0:00:51 > 0:00:56I'm in Slovakia. It's a bit of a shock after the flat lands of Poland
0:00:56 > 0:01:00to find yourself confronted with an 8,000 foot mountain range in the heart of Europe,
0:01:00 > 0:01:04but these are the High Tatras, part of the Carpathian range,
0:01:04 > 0:01:07and I've got to cross them to be in the last stage of my journey
0:01:07 > 0:01:11through Slovakia, the Czech Republic and into East Germany.
0:01:16 > 0:01:19Once through Slovakia and across the Czech Republic,
0:01:19 > 0:01:22I'll be following the River Elbe through eastern Germany,
0:01:22 > 0:01:24from Dresden to Berlin,
0:01:24 > 0:01:28then on to journey's end at Rugen Island on the Baltic coast.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37Slovakia is one of Europe's newest countries,
0:01:37 > 0:01:42splitting from Czechoslovakia by mutual agreement just 14 years ago.
0:01:43 > 0:01:47It was always considered the underachiever of the Czechoslovak partnership,
0:01:47 > 0:01:50with a slower, more rural way of life.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57In the mountain villages, little seems to have changed.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00Today the people who live here have killed a pig.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03Elena, a Slovak married to a Welshman, lives nearby.
0:02:03 > 0:02:05What are they gonna do now?
0:02:05 > 0:02:08- Are they going to... - I think they're going to...
0:02:08 > 0:02:10Obviously they need to clean it now.
0:02:10 > 0:02:14I think they boil the water, you see they're preparing the water outside.
0:02:14 > 0:02:15Yeah, yeah.
0:02:21 > 0:02:23You can help cleaning!
0:02:25 > 0:02:28Alphonse is saying you perhaps want to take your coat off!
0:02:28 > 0:02:32I don't want to do it at all, but I'll do it!
0:02:32 > 0:02:34LAUGHTER
0:02:37 > 0:02:42- They're asking are you married? - Yeah, yeah. Married.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44So don't do it like with the woman,
0:02:44 > 0:02:46you've got to go really for it!
0:02:46 > 0:02:48Go for it! That's right!
0:02:51 > 0:02:53I'm a city boy!
0:02:54 > 0:02:56I'm not used to all this!
0:02:56 > 0:03:00For young Slovakians, a day like this could soon be a thing of the past.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08And scenes like this confined to EU approved premises.
0:03:14 > 0:03:15That's great!
0:03:17 > 0:03:21Oh sorry! Oh dear!
0:03:21 > 0:03:22'Oh, dear indeed!
0:03:22 > 0:03:25'Next time, the ladies take safe sausage precautions!'
0:03:25 > 0:03:27I don't know the Slovakian for stop!
0:03:41 > 0:03:43'None of the pig will be wasted.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46'What isn't eaten today will be stored away for the winter.'
0:03:46 > 0:03:50This is all parts of the pig, isn't it?
0:03:53 > 0:03:56After work, I ask Elena about Slovakia.
0:03:56 > 0:04:03Did you feel that Slovakia had to be its own nation in order to sort of realise what it wanted?
0:04:03 > 0:04:09Probably, yes, yeah, because through the history, through the centuries,
0:04:09 > 0:04:13we always had Hungary and the Austrian monarchy over us
0:04:13 > 0:04:18and we never could say what we wanted or do what we wanted
0:04:18 > 0:04:21and we did what they told us and so it's a good time.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24We are learning to stand on our own, I think.
0:04:24 > 0:04:26It's funny really, isn't it?
0:04:26 > 0:04:28This whole process seems to be in Europe going on
0:04:28 > 0:04:32of interconnections through the European Union,
0:04:32 > 0:04:34through transport and all that sort of thing.
0:04:34 > 0:04:38At the same time, more and more small nations springing up
0:04:38 > 0:04:42who feel they can only realise what that nation wants by being independent.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45DRUNKEN SINGING
0:04:49 > 0:04:52'At a time like this, the old songs are always the best...
0:04:53 > 0:04:56'..even if no-one can remember them!'
0:04:56 > 0:04:58# Oom-pa, oom-pa, ya-ya-ya... #
0:04:59 > 0:05:00You're making that up!
0:05:00 > 0:05:02You're making that up!
0:05:02 > 0:05:04- Even I know that!- We've caught him!
0:05:06 > 0:05:09SINGING CONTINUES
0:05:09 > 0:05:13I'm almost tempted to say it's been a pig of a day, but I won't!
0:05:18 > 0:05:21Well, it's time to leave the snows of the High Tatras behind
0:05:21 > 0:05:25and back onto the plain and west to my penultimate country...
0:05:25 > 0:05:27the Czech Republic.
0:05:45 > 0:05:50Being in the European Union has helped the Slovaks emerge from the Czech shadow
0:05:50 > 0:05:55and tourism in the Tatras is one of the big hopes in an increasingly optimistic future.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15I've crossed my 19th border into Brno,
0:06:15 > 0:06:18the second city of the Czech Republic.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24Brno is a solid, manufacturing town with a few surprises off the main drag.
0:06:26 > 0:06:28In this unglamorous little theatre,
0:06:28 > 0:06:30the Czech tradition of satirical mime is carried on
0:06:30 > 0:06:34by one of its most illustrious practitioners, Ctibor Turba.
0:06:34 > 0:06:39Could you be so kind,
0:06:39 > 0:06:44try to play in the time,
0:06:44 > 0:06:49try to express, as big as possible,
0:06:49 > 0:06:53palette of different expressions of red colour.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04Martina, asked to mime the colour red,
0:07:04 > 0:07:08seems to set herself almost literally on fire!
0:07:14 > 0:07:16OK. Fine. Yeah.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19Michael, may I ask you,
0:07:19 > 0:07:26could you be so kind and could you make a study of "le coq"?
0:07:27 > 0:07:29Oh God!
0:07:29 > 0:07:33Could you use this mask?
0:07:33 > 0:07:35This Capitano, no?
0:07:35 > 0:07:39If there is some correspondence
0:07:39 > 0:07:44between the character of the cock and the character of Capitano.
0:07:44 > 0:07:45Let's try.
0:07:45 > 0:07:51And don't forget now, this mask, more moments, longer.
0:07:51 > 0:07:54Don't forget to stop
0:07:54 > 0:08:00to make so-called representative positions.
0:08:18 > 0:08:23'I model my performance on everything I wanted to be when I was young, but never dared.'
0:08:35 > 0:08:37'They love it!'
0:08:39 > 0:08:45Now that you're free, nobody's oppressing you, is that sense of humour still...
0:08:45 > 0:08:49is it still satirical? Is it still having a go at establishment?
0:08:49 > 0:08:56Stupid... but not this. This element of this thing can easily change,
0:08:56 > 0:09:01but in details, there are still so many problems
0:09:01 > 0:09:07and we can be on occasions menacing so I know people
0:09:07 > 0:09:13which go on this excellent humour which makes some sort of cleaning.
0:09:13 > 0:09:15It's like kidneys or...
0:09:15 > 0:09:17Yes, I know, kidneys...
0:09:17 > 0:09:19Kidneys which clean your blood!
0:09:27 > 0:09:33I feel people like Turba are happier with something to fight against,
0:09:33 > 0:09:38In the new Europe, we're all theoretically free and of course encouraged to keep moving.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53A smooth, tilting train that's come from Vienna carries me northwards
0:09:53 > 0:09:59and pilsner lager, one of the Czechs' finest contributions to the world, helps the journey slip by.
0:10:11 > 0:10:17Nestling in the western mountains of the Czech Republic is a town where all excess can be cured,
0:10:17 > 0:10:20in excessively plush surroundings.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28Karlovy Vary, once the German town of Carlsbad,
0:10:28 > 0:10:30sits on a bed of healing waters
0:10:30 > 0:10:34and there are people who tell you how best to make use of them.
0:10:37 > 0:10:43Milada, who runs this clinic, has treated such icons of new Europe as Gorbachev
0:10:43 > 0:10:45and Czech President, Vaclav Havel,
0:10:45 > 0:10:47so she's a force to be reckoned with.
0:10:49 > 0:10:56I prescribe you now how you drunk the water, and to this, you make two or three treatments every day, OK?
0:10:56 > 0:10:59Right. This water which is very, very special.
0:10:59 > 0:11:05Our water. We drink the water from these cups.
0:11:05 > 0:11:11We drink the water every time on empty stomach because you will see...
0:11:14 > 0:11:18We wash mechanically all digestive system.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21Treating it special! I think so, yes, yes!
0:11:21 > 0:11:26Because when the people have constipation, they must drink water at 30 degrees Celsius?
0:11:26 > 0:11:30My body just doesn't know what it's got to look forward to!
0:11:30 > 0:11:33And how long is this programme?
0:11:33 > 0:11:36- You drink the water around 10 minutes...- How many days?
0:11:36 > 0:11:38- The best is 20 days.- 20 days.
0:11:38 > 0:11:42Because every day we drink around 5 cups.
0:11:42 > 0:11:47It is 1 litre, and when you really drink 20 litres,
0:11:47 > 0:11:50your liver can regenerate.
0:12:06 > 0:12:10- You deal with the heart, as well as the body?- Uh-huh!
0:12:10 > 0:12:11The line down the body?
0:12:11 > 0:12:16Yeah. Complex. Our body, our mind and our soul.
0:12:16 > 0:12:22When everything is healthy and happy, it means we can speak about the...
0:12:22 > 0:12:29Can you tell from somebody quite quickly whether they're happy or unhappy, or likely to be depressed?
0:12:29 > 0:12:33I think love is very important in life
0:12:33 > 0:12:38because everybody who is in love, they are happy and they are much nicer!
0:12:38 > 0:12:43- Laugh?- Love is very good.
0:12:43 > 0:12:45But also love is very painful for some people!
0:12:45 > 0:12:48They have very unhappy... affairs?
0:12:48 > 0:12:51I think you've found... The second...
0:12:51 > 0:12:58the woman found the good man and it is really this very good love
0:12:58 > 0:13:00which means they must be happy because life is...
0:13:00 > 0:13:02Good sex, really!
0:13:02 > 0:13:08Sex is very important because of all the hormones situated in the body,
0:13:08 > 0:13:14it's very important and I think that people don't make enough love and sex now
0:13:14 > 0:13:20because they don't have time for this now. It needs time, too.
0:13:20 > 0:13:22Time is very important.
0:13:22 > 0:13:24Can you give me a prescription?
0:13:27 > 0:13:31'So star-studded is Milada's clientele that I find myself
0:13:31 > 0:13:35'in a bagful of ice-cold CO2, next to the current Miss World!'
0:13:35 > 0:13:38- Hello!- Hello!
0:13:38 > 0:13:44You're obviously radiant! I think white is definitely your colour!
0:13:44 > 0:13:49'Tatiana Kucharova is the first Czech girl ever to win the title.'
0:13:49 > 0:13:51It's like your body is bursting.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58It feels like the wind in the willies!
0:14:01 > 0:14:06'The carbon dioxide wind treatment is intended to dilate the capillaries,
0:14:06 > 0:14:09'causing the skin to radiate a smooth, therapeutic glow.'
0:14:13 > 0:14:18Are you feeling any better for this? Are your...
0:14:18 > 0:14:20I think it will come later!
0:14:20 > 0:14:22Your skin is sort of opening up and...
0:14:22 > 0:14:26I'm glad something's happening!
0:14:27 > 0:14:30It's a bit like going to the dry cleaners!
0:14:33 > 0:14:38- Have you ever been in a bag, a plastic bag, before?- No, no, never!
0:14:38 > 0:14:39This is the first time!
0:14:39 > 0:14:42Me too! And I'm older than you!
0:14:42 > 0:14:45How have I missed out on this all my life?
0:14:45 > 0:14:51Anyway, sleep, we have to sleep, so here we go.
0:15:03 > 0:15:05It's an odd feeling, isn't it?
0:15:05 > 0:15:10I think you need really to have someone to tell you that this is good for you,
0:15:10 > 0:15:16otherwise it's like sitting in a warm, wet bath with a lot of gravel up your backside!
0:15:16 > 0:15:18It's quite dirty!
0:15:18 > 0:15:19It is quite dirty!
0:15:19 > 0:15:23So have you been to Karlovy Vary many times?
0:15:23 > 0:15:27Yeah. I've been here many times, but this is the first time here in the spa centre.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45The success of the private clinics may make Karlovy Vary glow with health,
0:15:45 > 0:15:48but the town's most valuable resource is free.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51Every day, the place is full of people taking nature's medicine.
0:16:07 > 0:16:09You have to drink it fresh!
0:16:09 > 0:16:12Fresh, yeah, yeah, fresh...
0:16:12 > 0:16:14And here it comes up from the earth.
0:16:17 > 0:16:19OK.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22Well... Mmm!
0:16:26 > 0:16:29The clinics may be all futuristic hi-tech, but on the street,
0:16:29 > 0:16:33there's traditional porcelain mugs and elegant old colonnades.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37Here's another one, and I've heard they get hotter?
0:16:37 > 0:16:40- Is that right, as you go along? - Yes, it is.- And, oh...- 62.
0:16:40 > 0:16:4462 it says, yes.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47It's quite hot, isn't it?
0:16:47 > 0:16:49- Yes, it is!- Well, here we go!
0:16:53 > 0:16:55Now I actually prefer it that way!
0:16:55 > 0:16:57- Yeah? You like it better?- Yeah.
0:16:57 > 0:16:58I like it better than the lukewarm.
0:16:58 > 0:17:00This is like a sort of really hot cuppa.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04So we're not the only... We're not the first ones in history?
0:17:04 > 0:17:07No we're not! A lot of famous people drink this water.
0:17:07 > 0:17:12For example, Goethe, Beethoven, Karl Marx and a lot of others.
0:17:12 > 0:17:14And now Miss World!
0:17:14 > 0:17:17Yeah! Maybe I'm the first one!
0:17:26 > 0:17:31Karlovy Vary fosters the impression that time has stood still,
0:17:31 > 0:17:36an illusion reinforced tonight at the Hotel Pupp with an aristocrats ball.
0:17:38 > 0:17:40New Europe seems a world away,
0:17:40 > 0:17:44as those from rich and well-connected families greet each other like old friends.
0:17:47 > 0:17:49But there are occasional impostors!
0:17:49 > 0:17:52- Enjoy your evening! - Thanks.- Pleasure to meet you.
0:17:52 > 0:17:54You're too kind.
0:17:56 > 0:17:57Thank you.
0:17:57 > 0:18:01Hello, hello! We've come all the way from London to see this.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04- Mr World!- I'm Mr World? I'll think about that, actually!
0:18:04 > 0:18:09That's very good, yes. Maybe you are if you're with Miss World. Thank you, thank you very much.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12Good evening. Thanks. Mr and Mrs World!
0:18:12 > 0:18:14That's rather good, that.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18It's a spectacular room,
0:18:18 > 0:18:23but I think Tatiana and I have made the mistake of sitting down too soon!
0:18:25 > 0:18:27It's an amazing place!
0:18:27 > 0:18:29It's a different kind of world.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32Yeah, a different kind of world.
0:18:32 > 0:18:34- Totally different!- Yeah. Me too.
0:18:34 > 0:18:36We're not aristocrats!
0:18:36 > 0:18:38No, we are not!
0:18:41 > 0:18:45It's interesting to observe though, isn't it?
0:18:45 > 0:18:47Don't you like to look at it?
0:18:47 > 0:18:51This is a world I don't really know much about, see how they're...
0:18:51 > 0:18:54'Suddenly, an aristocrat spots me.'
0:18:54 > 0:18:55Hello, Mr Palin! How are you?
0:18:55 > 0:18:58Thank you, thank you!
0:18:58 > 0:19:03I was admiring your spectacular medal...and this is Tatiana.
0:19:03 > 0:19:06Nice to meet you!
0:19:06 > 0:19:08- Nice to meet you.- What is this?
0:19:08 > 0:19:13It's the Sicilian Order of the Knights of the Collar of St Agatha, yeah!
0:19:13 > 0:19:16The Sicilian Order of the Knights of the...?
0:19:16 > 0:19:20The Knights of the Collar of St Agatha, yeah? You have...
0:19:20 > 0:19:23From the 11th century, you had three royal houses in Italy.
0:19:23 > 0:19:28You had the House of Aragon, you had the House of Savoy and Bourbon.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31The Bourbon is the...
0:19:31 > 0:19:36'My great grandmother was an Irish orphan but I don't think I want to bring that one up!'
0:19:36 > 0:19:39..the House of Aragon is sort of the Collar of St Agatha's.
0:19:39 > 0:19:41If you go to Catania...
0:19:41 > 0:19:43- Yes, Catania. I... - You can always...
0:19:43 > 0:19:45In Sicily, yeah.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48In February, we always have the Feast of St Agatha,
0:19:48 > 0:19:50so that's the main event for us.
0:20:00 > 0:20:05The period flavour of the Aristocrats Ball is so immaculately recreated
0:20:05 > 0:20:09that one can almost forget that two world wars ever happened!
0:20:09 > 0:20:12I mean these people's families organised the Crusades!
0:20:28 > 0:20:31Prague, an hour's drive from Karlovy Vary,
0:20:31 > 0:20:37was spared the devastation the Second World War inflicted on so many European capitals.
0:20:37 > 0:20:41It's splendidly rich in history, but doesn't take itself too seriously.
0:20:50 > 0:20:52Prague's architecture is a bit of everything,
0:20:52 > 0:20:55from the Gothic houses by the cathedral on the hill
0:20:55 > 0:21:00to the majestic and neo-classical bulk of the Rudolfinum Concert Hall.
0:21:09 > 0:21:13The 600-year-old Charles Bridge is packed 20 hours a day,
0:21:13 > 0:21:17as people squeeze down the tourist trail they call "The Golden Mile".
0:21:19 > 0:21:21But there is a quieter way to see the city.
0:21:21 > 0:21:25For the price of a pedalo, I get a view not just of Prague,
0:21:25 > 0:21:29but of the Czech Republic from local girl, Bara Vatsalikova.
0:21:29 > 0:21:35Do they regard any of the nations and the countries around as their natural allies?
0:21:35 > 0:21:38Is there one sort of people that the Czechs tend to like more than others,
0:21:38 > 0:21:42or understand better than others?
0:21:42 > 0:21:47I think we get along with the Slovaks the most of course because of the link,
0:21:47 > 0:21:53but we also think that the Slovakian girls come to the Czech Republic to steal our good-looking boys,
0:21:53 > 0:22:00and in general, I think we don't much like Germans,
0:22:00 > 0:22:04because of all the oppressions and all the wars,
0:22:04 > 0:22:08and it's been like thousands of years of our fights with Germans,
0:22:08 > 0:22:11and we think they're a little too strict
0:22:11 > 0:22:17and not any flexible and no fun at all!
0:22:17 > 0:22:20'I daren't ask about the British!
0:22:20 > 0:22:22'Our stag parties love Prague!'
0:22:22 > 0:22:24What's essentially Czech, do you think?
0:22:26 > 0:22:28I think it's the humour.
0:22:30 > 0:22:32I think it's the dark humour.
0:22:32 > 0:22:37We're very ironic and sarcastic and we like it about ourselves.
0:22:37 > 0:22:38We...
0:22:41 > 0:22:46We like to make fun of everything and take everything lighter than like...
0:22:46 > 0:22:49from the lighter perspective.
0:22:49 > 0:22:53- Are you very sociable?- Well, I am!
0:22:53 > 0:22:57I am and definitely, I think so.
0:22:57 > 0:22:59I think Czechs are very social.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02You can see people hanging out together all the time.
0:23:03 > 0:23:09It's very based on friendship and community and branches of people that gather together.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13It's not only that you one friend but basically people
0:23:13 > 0:23:17usually have at least like a group of 10 friends that they hang out with.
0:23:24 > 0:23:29Bara's friends are based around a singing group to which she belongs called The Yellow Sisters.
0:23:29 > 0:23:35Tonight they and their band will be playing at a riverside castle at Usti. I tag along.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49As the industrial sprawl of Northern Bohemia slips by,
0:23:49 > 0:23:52the Yellow Sisters discuss the show.
0:23:57 > 0:24:02All of them have studied in West Africa, and their music reflects a strong African influence.
0:24:04 > 0:24:06HE PLAYS
0:24:06 > 0:24:10SHE SINGS
0:24:18 > 0:24:20This seems very Czech!
0:24:20 > 0:24:25I can't imagine an English band being allowed to do this sort of thing in the restaurant car!
0:24:26 > 0:24:30THEY SING HARMONIES
0:24:44 > 0:24:49When the castle at Usti finally comes in sight, I feel I know the concert pretty well,
0:24:49 > 0:24:54and privileged to have had my ringside seat in the restaurant car, I head back to Prague.
0:25:07 > 0:25:11The thousands of graves huddled together in the city's Jewish Cemetery
0:25:11 > 0:25:15reflect the size and strength of the old Jewish community in Prague,
0:25:15 > 0:25:22but for people like Lisa Mikova, life changed catastrophically when the Nazis marched in, in 1939.
0:25:26 > 0:25:31She and her family were sent north, to the old garrison town of Terezin.
0:25:37 > 0:25:41Under the chilling motto, "Work makes you free"
0:25:41 > 0:25:44an overcrowded ghetto was created.
0:25:45 > 0:25:50It was here in 1944 that the Nazis made a propaganda film to be called
0:25:50 > 0:25:53The Fuhrer Gives The Jews a City.
0:25:59 > 0:26:03The forced smiles, the hastily cleaned up areas
0:26:03 > 0:26:06help blind the world, including Red Cross inspection teams,
0:26:06 > 0:26:10to the realities of the Nazis genocidal policy.
0:26:12 > 0:26:16- This was something that happened anyway?- Yes. This really happened.
0:26:16 > 0:26:17That really happened.
0:26:37 > 0:26:41- Here are the gardens.- And here you see the gardens.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43There were around...
0:26:43 > 0:26:50There were a lot of vegetable fields, and there we had to work.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53Of course the vegetables were not for us.
0:26:53 > 0:27:01The Germans came every second day with cars to carry the vegetables away
0:27:01 > 0:27:05and there were guards and when they saw
0:27:05 > 0:27:09that we would eat one tomato or one turnip
0:27:09 > 0:27:13it was terrible. You were punished...
0:27:15 > 0:27:20The truth of Terezin is that of 144,000 Jews who passed through,
0:27:20 > 0:27:27121,000 died, either here, on forced marches or in the concentration camps they were sent to.
0:27:27 > 0:27:32I lost my parents here. I saw them for the last time,
0:27:32 > 0:27:40but then when I came to Auschwitz and then to the work camp near Dresden to Freibach,
0:27:40 > 0:27:44so we remembered Terezin as a spa.
0:27:45 > 0:27:50In February 1945, allied bombers carried out a massive raid on Dresden,
0:27:50 > 0:27:55wiping out its historic centre and killing an estimated 35,000 people.
0:27:55 > 0:28:01We lived so near Dresden that we saw this bombardment,
0:28:01 > 0:28:06these two in February. They locked us in the factory
0:28:06 > 0:28:10and we saw the planes and I must say today
0:28:10 > 0:28:15that we were so happy when we saw the English planes,
0:28:15 > 0:28:18yes, and it was of course a possibility
0:28:18 > 0:28:24that something could also destroy our factory where we were.
0:28:25 > 0:28:29We were locked up, but we didn't think about that
0:28:29 > 0:28:35and we were so happy that we didn't think about our deaths in Dresden.
0:28:35 > 0:28:40And so and so. We said, "Oh, something, something yes,
0:28:40 > 0:28:47"they do something, they will help us. They will free us, yes."
0:28:47 > 0:28:53This was our thinking and they gave us so many strengths.
0:28:53 > 0:29:00When I say something to a German he looks at me if I am normal,
0:29:00 > 0:29:03but it was like that.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14Today's Dresden is a symbol of resurrection...
0:29:14 > 0:29:17a rebuilt city in a reunited Germany.
0:29:17 > 0:29:2062 years ago, this was a burning shell.
0:29:20 > 0:29:24Now beside the banks of the Elba, the Saxon capital is reborn.
0:29:30 > 0:29:35There are symbols of reconciliation, like the cross made by a British bomber pilot's son.
0:29:35 > 0:29:38It sits on top of the rebuilt Frauenkirke,
0:29:38 > 0:29:42which had been left as a pile of rubble by the communists of the GDR -
0:29:42 > 0:29:44the German Democratic Republic.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48High on the dome, I meet Felix Shoga.
0:29:50 > 0:29:52Were you born and bred in Dresden?
0:29:52 > 0:29:53I was, in 1986.
0:29:53 > 0:29:55I'm 21-years old right now.
0:29:55 > 0:29:59And the memories of the bombing and that awful bombing in 1945,
0:29:59 > 0:30:01was that something you sort of learned about at school?
0:30:01 > 0:30:07My grandma told me about it. She saw the bombing from about 20kms away and the sky was burning and...
0:30:07 > 0:30:13she still doesn't talk about a lot, but it's a part of our history
0:30:13 > 0:30:17and even the German Democratic Republic is a part of our history,
0:30:17 > 0:30:19even though I don't know much about it.
0:30:19 > 0:30:21I was three when the Berlin Wall fell,
0:30:21 > 0:30:24and it's a part of our identity, I guess.
0:30:24 > 0:30:27Yes. So most people think it's a good thing?
0:30:27 > 0:30:29- It's a good thing, yeah!- Unite?
0:30:29 > 0:30:31Yeah. You see I don't know much about it,
0:30:31 > 0:30:36but what my parents tell me is that not everything was wrong in the German Democratic Republic.
0:30:36 > 0:30:39I guess it was a larger community.
0:30:39 > 0:30:43Everybody was helping each other and yeah, not everything was wrong.
0:30:43 > 0:30:46- That's what they always tell me. - Yeah, yeah, interesting, yeah.
0:30:46 > 0:30:51But there is... now they say, some people still have the wall in their heads.
0:30:51 > 0:30:56It's a symbol of metaphor and even though now it's 17 years after reunification,
0:30:56 > 0:31:00there is still segregation between the Eastern part and the Western part
0:31:00 > 0:31:06and it's probably gonna take another generation to get rid of that wall in the heads of people.
0:31:07 > 0:31:12We have a last chance to admire the flamboyant skyline of the new Old Dresden
0:31:12 > 0:31:17as we slide away down the Elba, on Europe's oldest steamboat service.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29It's a mixture of hi-tech and low-tech.
0:31:36 > 0:31:40In almost anywhere else but Germany, machinery like this would have been in a museum,
0:31:40 > 0:31:43but here it is, paddling us through the Saxon countryside.
0:31:52 > 0:31:55HORN BLOWS
0:31:55 > 0:32:01On this rather pleasant peregrination we've paddled our way down to the town of Meissen,
0:32:01 > 0:32:04world famous of course for only one thing...china!
0:32:09 > 0:32:13Meissen hardly resembles the cliched East Germany city...
0:32:13 > 0:32:18it's pretty, unspoilt and its success is based on very expensive objects.
0:32:26 > 0:32:31A secret formula for making porcelain was discovered here almost 300 years ago.
0:32:31 > 0:32:37Collectors have pushed up the prices and some of these camp little figurines go for over £1,000.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43I prefer my china a little more down to earth...
0:32:44 > 0:32:49..like the bathroom appliances they make in this factory, relocated here from West Germany.
0:32:56 > 0:33:00This state-of-the-art operation has provided a big boost for an East Germany economy
0:33:00 > 0:33:03only slowly catching up with the wealthier West.
0:33:03 > 0:33:06I'm shown round by a lady from head office.
0:33:07 > 0:33:13Was it that there was a tradition of porcelain making around Dresden and Meissen? Was that important?
0:33:13 > 0:33:20Yes. I mean the region is very famous for people really educated in producing ceramic ware.
0:33:20 > 0:33:23They already have the feeling how to produce ceramic ware.
0:33:23 > 0:33:28That's important, is it, the feeling? It's not just making any old products?
0:33:28 > 0:33:31It is, absolutely, because it's a material that's all nature.
0:33:32 > 0:33:35I love the paint-spraying robot!
0:33:35 > 0:33:37Like a dentist's chair gone mad!
0:33:42 > 0:33:44MACHINERY BEEPS
0:33:53 > 0:33:57And the showroom products are now... the finished...
0:33:57 > 0:34:02When the job is finished, as we get into terrible puns, a little...
0:34:02 > 0:34:06So what's that? That's a sort of... not conventional?
0:34:06 > 0:34:11Well, actually I would like to show that first, maybe, if you want to.
0:34:11 > 0:34:15Well, that's, that's the sort of one I associate with Germany particularly,
0:34:15 > 0:34:18- where there's a sort of flat pan.- Absolutely, absolutely!
0:34:18 > 0:34:23- And so it doesn't drop into the water, your thing?- Exactly! We call it the "wash-out" model
0:34:23 > 0:34:27and it has a very practical reason actually, medical reasons, so as we say,
0:34:27 > 0:34:31you can examine your business when you've made a number two, so that's...
0:34:31 > 0:34:36Is that the sort of thing Germans do? I mean are you brought up to examine your business as it were?
0:34:36 > 0:34:41Yes, you do! Yes, I mean especially elderly people should do that regularly.
0:34:41 > 0:34:44They should check on their sanity as well on that point.
0:34:44 > 0:34:46- On their sanity?- Er, yes.
0:34:46 > 0:34:49- Sanitary! Their health, yes!- Yes, sorry... on their health!
0:34:49 > 0:34:52Sanity's is sort of mental, yeah, but probably the same!
0:34:52 > 0:34:57Well, you've been talking too much about sanitary ware, so I'm coming back on sanity!
0:34:57 > 0:35:02- Sanity ware! I like that! That's a very good lavatory!- And that's why a lot of Germans use it, and...
0:35:02 > 0:35:06- Is it still popular then, that particular stuff? - Yes, it is very popular.
0:35:06 > 0:35:10In Germany there are some, also in Switzerland, some in The Netherlands,
0:35:10 > 0:35:14but mostly in Germany, people are used to it and they like to do in that way,
0:35:14 > 0:35:21- so for those who don't like it in that way, we have mixture where it can take both.- More regular...
0:35:21 > 0:35:24Also, perhaps you can enlighten me.
0:35:24 > 0:35:30I've heard that there's a custom now for German men to actually sit down when they're having a pee,
0:35:30 > 0:35:33and it's become quite an important almost a sort of political thing...
0:35:33 > 0:35:35that's what's men should do, is it?
0:35:35 > 0:35:39Yes. I have to laugh about that, because that's a very frequent question.
0:35:39 > 0:35:44It is true that a lot of German men have decided to sit when they pee.
0:35:44 > 0:35:50They don't like to speak too much about it because they still consider it as not very masculine,
0:35:50 > 0:35:54but they do... they do, more and more, yeah!
0:35:54 > 0:35:56BELLS TOLL
0:36:01 > 0:36:05Satirical cabaret has a long tradition in Germany and during the Communist period,
0:36:05 > 0:36:11it was one of the few arenas in which criticism could be voiced, albeit carefully and ingeniously.
0:36:15 > 0:36:17AUDIENCE LAUGHS
0:36:17 > 0:36:23Gunter Bankur performed throughout the days of the GDR, when they had full houses every night.
0:36:23 > 0:36:28Tonight here in Leipzig, the cast and the audience are re-living some of the old sketches
0:36:28 > 0:36:34that wowed them in the '60s and '70s, when satire had a real purpose.
0:36:35 > 0:36:38THEY SPEAK GERMAN
0:36:42 > 0:36:45APPLAUSE
0:36:47 > 0:36:50Leipzig, with its big, international trade fairs,
0:36:50 > 0:36:53was the city where the GDR met the rest of the world,
0:36:53 > 0:36:57and the state security police, known as the Stasi, were a strong presence.
0:36:59 > 0:37:05Gunter explains to me the way the Stasi worked, and what they were trying to achieve.
0:37:05 > 0:37:10Well, the idea of these people was
0:37:10 > 0:37:13as I think the Minister of State Security once said,
0:37:13 > 0:37:20"We have to go into every flat, into every bar, into every head.
0:37:20 > 0:37:25"We have to know what people think, what people plan, what people do"
0:37:25 > 0:37:30and they had lots and lots of information.
0:37:30 > 0:37:35I mean they had six million people in their archives.
0:37:35 > 0:37:37Did people disappear?
0:37:37 > 0:37:42Did you know of someone who suddenly was off the streets and you didn't see them again?
0:37:42 > 0:37:50In the '50s there was a saying "If you tell a joke in the restaurant and somebody hears it,
0:37:50 > 0:37:52"you will disappear to Siberia",
0:37:52 > 0:37:56and when I was a small boy, I always thought,
0:37:56 > 0:38:00"What do they mean by 'you will disappear to Siberia?'"
0:38:00 > 0:38:03Well, it meant you you will be sent to the Gulag...
0:38:05 > 0:38:08..in the '50s, until '61 you could be...
0:38:10 > 0:38:14There was the death penalty in East Germany
0:38:14 > 0:38:21and you could be shot by the Stasi in Leipzig until '61.
0:38:25 > 0:38:28The Runden Ecke, or Round Corner,
0:38:28 > 0:38:32was the bland building from the which the Stasi spied on the people of Leipzig.
0:38:33 > 0:38:36Now it's a museum and people can spy on the Stasi.
0:38:49 > 0:38:53Preserved in all its banal colourlessness,
0:38:53 > 0:38:56it feels more like a small town technical college
0:38:56 > 0:39:02than a place where thousands of lives were watched, listened to and often destroyed.
0:39:11 > 0:39:19It's extraordinary how, you know, the evil of the system emanated from just a little office like this.
0:39:19 > 0:39:23You didn't need much...the telephone, the filing system,
0:39:23 > 0:39:25an enormous amount of details kept on everybody,
0:39:25 > 0:39:28and of course the shredder...vital things!
0:39:28 > 0:39:31And then the tea and the coffeemaker and the map,
0:39:31 > 0:39:35but enormous numbers of people's lives were disrupted from this room.
0:39:35 > 0:39:39It really is an example of the bureaucracy of oppression.
0:39:47 > 0:39:50One of those who fought the system and ultimately won,
0:39:50 > 0:39:54is Hans Zimmerman, a keen naturalist turned environmental campaigner.
0:39:56 > 0:40:02The town of Bitterfeld where he was born and brought up, was the centre of East Germany's chemical industry.
0:40:07 > 0:40:11A hundred factories, employing 30,000 workers, poured tons of untreated effluent
0:40:11 > 0:40:18into the rivers and onto the land. By the 1980s, Bitterfeld was a toxic dump.
0:40:26 > 0:40:31After taking me on a tour of Bitterfeld, as it is today, Hans invites me into his home.
0:40:40 > 0:40:42Thank you, thank you!
0:40:47 > 0:40:50He wants me to meet Margot Miosga, the journalist who helped him make
0:40:50 > 0:40:54a TV expose which brought Bitterfeld's pollution to a world audience.
0:40:54 > 0:40:58Hans had already been brought to the attention of the Stasi.
0:40:59 > 0:41:01How big were the files? How many?
0:41:01 > 0:41:05How fat was the... SHE SPEAKS GERMAN
0:41:05 > 0:41:12THEY SPEAK GERMAN
0:41:14 > 0:41:19It's just information about Hans and...
0:41:21 > 0:41:29TRANSLATION: 3,228 pages!
0:41:35 > 0:41:40TRANSLATION: So he kept his files very consciously, without problems.
0:41:48 > 0:41:53So what was shocking for him was the result, what the Stasi decided what should have been done with him.
0:41:53 > 0:41:56Destroy the marriage.
0:41:56 > 0:42:03Make it impossible - that he never gets a job again. Make him a criminal.
0:42:03 > 0:42:09And lock him away... So that was how the Stasi worked always.
0:42:09 > 0:42:14They had like strategic development.
0:42:14 > 0:42:19One thing really was they often did, they destroyed families.
0:42:19 > 0:42:23Does Hans feel any nostalgia for the GDR?
0:42:28 > 0:42:32TRANSLATION: That was my life! I delivered...
0:42:32 > 0:42:40I did want to live it differently in another way, in the right way.
0:42:40 > 0:42:47The laws for environmental laws were good in the GDR.
0:42:47 > 0:42:51They didn't practice them.
0:42:51 > 0:42:56And if they would have done this properly,
0:42:56 > 0:42:59a lot of things were easier for me.
0:42:59 > 0:43:05I only wanted to be a human being.
0:43:09 > 0:43:15Today, bio-fuel crops and wind farms mark the landscape of a new, cleaner Germany.
0:43:20 > 0:43:22These wide flatlands on the Polish-German border
0:43:22 > 0:43:28are ideal tank country, and during the Cold War, the Warsaw Pact had 7,000 tanks here,
0:43:28 > 0:43:33which they reckoned they could get to Marseilles within 5 days, and they've still got some left!
0:43:39 > 0:43:41So we scramble aboard... Oh, no!
0:43:41 > 0:43:43There's a ladder!
0:43:44 > 0:43:46Rather camp...
0:43:48 > 0:43:49Updated!
0:43:51 > 0:43:55This is the heavy stuff up here, isn't it?
0:43:55 > 0:44:00These Russian T55 tanks were once the mainstay of the Warsaw Pact forces.
0:44:00 > 0:44:02These were the weapons of our enemy.
0:44:02 > 0:44:05- Will I start the machine? - Start the machine, yeah.
0:44:07 > 0:44:12In the New Europe, they're a tourist attraction and military training takes all of five minutes.
0:44:13 > 0:44:16An awful lot of tap-twiddling and levers going and all that.
0:44:16 > 0:44:19I mean, I hope I don't have to reproduce that!
0:44:19 > 0:44:21ENGINE RUMBLES
0:44:31 > 0:44:34I didn't really see how you did that, but...
0:44:34 > 0:44:37This is the tank driving school
0:44:37 > 0:44:42set up by an ex Cold War Commander who couldn't bear to see these machines go to waste.
0:44:42 > 0:44:45"This is Russian technology," he told me earlier.
0:44:45 > 0:44:47"You can do what you like with it!"
0:44:50 > 0:44:53And I'll get my own specially shot video at the end of it!
0:44:53 > 0:44:58To the left... to the right...
0:45:00 > 0:45:01Left and right. Position one.
0:45:01 > 0:45:03OK?
0:45:03 > 0:45:05- Yep.- And start!
0:45:05 > 0:45:08- A little gas.- OK, start.
0:45:08 > 0:45:09Gas, gas, gas.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15To the left, to the right. Steering forward.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18Right forward.
0:45:18 > 0:45:20Left forward.
0:45:20 > 0:45:26- 1500, 1500 - INAUDIBLE
0:45:26 > 0:45:28Gas, gas, gas.
0:45:28 > 0:45:30Gas, gas, gas.
0:45:33 > 0:45:39Left, is that... More gas, 1500. RPM 1500.
0:45:39 > 0:45:41- OK?- OK.
0:45:41 > 0:45:44OK, is the gear neutral?
0:45:44 > 0:45:49MUFFLED CONVERSATION
0:45:49 > 0:45:52Second gear, three gear.
0:45:52 > 0:45:54- Three gear.- Yeah.
0:45:54 > 0:45:58- No, two gear.- Two gear.
0:45:58 > 0:46:04- Fully deployed. Position one. - One, right.
0:46:04 > 0:46:07Left and right.
0:46:10 > 0:46:12- OK. - ENGINE FALLS SILENT
0:46:12 > 0:46:14Oh, shoot.
0:46:18 > 0:46:19- OK?- OK.
0:46:21 > 0:46:23ENGINE TURNS OVER
0:46:25 > 0:46:27Looking good now.
0:46:32 > 0:46:33Gas, gas, gas.
0:46:37 > 0:46:39Steering forward.
0:46:40 > 0:46:42The left...steering forwards.
0:46:42 > 0:46:44Left... Gas, gas, gas.
0:46:46 > 0:46:47Gas!
0:46:53 > 0:46:55Left...
0:46:56 > 0:46:58Left.
0:47:00 > 0:47:02Left.
0:47:03 > 0:47:04Straight on.
0:47:14 > 0:47:15Right.
0:47:17 > 0:47:19Right. Straight on.
0:47:19 > 0:47:21Straight on.
0:47:30 > 0:47:32This is a much more comfortable assignment.
0:47:32 > 0:47:35I'm in Karl Marx Allee in East Berlin with two young actors
0:47:35 > 0:47:40who offer a city tour, which is also a small play about divided Berlin.
0:47:41 > 0:47:44He jumps in the back without paying a penny.
0:47:44 > 0:47:47Olaf Rauschenbach on the left plays the proud Eastie
0:47:47 > 0:47:50and Jorg Pinch plays the cynical Westie.
0:47:50 > 0:47:52I play the audience.
0:47:54 > 0:47:58And the set for this particular act, is what remains of the Berlin Wall.
0:47:58 > 0:48:03This is where the new Germany began - socialistic Berlin.
0:48:03 > 0:48:04Let's have a look.
0:48:04 > 0:48:07Getting in wasn't all that difficult!
0:48:07 > 0:48:08But getting out!
0:48:10 > 0:48:13What is the first thing you think of when you think of the GDR?
0:48:13 > 0:48:16Aw! Well, a big wall!
0:48:16 > 0:48:20The Wall! Well, the GDR were the wall!
0:48:20 > 0:48:23Otherwise named as the anti-fascistic protective wall!
0:48:23 > 0:48:27Or the stigma of German history!
0:48:27 > 0:48:30Just imagine! You are 18 years old,
0:48:30 > 0:48:36you are standing there, young and liable for military service
0:48:36 > 0:48:40and also convinced that socialism is the right thing for the young GDR.
0:48:42 > 0:48:45You're standing there, it's peace vigil.
0:48:45 > 0:48:49The border between the two alliances on a watchtower.
0:48:49 > 0:48:51You've sworn an oath.
0:48:52 > 0:48:57I pledge as a soldier in the National People's Army
0:48:57 > 0:49:04side by side with the Soviet Army and the armies of our allies, the United Socialist countries
0:49:04 > 0:49:10that I'm prepared, at all times, to defend socialism against all enemies.
0:49:10 > 0:49:15The cost of defending socialism along the whole length
0:49:15 > 0:49:20of the Wall has been estimated as anything from 300 to 1,000 lives.
0:49:22 > 0:49:27If there was one date which marked the end of the Cold War, it would be November 9th, 1989...
0:49:28 > 0:49:30..the day the Wall fell.
0:49:39 > 0:49:43So complete was the destruction of their city in World War Two
0:49:43 > 0:49:47that most Berliners now live in huge concrete housing estates.
0:49:47 > 0:49:52RHYTHMIC CLAPPING
0:49:53 > 0:49:58This is one way of dealing with the problems of isolation and alienation.
0:49:58 > 0:50:00Kerrin's Laughter Yoga.
0:50:00 > 0:50:06- OK, Danke schon.- Kerrin has ways of making you laugh!
0:50:06 > 0:50:10- Ho-ho-ha-ha-ha!- Ha-ha-ha...
0:50:11 > 0:50:15HEARTY LAUGHTER
0:50:19 > 0:50:22HEARTIER LAUGHTER
0:50:27 > 0:50:31LAUGHING CONTINUES
0:50:37 > 0:50:39ALL: Ho-ho, ha-ha-ha.
0:50:39 > 0:50:41Ho-ho, ha-ha-ha.
0:50:44 > 0:50:48SHE SPEAKS IN GERMAN
0:50:48 > 0:50:53Ah! THEY ALL GRUNT
0:50:55 > 0:50:57THEY ALL LAUGH
0:50:59 > 0:51:02LAUGHTER CONTINUES
0:51:17 > 0:51:21ALL: Ho-ho, ha-ha-ha.
0:51:21 > 0:51:23Ho-ho, ha-ha-ha.
0:51:23 > 0:51:26Ho-ho, ha-ha-ha.
0:51:26 > 0:51:28Ho-ho, ha-ha-ha.
0:51:28 > 0:51:31Ho-ho, ha-ha-ha.
0:51:34 > 0:51:37SHE SPEAKS GERMAN
0:51:37 > 0:51:43For the last ten minutes of the class, Kerrin gets us all to lie down, and laugh!
0:51:43 > 0:51:49Group hilarity is not something I'd normally associate with the Germans, but this lot has no trouble!
0:51:49 > 0:51:53THEY CHORTLE
0:52:04 > 0:52:07So how long have you been coming to the classes?
0:52:07 > 0:52:10I've been laughing here since last August!
0:52:10 > 0:52:12You've been laughing since August -
0:52:12 > 0:52:14that's pretty impressive!
0:52:14 > 0:52:15Yes, only once a week!
0:52:15 > 0:52:18Once a week, but you laugh during the rest of the week a lot?
0:52:18 > 0:52:20Yes, I do, but not so long!
0:52:20 > 0:52:25Not so long! It's very long, at the end on the carpet...
0:52:25 > 0:52:26It's a very long time.
0:52:26 > 0:52:29Well, you don't often get the chance to laugh for that long.
0:52:29 > 0:52:32Nothing's that funny?
0:52:32 > 0:52:37- I think it would be a little bit silly, maybe! Everybody would think you are a silly person!- Yes!
0:52:37 > 0:52:39You'd probably be taken out and...
0:52:39 > 0:52:43Here you can be a like a child and the child is laughing!
0:52:43 > 0:52:46And it's helped you, has it?
0:52:46 > 0:52:48Yes. I think it helps everybody.
0:52:48 > 0:52:50Everybody likes to laugh.
0:52:50 > 0:52:54Maybe not everybody laughs but everybody likes it!
0:52:58 > 0:53:01It's difficult to walk through Berlin without sensing ghosts of the past.
0:53:01 > 0:53:07From the grand hopes of socialism, to the squares where the Nazis held their rallies.
0:53:10 > 0:53:14But to be able to walk unhampered through the Brandenburg Gate is a reality.
0:53:14 > 0:53:19A reality of a Germany re-united and hopefully a Europe re-united.
0:53:41 > 0:53:46I'm leaving for my final destination aboard a DC3, which, nearly 60 years ago,
0:53:46 > 0:53:50took part in one of the world's most extraordinary peacetime operations -
0:53:50 > 0:53:52the Berlin Airlift.
0:53:59 > 0:54:04In June 1948, the Russians, mistrustful of allied intentions,
0:54:04 > 0:54:08closed off all road and rail links to the city of Berlin,
0:54:08 > 0:54:11with the intention of taking control of the whole city.
0:54:19 > 0:54:23For 11 months, American, British and French pilots joined together
0:54:23 > 0:54:26in a massive siege-busting operation.
0:54:26 > 0:54:30Two and a half million tons of food were flown in and at its peak,
0:54:30 > 0:54:34the planes were landing at intervals no more than a minute apart.
0:54:35 > 0:54:42This is one of the actual DC3s that flew during the Berlin Airlift, and they called them the Candy Bombers,
0:54:42 > 0:54:45or the Raisin Bombers, from the habit of one American pilot
0:54:45 > 0:54:48who would open his cockpit window and throw candy out
0:54:48 > 0:54:51to the kids down below as he flew over the city.
0:55:15 > 0:55:18I'm heading towards Rugen Island on Germany's Baltic Coast.
0:55:21 > 0:55:27Here amid the sand dunes and the pine trees stands one of the more bizarre relics of the Third Reich.
0:55:31 > 0:55:32It's a holiday camp.
0:55:32 > 0:55:38Three miles long, with 10,000 rooms and accommodation for 20,000 people.
0:55:41 > 0:55:44Built here at Prora between 1936 and 1939,
0:55:44 > 0:55:50it was intended as a place where the good workers of Nazi Germany could build up their strength
0:55:50 > 0:55:53and their collective will for the great struggle that lay ahead -
0:55:53 > 0:55:55the conquest of Europe!
0:56:14 > 0:56:18HE SPEAKS GERMAN
0:56:20 > 0:56:23Overseen by Hitler's favourite architect, Albert Speer,
0:56:23 > 0:56:28the camp at Prora was to be the embodiment of the Nazi policy of Kraft Durch Freude -
0:56:28 > 0:56:30Strength Through Joy.
0:56:32 > 0:56:35HE SPEAKS GERMAN
0:56:53 > 0:56:56Instead of housing happy holidaymakers, Prora was filled
0:56:56 > 0:57:02with evacuees from bombed cities and forced labour squads brought here from Nazi-occupied Europe.
0:57:08 > 0:57:11Now, as then, no-one quite knows what to do with the place.
0:57:11 > 0:57:16There's a museum, a few workshops, but the scale of this Nazi folly
0:57:16 > 0:57:20has defied even the most ambitious development plans.
0:57:20 > 0:57:26So it survives - neglected, empty and useless.
0:57:34 > 0:57:36Well, I've finally reached the end of my journey
0:57:36 > 0:57:40here on the shores of the Baltic, surrounded by the broken dreams
0:57:40 > 0:57:46of the last attempt to unite Europe by force, but now, for the first time in history,
0:57:46 > 0:57:50there's a real chance to create a Europe out of co-operation rather than conflict...
0:57:50 > 0:57:54and that would be a mighty achievement - a new Europe indeed!
0:58:34 > 0:58:37Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:37 > 0:58:40E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk