'll move east, stopping at

the magnificent summer palace of Sanssouci.

Continuing east, we'll explore Kopenick Palace,

before turning back to the west,

and into the heart of Berlin.

Here in the capital, we'll find the Brandenburg Gate,

made whole again after Napoleon Bonaparte robbed it

of its crowning statute.

From there, we'll take in several important monuments

to lives lost in World War II,

before tracing what remains

of the now demolished Berlin Wall.

In the city center we'll explore stunning cathedrals

before concluding our journey at The Reichstag,

one of the significant structures in Europe.

(triumphant music)

Brandenburg, with nearly 30,000 kilometers of waterways,

forms the largest aquatic landscape in all of Germany.

In the river Havel, lies the island of Werder,

home of Germany's tree blossom festival since 1879.

(lively classical music)

Just over the water, lie Sanssouci,

the summer palace of Prussian king, Frederick the Great.

Though it's smaller and designed

in a more intimate rococo style,

many cite this magnificent home

as Germany's answer to Versailles.

Built between 1745 and 1747, the palace's name,

Sanssouci, is derived from a French phrase,

which translates as, without worries,

symbolizing the idea that King Frederick viewed

this estate as a place of serenity and relaxation,

and not as a seat of power.

He was so enamored with the palace,

park and garden buildings,

that he conceived it, as amongst other things,

his final resting place, where he wish to be buried

next to his favorite dogs.

One of the most important buildings in the park

is the pavilion known as the Chinese House.

Luxurious and intimate, the pavilion is surrounded

by life-size golden statues of Chinese musicians

along with fairytale-like men and women

enjoying tea in the garden.

Designed in the rococo style

by architect Johann Gottfried Buring,

construction began in 1755,

but was not completed for another 10 years,

as Prussia's economy suffered under the strain

of the Seven Years' War.

To the west of the palace is the guest house

known as Neue Kammern, or New Chambers.

And close by is the Dragon House,

which is now a restaurant.

To the east is the picture gallery,

Frederick the Great's personal museum.

Predating the palace, is the historic windmill.

And overlooking the entire estate

is the Roman inspired, Belvedere.

The entire park became a world heritage site in 1990.

Further north is the 19th century Ruinenberg,

featuring artificial ruins.

Charlottenhof Palace was also added at this time,

as were the Roman Baths and the Church of Peace

in the Marly Gardens, and the Orangery Palace,

which took 14 years to complete.

In 1763, and the end of the Seven Years' War,

Frederick the Great began construction

on the new palace, the last

of Germany's great baroque royal buildings.

Purposefully excessive and boldly opulent,

the new palace was intended as a celebration

of Prussia's success in the war,

and as a demonstration of the power

and glory of the empire.

Magnificently realized in marble and stone,

the palace features more than 200 rooms,

and was used principally to receive important dignitaries.

Today, it is used by the University of Potsdam

as the home to their philosophy department.

Further into the city of Potsdam,

along the shoals of the Tiefer See lake,

is Babelsberg Park.

Conceived as a piece of England,

brought to Germany by Emperor William I.

The palace is designed in a neo-Gothic style

by Karl Friedrich Schinkel,

and the entire estate is overlooked

by Flatow Tower, standing 46 meters tall.

High atop a hill, with stunning views of Northern Potsdam,

is the Belvedere on the Pfingstberg.

Built by Frederick William IV,

the twin towered structure is based on

the king's owns sketches,

with the Italian Renaissance design inspired

by his 1829 journey to Rome.

Today the Belvedere hosts concerts, parties

and a wide variety of public events.

Back on the river Havel is Peacock Island,

now a popular nature reserve,

in the 17th century peacock island

was used primarily as a rabbit breeding station.

Beginning in 1821, Frederick William III transformed

the island into a model farm and added a number

of new structures, including the Cavalier House,

built specifically for his children and their nannies.

On the opposite end of the island

is a structure purposefully built

to look like the ruins of a Gothic monastery,

though it is actually a dairy farm.

The peacock palace itself, was erected

on the western tip of the island so that it would

be visible to the king, from his home in the Potsdam.

Deceptively designed as the romantic ruin

of a medieval castle, with two circular towers linked

by a wrought iron bridge, the castle is built

of oak, painted to look like stone.

The summer getaway was intended as a pastoral retreat

for William II and his beloved mistress,

but the king was never able to move in,

as he died shortly before the construction

on his fairytale castle was completed, in 1797.

It was William III who really took advantage

of the castle and the tiny island.

Today, peacocks still roam the grounds freely,

and thanks to continual care over the years,

the island retains a great deal of the beauty

and charm it held when it was a playground

for the royal family.

Since 1990 the island and all of its buildings

are designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

(jubilant music)

Moving some 30 kilometers to the east,

we find Treptow-Kopenick.

Berlin's largest borough by area,

and its smallest by population density.

Here, picturesquely set on the small island,

is Kopenick Palace.

Built on the bones of a sixth century Slavic castle,

and surrounded by an English style park,

featuring elm and ginkgo trees,

some of which stretch back 350 years,

this baroque water palace was designed

as a hunting lodge in 1558 by the order

of the Elector of Brandenburg.

(rotorcraft whirring)

A quick stop at the airport at Trebbin

offers us a chance to refuel and admire land abounding

with aviation history.

Mankind has been flying above these hills since

the 1920s, when gliders were rocketed into

the Brandenburg skies by elastic ropes.

Today, humans continue to soar through the air

in a host of ways, including autogiros,

a type of rotorcraft being tested here

by the German police.

This technology is nothing new,

the first autogiro was flown in Madrid in 1923.

Currently, more than 1000 of these aircraft are in use

for military and law enforcement around the world.

Moving northwest, we approach Berlin.

(regal music)

With a population of 3 1/2 million people,

Germany's capital is the second most popular city

in the European Union.

Set at the intersection

of two historically important trade routes,

Berlin has a rich and often tragic history,

having witnessed the rise and fall

of more than a few empires.

Prior to the current German nation,

Berlin has served as the capital city

to the Margraviate of Brandenburg,

the Kingdom of Prussia, the German Empire,

the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich.

In the western part of the city stands one

of the most iconic landmarks in all of Germany,

the Brandenburg Gate.

Modeled on the Acropolis in Athens,

the sandstone monument was commissioned

by Frederick William II as an emblem of peace,

but the gate has often come to symbolize tumult instead.

It is been variously perverted by the likes

of Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler.

And in the postwar partition of Germany

it was cut off and unreachable, immediately next

to the Berlin Wall.

Today though, the gate is fully restored

and standing proudly as a testament

to the reunification of the nation.

Just a little to the west is the Tiergarten,

Berlin's largest and most popular inner-city park.

Covering 210 hectares and featuring 23 kilometers

of pathways, the park was originally

a private hunting ground for the Electors of Brandenburg.

It was Frederick the Great who had

the surrounding fences torn down,

transforming the entire area into a public park

for the people of Berlin.

The park is home to a number of astonishing monuments,

the most celebrated of which is the massive Victory Column.

Standing 70 meters tall and crowned by a golden statue

of the personified goddess of victory,

affectionately known to locals as Golden Lizzie,

the monument was designed in 1864 to commemorate

the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian war.

Further to the west, watched over by the bell tower,

is the Olympic stadium.

(gentle music)

When Germany was awarded the 1936 Olympic Games,

the nation planned to renovate their existing stadium.

But when the Nazi Party came to power

they intended to use the games as propaganda

for their far right ideology.

So Hitler ordered this colossal new stadium

to be built as a symbol of the Third Reich.

Hitler saw the 1936 games as a chance to show

the entire world the superiority of his Aryan people

over other races, but the great African-American athlete,

Jesse Owens, had other plans, he stunned the world

and the dictator by winning four gold metals here.

The main street outside the stadium

is still today named, Jesse-Owens-Allee,

in honor of his performance.

Moving back towards the city center,

we find the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church,

which is in many ways two churches.

The modern church with its octagonal,

midnight blue glass walls, was built in 1961,

and incorporates into its complex

what remains of the original church,

including the majority of its 63 meter tower.

The original church was decimated during

a bombing raid in 1943.

But the spire remains standing today, with quiet dignity.

A potent and chilling memorial to the cost of war.

Perhaps though, no monument matches

the sobering, disquieting potency

of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

Inaugurated in 2005, this site stretches

for nearly 20,000 square meters,

wrapped beneath 2711 concrete slabs,

each cut in silhouette of a coffin.

Underground is a attached place of information,

which holds the names and stories

of the six million Jewish holocaust victims.

To the southeast stands another striking monument

to lives lost in World War II.

In Treptower Park, on 100,000 square meters,

is the largest of the three Soviet War Memorials

in the city, which also serves as a cemetery

for 5000 of the 80,000 Russian soldiers

who were killed during the Battle of Berlin.

The monument was erected during the Soviet occupation,

when Berlin was split between East and West.

The stone used to build the statue was taken

from the demolished New Reich Chancellery,

Hitler's seat of power.

Just to the west is Tempelhof Airport,

now a huge and immensely popular public park,

this was most notably the center of the Berlin Airlift,

the lifeline of West Germany during the Cold War.

In 1948, Soviet forces halted any land or sea traffic

in and out of their occupied zone, leaving the air as

the only hope West Berlin's 2 1/2 million citizens

had to get food and water.

(gentle piano music)

Over the course of nearly a year,

in one of the most outstanding feats

in the history of aviation,

270,000 flights, often landing every 45 seconds,

brought in everything Berliners needed to survive.

Of the Cold War of course,

there is no more striking image than the Berlin Wall.

Following World War II, migration

from Russian controlled East Germany

to the US and UK controlled west, was massive,

with more than three million people defecting.

To stem the tide and the embarrassment,

Soviet forces completely closed their borders in 1961,

and eventually built a reinforced concrete wall

stretching for nearly a 130 kilometers.

People attempting to escape were shot on site.

In 1989, the wall began to come down

and Berlin was finally whole again.

The destruction of the whole wall

took two years to complete.

Slowly the nation could begin to be reunited.

But here in East Berlin,

remnants of the old Soviet occupation remain,

and much of the architecture in

the former East remains uniquely Stalinist.

Jobs and technology here still lag behind

the West despite huge influxes of cash from West to East.

More than 25 years after the demolition

of the wall, 75% of Easterners say

the country's reunification has been a success,

in the West only half the people feel the same way.

One of the most famous relics of the old East

is the Berlin television tower.

Rising 368 meters into the sky,

this is the tallest structure in Germany.

Modeled after both a tower in Stuttgart and Sputnik,

the Soviet Union's first satellite,

construction on the tower was begun in 1965,

it began broadcasting in October of 1969.

The sphere, roughly 200 meters up the tower,

holds both a visitor center and a revolving restaurant,

which rotates fully once every 30 minutes.

On a clear day guests here can admire

the German landscape over 42 kilometers away.

In 2009 the shaft of the TV tower

was briefly transformed into what some called

the world's longest love letter.

Berliners posted love notes online

for special people in their lives,

and many, including a marriage proposal,

were selected to be wrapped around the tower.

The massive undertaking was accomplished

by the same company that had, a few years earlier,

successfully transformed the sphere into

a huge magenta football for the World Cup.

(airplane engine roars)

To the northwest of the tower

we find an airplane approaching Tegel Airport.

With air passenger numbers traveling to Berlin

rising to 30 million per year,

on more than 230,000 flights, there is huge pressure

on Berlin's aging airport infrastructure to cope.

Tegel Airport was the former West Berlin Airport,

a military airbase from the early 20th century.

It was originally built to handle six million passengers

a year, but this has risen to 20 million,

and Tegel was scheduled for closure by 2012.

However, the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport

will replace Tegel.

Meanwhile, Tegel takes the strain.

Described by CNN as the airport that refuses to die.

But it's not the only way to take

to the skies in Berlin.

(gentle music)

One other option for rising high above

the city is Berlin's famous Weltballon.

Passengers noiselessly float 150 meters into the air,

where they are treated to magnificent panoramic views

of the historic city center.

A little farther to the west are the twin culture centers

of the Chamber Music Hall and the Berlin Philemonic.

Both are only a stone throw from the shops,

eateries and apartments of the ultramodern Sony Center,

completed in 2000 at a cost of 750 million euros.

Less modern are the fairgrounds in Westend,

and their famous radio tower,

which is now a protected monument.

For those looking to see the city

from a lower altitude, it's hard to do much better

than a tour along the river Spree,

the waterway on which the original center

of Berlin was built.

Originating in the German highlands,

near the Czech border, the Spree runs

for approximately 400 kilometers before connecting

with the river Havel, in Spandau.

On its path through Berlin,

the Spree passes directly beside,

among other things, the Berlin Cathedral,

the Reichstag, Potsdamer Platz and Museum Island.

Seen from the water, or from the air,

virtually every inch of the city

is dripping with history.

A few buildings though, are more steeped in history

than the Berlin Cathedral.

This is the largest church in the city,

and while the current cathedral dates back to 1905,

houses of worship have occupied this exact spot since 1451.

Still today, the crypt of the cathedral holds

the sarcophagi and final resting place

of more than 80 Prussian royals,

including Frederick I and his queen.

Berlin also offers two identical cathedrals.

The French one was built in 1705

for the Huguenots fleeing religious persecution in France,

while the identical German one is dedicated

to the city's Lutheran community.

Just to the north, we find the Berlin State Opera.

And next door, the Old Library.

Across the street is Humboldt University,

the oldest in the German capital.

Next to it is the Zeughaus,

site of a failed assassination attempt

on Hitler in 1943.

The entire northern half of Spree Island

is known as Museum Island, where five grand museums

can take visitors through 6000 years of art

from across the globe.

On the outskirts of the city,

crowned by a green copper dome,

featuring a golden statue of Fortuna,

Roman goddess of fortune and luck,

stands Charlottenburg Palace, the largest in Berlin.

Built as the summer home for its namesake,

Sophia Charlotte, first queen of Prussia,

it was dramatically expanded by later generations

of the royal family.

Damaged in World War II, the park and palace

have been restored and are open to the public.

Our final destination is the Reichstag.

Emperor William I laid the foundation stone

for the building himself, to provide Berlin

with a more prestigious home for the government

of the newly minted German Empire.

In 1933, only four weeks after Adolf Hitler

was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany,

the building was almost completely gutted

in an act of arson.

A Dutch bricklayer was convicted of setting the fire.

But many historians believe the arson was,

in reality, planned and executed by Hitler

and his right-hand men.

The Nazis used the fire as pretext

to suspend almost all civil liberties in Germany.

The end of the Cold War saw happier times

at the Reichstag, as it was here that

the official German reunification ceremony

was held in October 1990.

Today the building has been completely renovated

and fitted with a stunning glass dome,

offering magnificent views of the city.

The Reichstag is once again home to

the elected parliament serving the free people

of the Federal Republic of Germany.

It stands as a testament to a great nation

with not only the darkest imaginable past,

but also a remarkably bright future.

It's the perfect place to end this journey.

(upbeat music)

(logo swooshing)