Wild Germany

The German capital Berlin is a metropolis and at the same time the habitat of raccoons, foxes, bats, squirrels, hedgehogs and beavers. When the Berlin lakes are covered by ice, a wide variety of waterfowl share the few ice-free spots in the Spree or in the Landwehr Canal. A busy period begins with the thaw.

The wilderness is an integral part of the German capital, it is a fascinating parallel world full of small and large natural wonders. After the winter, the peregrine falcon moves back into its territory from the Red Town Hall high above Alexanderplatz. When Berlin's more than 400,000 trees finally bear their leaves again, the city will become an urban jungle. Breeding pairs find each other everywhere. Hungry chicks are fed in gun barrels, on windowsills or in bicycle baskets. 300 mallards lay their eggs; some breed on balconies, others in flower boxes. Summer is the best time in Berlin. Sparrows and people populate the beer gardens. The shrill calls of the swifts fill the air, and bee colonies swarm out. As long as they stay away from the tentacles of the praying mantis, the city's extremely high plant diversity is a paradise for the hard-working insects. Autumn is approaching with shorter days and cooler nights.

The documentary tells of this unusual habitat, which is heavily influenced by humans and yet is close to nature. The village of Lehde, which is crossed by numerous ditches, hidden under shady trees and full of picturesque corners, is considered to be the most attractive Spreewald idyll. There are a few courtyards in this water labyrinth, many of which can only be reached by boat today. When winter arrives, ice connects the islands in the Spreewald. The canals and waterways become comfortable walking and driving routes for days or weeks - anyone who has ever laboriously loaded or unloaded a boat appreciates the help of winter. And it is an unforgettable experience to experience the extraordinary river landscapes of the Spreewald on ice skates or toboggans. Christoph Hauschild sensitively stages the unique river landscape of the Spreewald.

The water comes and goes twice a day on the coast of North Friesland in the far north of Germany. At low tide it exposes the Wadden Sea. This is 40 kilometers wide in places and is home to ten times more animals than other seabeds. Countless small animals - shrimp, sand crabs and cockles - in turn attract large flocks of birds. The Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea is part of the largest national park in Germany and has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage since 2009. The Halligen are unique in the world. There are ten of them, all located in the North Frisian Wadden Sea, often only accessible by lorry or ship. Unlike islands, Halligen are flooded several times a year and are still inhabited. The North Frisians built their settlements here on so-called mounds. These are hills that lie above the water surface even during storm surges. Life on the Halligen is more leisurely than on the mainland.

The Black Forest is known worldwide for its cuckoo clocks and Black Forest cake. But the region has much more to offer: in the mountain forests there is silver fir, up to 60 meters high - a European record. One last impressive giant tree in the northern Black Forest is the 230-year-old, so-called grandfather fir, which towers over all the treetops in the area with a trunk circumference of 1.65 meters and a height of 45 meters. The capercaillie lives hidden in sparse old growth. The extremely shy birds are threatened with extinction due to the destruction of their habitat, climate change and growing tourism. A few lynxes and wildcats from the neighboring Vosges and Swiss Alps have recently been sneaking through the Black Forest again. Eradicated here in the last century, the two cat species return to their ancestral habitat almost unnoticed. There are also alpine animals and plants in the Black Forest that survived the Ice Age at rough altitudes for thousands of years.

The first part of the series shows the Thuringian Forest. It is one of the largest forest areas in Germany. Mountain landscapes, meadows, valleys and bodies of water offer a varied natural experience. Thuringia is considered Germany's green heart. Over a third of its land area is covered by forest. In the west of the Free State lies the Thuringian Forest, a low mountain range almost 1,000 meters high, stretching from the Werra in the north-west to the Franconian Forest in the south-east. Not only squirrels and raccoons feel comfortable in the dense, partly original forests. The rare black storks have also settled here again. Red kites build their nests in the canopy, and even the shy wild cat finds enough cover here. European hamsters are still very numerous in the Thuringian Basin, one of the oldest cultural landscapes in Germany. It is one of the last refuges of the endangered rodents in Europe. Thuringia is famous for its castles. The best known is the Wartburg near Eisenach.

The Palatinate Forest is located in the southwest of Germany, not far from the French border. Colorful red sandstone rocks and countless castles and ruins tower over the fragrant pine forests. The Trifels with its sublime imperial castle is the best-known rock castle. Wildcats and lynxes sneak through the undergrowth, red deer with magnificent antlers and Corsican mouflons with snail-shaped horns strut around in the largest contiguous forest area in Germany. On the border with France in the Dahner Felsenland, the landmark of the Palatinate Forest rises above the treetops: the Teufelstisch, the most famous rock formation in the Palatinate Forest Nature Park. The wine route, which runs along the eastern edge of the Palatinate Forest, invites you to linger with its romantic wine villages. The region is one of the warmest in Germany. And so Rock Bunting, Praying Mantis and Green Lizard have settled in the Tuscany of Germany.

Lakes and hills, rivers and moors, extensive forests, fields and meadows - that's the Uckermark. In the north-east of Brandenburg, 80 kilometers from Berlin and in the direct vicinity of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Poland, it is the largest district in Germany with over 3,000 square kilometers. Best conditions for nature: 60 percent of the Uckermark is under protection - in the Schorfheide-Chorin Biosphere Reserve in the south, in the Lower Oder Valley National Park in the east and in the Uckermark Lakes Nature Park in the north-west. As if on an ark, one encounters a particularly large number of rare animal and plant species in the Uckermark: eagles breed in the Waldmark, otters hunt for trout and lampreys in clear rivers, beavers dam streams into lakes, badgers, raccoon dogs and foxes live together with deer and Deer in the field mark. Above all, however, the varied landscape, shaped by the Ice Age, is the crane metropolis of Europe.

Almost 3,000 kilometers in length, the Danube is the second longest river in Europe. Because of the varied and attractive landscapes along its banks and the rare animal and plant species found there, the Danube is also known as the queen of rivers. Time and again man has tried to conquer the Danube. It was partially canalized and developed as a modern waterway. But the Upper Danube Valley, the Swabian Donaumoos, the Weltenburg Narrows or the mouth of the Isar could be preserved as natural paradises. Rarities such as the peregrine falcon, the European pond turtle, beaver and the curlew hide in the green wilderness along the blue river. The industrious rodent, which was wiped out almost all of Central Europe more than 100 years ago, only returned to its old homeland in the last few decades - thanks to extensive protective measures. Along the German section - from the springs in the wild and romantic Black Forest down to the Austrian border near Passau, the film journey shows the Danube.

When spring comes, strange sounds fill the peaceful water world of Teichlausitz in the extreme south-east of Germany. What sounds like someone blowing into a bottle is the courtship call of the bittern, which can be heard from miles away. However, the extremely rare bird can hardly be spotted: if it feels observed, it stretches its head and beak straight up and moves gently in the wind like the reeds. In addition, the brown and black plumage makes the bittern almost invisible. Otters and elks also feel at home in the border region between Brandenburg and Saxony. And not far away, the overburden heaps and mining lakes of decades of open-cast lignite mining offer numerous wild animals valuable retreats. Recultivation areas and former military training areas are now home to animals that have all but disappeared in this country. Iridescent bee-eaters and hoopoes breed on the heath because they find plenty of insects there.

Blue lakes surrounded by forest, lovely bays, wild solitude: in the north of Brandenburg there are lakes whose clarity is reminiscent of crystals. More than 100 of them are in the Stechlin-Ruppiner Land nature park. Above all the Stechlin east of Rheinsberg. It is 69 meters deep, particularly clear and one of the best-researched lakes. Sunbeams play on the backs of silver perch many meters below the surface. In the thicket of riparian vegetation, pike lurk in wait for the right moment to strike at lightning speed. When the water warms up in spring, several male pike will court a female. At his side, they animate the chosen one to give up eggs, scenes that have never been filmed like this before. Large, partly swampy forests surround the Stechlin and shield it from of modern agriculture. Slurry and fertilizers hardly get into the lake. The forest not only protects the lake, one of the fastest birds in the world has recently started breeding here again: the peregrine falcon.