New Europe (2007) s01e07 Episode Script

Well, I'm in Slovakia! It's a bit of
a shock after the flatlands of Poland
to find yourself confronted
with an 8,000-foot mountain range
in the heart of Europe!
But these are the High Tatras,
part of the Carpathian range,
and I've got to cross them
to begin the last stage of my journey
through Slovakia, the Czech Republic
and into East Germany!
Once through Slovakla
and across the Czech Republlc,
I'll be followlng the rlver Elbe
through Eastern Germany
from Dresden to Berlln,
then onto journey's end at Ruegen Island
on the Baltlc coast.
Slovakla Is one of Europe's
newest countrles,
spllttlng from Czechoslovakla,
by mutual agreement, just 1 4 years ago.
But always consldered the underachlever
of the Czecho-Slovak partnershlp,
wlth a slower, more rural way of llfe.
In the mountaln vlllages,
llttle seems to have changed.
Today the people who llve here
have kllled a plg.
Alena, a Slovak marrled to a Welshman,
llves nearby.
What are they gonna do now?
Are they going to!!!
I think they are going to!!!
0bviously they need to clean it,
and I think they boil the water!
- They're preparing the cauldron outside!
- Yeah!
ALENA: You can help cleaning!
Alfonse is saying
perhaps you want to take your coat off!
I don't want to do it at all,
but I'll do it!
(MAN LAUGHING)
ALENA: They are asking,
"Are you married?"
PALIN: Yeah, yeah, I'm married!
What difference does that make?
ALENA: So don't do it like
with the woman,
you've got to go really for it,
go for it! That's right!
PALIN: Sorry, I'm a city boy!
Not used to all this!
For young Slovaklans, a day llke thls
could soon be a thlng of the past,
and scenes llke thls conflned
to EU-approved premlses.
0kay!
0h! 0h! Hey, that's great!
(ALL EXCLAIMING)
0h, sorry! 0h, dear!
Oh, dear, Indeed. Next tlme the ladles
take safe sausage precautlons.
PALIN: I don't know
the Slovakian for stop!
(ALL LAUGHING)
0kay, there! 0kay! All right, yeah!
You want me to try! 0kay?
None of the plg wlll be wasted.
What Isn't eaten today
wlll be stored away for the wlnter.
PALIN: This is all parts of the pig,
isn't it?
After work I ask Alena about Slovakla.
Did you feel that Slovakia
had to be its own nation
in order to sort of realise
what it wanted?
Probably, yes, because
through the history, we always!!!
Through the centuries
we always had either
Hungarian or Austrian monarchy over us
and we never could say
what we wanted or do what we wanted,
and we did what they told us!
And so, it's a good time!
We are learning to stand on our own!
It's funny, really, isn't it?
There's a process in Europe
seems to be going on of interconnections
through the European Union,
through transport
and all that sort of thing!
At the same time, more and more
small nations springing up,
who feel they can only realise what
that nation wants by being independent!
(MAN SINGING TRADITl0NAL S0NG)
At a tlme llke thls
the old songs are always the best.
Even If no one can remember them.
(CHUCKLING) You're making that up!
You're making that up!
- Even I know that!
- ALENA: Actually, you've caught him!
I'm almost tempted to say
It's been a plg of a day, but I won't.
Well, it's time to leave the snows
of the High Tatras behind
and back onto the plain and rest
to my penultimate country,
the Czech Republic!
Belng In the European Unlon
has helped the Slovaks
emerge from the Czech shadow,
and tourlsm In the Tatras
Is one of the blg hopes
In an Increaslngly optlmlstlc future.
I've crossed my 1 9th border Into Brno,
the second clty of the Czech Republlc.
Brno Is a solld manufacturlng town
wlth a few surprlses off the maln drag.
In thls unglamorous llttle theatre,
the Czech tradltlon of satlrlcal mlme
Is carrled on by one of
lts most Illustrlous practltloners,
Tlbor Turba.
Martina Prochazka!
Could you be so kind? Try to!!!
Play, play in the time, try to express
as big as possible
palette of different expressions
of red colour!
Martlna, asked to mlme the colour red,
seems to set herself
almost llterally on flre.
0kay, fine, yeah!
Michael, may I ask you,
could you be so kind,
and could you make a study of le coq?
PALIN: (LAUGHING) 0h, God!
Could you use this mask?
This is Capitano, you know?
Yeah!
If there is some correspondence
between the character of the coq
- And character of Capitano!!!
- I see, okay!
- Let's try! Let's try!
- All right!
And don't forget now this mask,
more moments longer!
Don't be afraid to stop!
You know, to make so-called
representative positions!
I model my performance
on everythlng I wanted to be
when I was young, but never dared.
They love lt.
Now that, you know, you're free,
nobody is oppressing you,
does that sense of humour still!!!
Is it still satirical?
Is it still having a go
at the Establishment?
In some sense stupid, but not this!!!
Elementary things are
rather clearly changed,
but in details there are still
so many problems!
And we can be ironic
against many things,
and I know people which go on
with this excellent humour,
which makes some sort of cleaning!
- It's like kidneys or!!!
- Yes, I know, kidneys!
- Kidneys which clean your blood!
- Yes, yeah!
I feel people llke Turbo
are happler wlth somethlng
to flght agalnst.
In the new Europe
we're all theoretlcally free,
and, of course,
encouraged to keep movlng.
A smooth tlltlng traln
that's come from Vlenna
carrles me northwards,
and Pllsner lager, one of the Czechs'
flnest contrlbutlons to the world,
helps the journey sllp by.
Nestllng In the western mountalns
of the Czech Republlc
Is a town where all excess can be cured
In excesslvely plush surroundlngs.
Karlovy Vary,
once the German town of Karlsbad,
slts on a bed of heallng waters.
And there are people who tell you
how best to make use of them.
Mllada Sarova, who runs thls cllnlc,
has treated such Icons of New Europe
as Gorbachev
and Czech presldent Vaclav Havel,
so she's a force to be reckoned wlth.
I prescribe you now
how you drink the water!
And to this you make
two or three treatments every day!
Right! This water
which is very, very special!
0ur water is in a colonnade!
We drink the water from these cups!
We drink the water every time
on empty stomach,
because you'll see,
we wash mechanically
all digestive system!
- Your stool is normal?
- Drinking is special! I think so, yes!
Because when the people
have constipation,
they must drink water
30 degrees Celsius!
My body just doesn't know
what it's got to look forward to!
And how long is this programme?
- You drink the water around 1 0 minutes!
- How many days?
- How many days?
- The best is 20 days!
20 days!
Because every day
we drink around five cups!
It is one litre!
And when you really drink 20 litres,
your liver can regenerate!
PALIN: You deal with the heart
as well as the body!
- The mind and the body!
- Yeah!
Complex, our body,
our mind and our soul!
When everything is healthy and happy,
it means we can speak about
the vapours!
PALIN: Can you tell from somebody
quite quickly
whether they're happy or unhappy
or likely to be depressed?
I think the love is
very important in life
because everybody who is in love,
they are happy and much nicer!
- 0h, love, I thought you said laugh!
- I said love!
- Love, love!
- Love, love!
Love is very happy!
Also love is very painful
for some people!
They have very unhappy affairs!
No, no, I think when
you really found the second!!!
- The woman found the good man!
- Yes!
And it is really this very good love
which means they must be happy
- Because!!!
- Good sex, really!
Sex is very important
because the lymphic system
and all this hormonal situation
in the body is very important!
And I think the people
don't make enough love, sex, now,
because they don't have time for this!
It needs time, too!
Time is very important!
Can you give me a prescription?
So star-studded Is Mllada's cllentele
that I flnd myself In a bag
full of Ice-cold C02
next to the current Mlss World.
- Hello!
- Hello!
You're looking radiant!
I think white is definitely your colour!
Tatlana Kucharova Is the flrst
Czech glrl ever to wln the tltle.
It's like your body is bursting!
Can you feel it?
(AIR BL0WING)
Depends on the wind!
The carbon dloxlde wlnd treatment
Is Intended to dllate the caplllarles,
causlng to skln to radlate
a smooth therapeutlc glow.
PALIN: Hmm!
- Are you feeling any better for this?
- I think!!!
- Are your!!!
- I think it will come later!
Your skin is sort of opening up
and then something's happening!
It's a bit like
going to the dry cleaner's!
Have you ever been in a bag,
a plastic bag, before?
- No, never, this is first time!
- Me, too!
- And I'm older than you!
- How do you feel in it?
How have I missed out
on this all my life? Anyway!
Sleep! We have to sleep, so here we go!
It's an odd feeling, isn't it?
I think you need really
to have someone to tell you
that this is good for you, don't you?
0therwise it's like sitting
in a warm, wet bath
with a lot of gravel up your backside!
- It's quite dirty!
- It is quite dirty!
So have you been
to Karlovy Vary many times?
Yeah, I've been here many times,
but this is first time
here in spa centre!
The success of the prlvate cllnlcs
may make Karlovy Vary glow wlth health,
but the town's
most valuable resource Is free.
Every day the place Is full of people
taklng nature's medlclne.
- You have to drink it fresh!
- PALIN: Fresh?
Yeah!
PALIN: Yeah, fresh, and here it comes
up from the earth!
- PALIN: 0kay?
- Yeah!
PALIN: Well, mmm!
The cllnlcs may be
all futurlstlc hl-tech,
but on the street
It's tradltlonal porcelaln mugs
and elegant old colonnades.
Here's another one! I've heard
they get hotter, is that right?
Yeah, it is!
- And, oh, yeah!!!
- 62!
PALIN: 62 it says, yes!
- 62 is quite hot, isn't it?
- Yeah, it is!
Well, here we go!
- I actually prefer it that way!
- Yeah? You like it better?
Yeah! I like it better
than the lukewarm!
This is like a sort of a hot cuppa!
So we are not the only!!!
We are not the first ones in history!
No, we are not!
A lot of famous people drink this water!
- Yeah!
- For example Goethe,
- Beethoven, Karl Marx! A lot of others!
- And now Miss World!
Yeah, maybe I'm the first one!
Karlovy Vary fosters the
lmpresslon that tlme has stood stlll,
an Illuslon relnforced tonlght
at the Hotel Pupp
wlth an Arlstocrats Ball.
New Europe seems a world away
as those from rlch
and well-connected famllles
greet each other llke old frlends.
But there are occaslonal lmpostors.
- Enjoy your evening!
- Thank you! Thanks!
Pleasure to meet you!
- H0STESS: Please come!
- Thank you!
Hello, hello, we've come
all the way from London to see this!
- H0STESS: Are you Mr World?
- Mr World?
Well, I'll think about that,
that's very good!
Welcome!
Yes, maybe you are
if you're with Miss World!
Thank you, thank you very much!
Good evening!
Thanks! Mr and Mrs World!
It's rather good, isn't it? I like that!
It's a spectacular room.
But I thlnk Tatlana and I have made
the mlstake of slttlng down too soon.
- It's an amazing place!
- It's a different type of world
- From what I know!
- Yeah, different kind of world!
- Totally!
- Yeah, me too!
- We're not aristocrats!
- No, we are not!
PALIN: It's interesting to observe,
though, isn't it?
Don't you like to look at a world
I don't really know much about!!!
- It's very different!
- !!! To see how they work?
TATIANA: Different world!
Suddenly an arlstocrat spots me.
- Mr Palin! I'm a huge fan of yours!
- Hello! 0h, thank you!
Thank you! I was admiring
your spectacular medal!
And this is Tatiana!
- Good evening! Nice to meet you!
- Nice to meet you!
What is this award?
It's the Sicilian 0rder of the Knights
of the Collar of Saint Agatha!
- The Sicilian 0rder!!!
- Yes!
!!! Of the Knights of the!!!
The Knights
of the Collar of Saint Agatha, yeah?
From the 1 1 th century,
you have three royal houses in Italy!
You have the house of Paterno-Aragon,
you have the house of Savoy and Bourbon!
So, Bourbon is the!!! Do I need to!!!
My great-grandmother
was an Irlsh orphan,
but I don't partlcularly
want to brlng that one up.
And the House of Paterno-Aragon is
the 0rder of the Collar of Saint Agatha!
- Lf you go to Catania!!!
- Yes, Catania!
- !!! You can always!!!
- In Sicily, yes!
Yes, in February we always
have the Feast of Saint Agatha!
That's the main event for us!
(0RCHESTRA PLAYING WALTZ MUSIC)
The perlod flavour
of the Arlstocrats Ball
Is so lmmaculately recreated
that one can almost forget
that two World Wars ever happened.
I mean, these people's famllles
organlsed the Crusades.
Prague, an hour's drlve
from Karlovy Vary,
was spared the devastatlon
that the Second World War
Infllcted on so many European capltals.
It's splendldly rlch In hlstory,
but doesn't take ltself too serlously.
Prague's archltecture
Is a blt of everythlng,
from the Gothlc houses
by the Cathedral on the hlll
to the majestlc neo-Classlcal bulk
of the Rudolflnum Concert Hall.
The 600-year-old Charles Brldge
Is packed 20 hours a day
as people squeeze down the tourlst trall
they call "The Golden Mlle. "
But there Is a quleter way
to see the clty.
For the prlce of a pedalo
I get a vlew not just of Prague,
but of the Czech Republlc
from local glrl Bara Vacullkova.
Do you regard any of the nations
and the countries around
as their natural allies?
Is there one sort of people
that the Czechs tend to like
more than others
or understand better than others?
I think we get along
with the Slovaks the most,
of course, because of the link,
but we also think that
the Slovakian girls come
to the Czech Republic
to steal our good-looking boys!
And in general, I think
we don't really much like Germans
because of all the oppressions
and all the wars,
and it's been like thousands of years
of our fights with Germans!
And we think they're a little too strict
and not any flexible
and no fun at all!
I daren't ask about the Brltlsh.
Our stag partles love Prague.
What's essentially Czech, do you think?
- I think it's the humour!
- Yeah?
I think it's the dark humour!
We're very ironic and sarcastic,
and we like it about ourselves!
We like to make fun of everything
and take everything lighter
than like the!!!
From the lighter perspective!
- Are you very sociable?
- Well, I am!
I am and definitely I think so!
I think Czechs are every social!
You can see people
hanging out together all the time!
It's very based
on friendship and community
and bunches of people
that gather together!
It's not only like you have one friend,
but basically people usually have
at least like a group of 1 0 friends
that they hang out with!
Bara's frlends are based
around a slnglng group
to whlch she belongs
called the Yellow Slsters.
Tonlght they and thelr band
wlll be playlng at a rlverslde castle
at Ustl. I tag along.
As the Industrlal sprawl
of northern Bohemla sllps by,
the Yellow Slsters dlscuss the show.
(SPEAKING CZECH)
All of them have studled In West Afrlca,
and thelr muslc reflects
a strong Afrlcan Influence.
(W0MEN SINGING)
Thls seems very Czech.
I can't lmaglne an Engllsh band
belng allowed to do thls sort of thlng
In the restaurant car.
When the castle at Ustl
flnally comes In slght,
I feel I know the concert pretty well,
and prlvlleged to have had
my rlngslde seat In the restaurant car,
I head back to Prague.
The thousands of graves huddled together
In the clty's Jewlsh cemetery
reflect the slze and strength
of the old Jewlsh communlty In Prague.
But for people llke Llsa Mlkova,
llfe changed catastrophlcally
when the Nazls marched In In 1 939.
She and her famlly were sent north
to the old garrlson town of Terezln.
Under the chllllng motto
"Work Makes You Free';
an overcrowded ghetto was created.
It was here In 1 944
that the Nazls made a propaganda fllm
to be called
The Fuhrer Gives the Jews a City!
The forced smlles,
the hastlly cleaned up areas,
helped bllnd the world,
Includlng Red Cross Inspectlon teams,
to the realltles
of the Nazls'genocldal pollcy.
This was something that happened anyway!
Yes, this really happened!
That really happened!
- Here are the gardens!
- And here you see the gardens!
LISA: There were around Terezin,
- There were a lot of vegetable fields!
- Right!
And there we had to work! 0f course,
these vegetables were not for us!
The Germans came
every second day with cars
to carry these vegetables away!
And there were guards,
and when they saw that we would eat
one tomato or one turnip,
it was terrible!
We were punished and sent to Poland!
The truth of Terezln Is that
of the 1 44,000 Jews who passed though,
1 2 1,000 dled, elther here
on forced marches
or In the concentratlon camps
they were sent to.
I lost my parents here,
I saw them for the last time!
But then when I came to Auschwitz,
and then to the work camp
near Dresden, to Freiberg,
we remembered Terezin as a spa!
In February 1 945, Allled bombers
carrled out a masslve rald on Dresden,
wlplng out lts hlstorlc centre
and kllllng an estlmated 35,000 people.
LISA: We llved so near Dresden
that we saw thls bombardment
In February.
They locked us in the factory
and we saw the planes!
I must say, today, that we were so happy
when we saw the English planes, yes!
And it was of course a possibility
that something could also destroy
our factory where we were
Iocked up,
but we didn't think about that,
and we were so happy
that we didn't think
about those deaths in Dresden
and those deaths and such!
We sald, "Oh, somethlng, somethlng, yes.
"They do somethlng, they wlll help us.
They wlll free us. "
Yes, thls was our thlnklng
and It gave us so many strengths.
When I say something to a German,
he looks at me
whether I'm normal,
but it was like that!
PALIN: Today's Dresden
Is a symbol of resurrectlon,
a rebullt clty In a reunlted Germany.
Slxty-two years ago,
thls was a burnlng shell.
Now, beslde the banks of the Elbe,
the Saxon capltal Is reborn.
There are symbols of reconclllatlon,
Ilke the cross
made by a Brltlsh bomber pllot's son.
It slts on top
of the rebullt Frauenklrche,
whlch had been left as a plle of rubble
by the Communlsts of the GDR,
the German Democratlc Republlc.
Hlgh on the dome, I meet Fellx Zschoge.
Were you born and bred in Dresden?
I was, in 1 986!
I'm 21 years old right now!
And the memories of the bombing,
that awful bombing in 1 945,
was that something you sort of
learned about at school?
My grandma told me about it!
She saw the bombing
from about 20 kilometres away,
and the sky was burning!
She still doesn't talk about it a lot,
but it's a part of our history,
and even German Democratic Republic
is a part of our history,
even though I don't know much about it!
I was three when the Berlin Wall fell!
- It's a part of our identity, I guess!
- Yes!
So, most people think it's a good thing!
- It's a good thing!
- To unite!
See, I don't know much about it,
but what my parents tell me is
that not everything was wrong
in the German Democratic Republic!
I guess it was a larger community,
everybody was helping each other
and yeah, not everything was wrong!
That's what they always tell me!
Yeah, that's interesting, yeah!
But there is, now we say,
some people still have
that wall in their heads!
It's a symbol, a metaphor!
It means that even so,
now at 1 7 years after reunification,
there is still segregation between
the Eastern part and the Western part,
and it's probably gonna take
another generation
to get rid of that wall
in the heads of people!
We have a last chance to admlre
the flamboyant skyllne
of the new Old Dresden
as we sllde away down the Elbe
on Europe's oldest steamboat servlce.
It's a mlxture of hl-tech and low-tech.
In almost anywhere else but Germany,
machlnery llke thls
would have been In a museum,
but here It Is paddllng us
through the Saxon countryslde.
Well now, on this
rather pleasant peregrination,
we've paddled our way
down to the town of Meissen,
world-famous, of course,
for only one thing, china!
Melssen hardly resembles
the cllched East German clty.
It's pretty, unspollt and lts success
Is based on very expenslve objects.
A secret formula for maklng porcelaln
was dlscovered here
almost 300 years ago.
Collectors have pushed up the prlces,
and some of these camp llttle flgurlnes
go for over 1,000.
I prefer my chlna
a llttle more down-to-earth.
Llke the bathroom appllances
they make In thls factory
relocated here from West Germany.
Thls state-of-the-art operatlon
has provlded a blg boost
for an East German economy
only slowly catchlng up
wlth the wealthler West.
I'm shown round
by a lady from head offlce.
Was it that there was
a tradition of porcelain-making
around Dresden and Meissen?
Was that important?
Yes, I mean, the region is very famous
for people really educated
in producing ceramic ware!
They already have the feeling
how to produce ceramic ware!
That's important, is it, the feeling?
It's not just making any old product!
Absolutely, because it's
a material that is all nature!
I love the palnt-spraylng robot,
llke a dentlst's chalr gone mad.
And the showroom products are now!!!
The finished!!!
When the job is finished,
as we get into terrible puns,
- They're all!!!
- Yes!
So, what's that?
That's a sort of unconventional!!!
Well, yeah, actually, I'd like to show
you that first, maybe, if you want to!
That's what!!! That's the sort of one
I associate with Germany particularly,
- Where there's a sort of flat pan!
- Absolutely!
And so it doesn't drop
into the water, your thing!
Exactly! We call it washout model,
and it has very practical reason,
actually, a medical reason, so, as we
say, you can examine your business
when you've made a number two so that!!!
Is that something that Germans do?
I mean, are you brought up
to examine your business, as it were?
- Yes, you do, yes!
- Really?
I mean, especially elderly people
should do that regularly!
They should check on their sanity
as well on that point!
- Their sanity?
- And!!! Yes!
- Sanitary!
- 0n their health!
Their health, yes, sanity is all mental!
- Exactly!
- But probably the same!
We've been talking too much
about sanitary ware,
I'm coming back on sanity!
Sanity ware, I like that,
it's a very good, very good lavatory!
Yeah, and that's why
a lot Germans use it and!!!
Is it still popular, then,
that particular style?
Yes, it is very popular in Germany,
there are some also in Switzerland,
some in Netherlands, but mostly
in Germany, people are used to it!
And they like to do it in that way!
So, for those
who don't like it in that way,
we have a kind of mixture
where you can do both!
More regular! Also, perhaps
you can enlighten me!
I've heard that there's a custom now
for German men to actually sit down
when they're having a pee,
and it's become quite an important,
almost a political thing!
That's what men should do, is it?
Yeah, I have to laugh about that
because that's a very frequent question!
It is true that a lot of German men
have decided to sit when they pee!
They don't like to speak
too much about it
because they still consider it
as not very masculine!
But they do,
they do more and more, yeah!
Satlrlcal cabaret has
a long tradltlon In Germany,
and durlng the Communlst perlod
It was one of the few arenas
In whlch crltlclsm could be volced,
albelt carefully and Ingenlously.
(SPEAKING GERMAN)
(CR0WD LAUGHING)
Gunther Bohnke performed
throughout the days of the GDR,
when they had full houses every nlght.
Tonlght here In Lelpzlg,
the cast and the audlence
are rellvlng some of the old sketches
that wowed them In the '60s and '70s,
when satlre had a real purpose.
Lelpzlg, wlth lts blg
Internatlonal trade falrs,
was the clty where the GDR
met the rest of the world,
and the state securlty pollce
known as the Stasl
were a strong presence.
Gunther explalns to me
the way the Stasl worked
and what they were trylng to achleve.
Well, the idea of these people was,
as I think the Minster of State Security
once said,
"We have to go into every flat,
"into every bar, into every head!
"We have to know what people think,
what people plan, what people do!"
And they had lots
and lots of information!
I mean, they had
six million people in their archives!
Did people disappear?
I mean, did you know of someone who
just suddenly was off the streets
and you didn't see them again?
In the '50s there was a saying,
if you tell a joke in the restaurant
and somebody hears it,
you will disappear to Siberia!
And when I was a small boy, I always
thought, "What did they mean by,
"'You will disappear to Siberia'?"
Well, it meant
you were sent to the Gulag
in the '50s! Until '61 you could be!!!
There was the death penalty
in East Germany,
and you could be shot by the Stasi
in Leipzig till '61!
The Runden Ecke, or round corner,
was the bland bulldlng
from whlch the Stasl spled
on the people of Lelpzlg.
Now It's a museum
where people can spy on the Stasl.
Preserved In
all lts banal colourlessness,
It feels more llke
a small-town technlcal college
than a place where
thousands of llves were watched,
Ilstened to and often destroyed.
It's extraordinary how,
you know, the evil of the system
emanated from just
a little office like this!
You didn't need much!
The telephone, the filing system,
enormous amount of details kept on
everybody, and, of course, the shredder!
Vital things! Then the tea
and the coffee maker and the map!
But enormous numbers of people's lives
disrupted from this room!
It really is an example
of the bureaucracy of oppression!
One of those who fought
the system and ultlmately won
Is Hans Zlmmerman, a key naturallst
turned envlronmental campalgner.
The town of Bltterfeld,
where he was born and brought up,
was the centre
of East Germany's chemlcal Industry.
A hundred factorles
employlng 30,000 workers
poured tons of untreated effluent
Into the rlvers and onto the land.
By the 1 980s,
Bltterfeld was a toxlc dump.
After taklng me on a tour
of Bltterfeld as It Is today,
Hans Invltes me to hls home.
(SPEAKING GERMAN)
Thank you, thank you!
He wants me to meet Margo Mlosga,
a journallst
who helped hlm make a TVexpose
whlch brought Bltterfeld's pollutlon
to a world audlence.
Hans had already been brought
to the attentlon of the Stasl.
PALIN: How big were the files?
How many!!!
How fat was the!!!
(SPEAKING GERMAN)
PALIN: It's up here!
PALIN: And this is just information
about Hans and!!!
MARG0: Yeah, you see it!
(SPEAKING GERMAN)
3,228 pages!
So he read his files very consciously,
without problems!
So, what was shocking for him
was the result,
what the Stasi decided
what should have been done with him!
Destroy the marriage!
Make him impossible
that he never gets a job again!
Make him a criminal! And lock him away!
So, that was how
the Stasi worked always!
They had a like strategic development!
0ne thing really was,
what they often did,
they destroyed families!
Does Hans feel any nostalgia
for the GDR?
MARG0: It was my life!
I did live it!
I did want to live it differently,
in another way, in the right way!
The loss, environmental loss,
wasn't good in the GDR!
They didn't regulate them!
And if they would have
done this properly,
a lot of things were easier for me!
I only wanted to be a human being!
Today blo-fuel crops and wlnd farms
mark the landscape
of a new, cleaner Germany.
These wide flatlands
on the Polish-German border
are ideal tank country!
And during the Cold War,
the Warsaw Pact had 7,000 tanks here,
which they reckoned they could get
to Marseille within five days!
And they've still got some left!
PALIN: So, we scramble aboard? 0h, no!
0h, a little ladder!
That's rather camp!
Dainty!
Aah!
This is the heavy stuff up here,
isn't it?
These Russlan T-55 tanks were once
the malnstay of the Warsaw Pact forces.
These were the weapons of our enemy.
- Start the machine?
- Start the machine, yeah!
In the New Europe,
they're a tourlst attractlon,
and mllltary tralnlng
takes all of flve mlnutes.
PALIN: Awful lot of tap-twiddling
and levers going and all that!
Hope I don't have to reproduce that!
(ENGINE REVVING)
PALIN: I didn't really see
how you did that!
Thls Is the Panzer Fahrschule,
a tank drlvlng school set up
by an ex-Cold War commander
who couldn't bear
to see these machlnes go to waste.
"Thls Is Russlan technology, "
he told me earller.
"You can do what you llke wlth lt. "
And I'll get my own
speclally shot vldeo at the end of lt.
MAN: Okay, steerlng, the left steerlng
to the rlght steerlng, llttle more.
- Left and rlght to posltlon one.
- Okay.
- Okay?
- Yeah.
- And start. A llttle gas.
- It's okay to start?
Gas, gas, gasl Steerlng forward.
MAN: To the left, to the rlght,
steerlng forward.
1 5 onwards.
- Rlght forward?
- Left forward.
And gas. 1 5 onward. 1 5 onward. The RPM.
- What?
- The RPM.
- Yeah, I know that.
- The gas, gas, gasl
MAN: Gas, gas, gasl
PALIN: Sorry.
- Left, Is that?
- Oh, no.
- MAN: More on gas, 1 5
- More on gas, okay.
RPM 1 5 onwards, okay?
- (SIGHING) Okay.
- Okay.
Okay, It Is In gear.
Do you want to try lt?
MAN: Okay, can you start It now?
Oh, no, that Is not rlght.
Second gear
- Three gear?
- Yeah.
- No, that's the three gear.
- Okay.
MAN: Thls Is how It works, okay?
The steerlng Is posltlon one.
- MAN: Posltlon one.
- One, rlght?
MAN: Left and rlght.
- Okay, go.
- Oh, shoot.
(EXCLAIMS ANGRILY)
MAN: More on gas.
- Okay?
- Okay.
(ENGINE STARTING)
Gas, gas, gasl
MAN: Steerlng forward.
MAN: The left steerlng forward.
- The left steerlng
- Gas, gas, gasl Gas. 1 5 onwards.
MAN: And left.
Left, leftl
Left.
Stralght on. Stralght on.
MAN: Keep steerlng.
Go rlght.
MAN: Rlght. Stralght on. Stralght on.
PALIN: Thls Is a much more
comfortable asslgnment.
I'm In Karl Marx Allee In East Berlln
wlth two young actors
who offer a clty tour, whlch Is also
a small play about dlvlded Berlln.
They stabbed us in the back
without paying a penny!!!
PALIN: Olaf Rauschenbach, on the left,
plays the proud Eastle,
and Jorg Plntsch plays
the cynlcal Westle.
I play the audlence.
And the set for thls partlcular act
Is what remalns of the Berlln Wall.
This is where the new Germany
began, socialistic Berlin!
Just have a look!
- Getting in wasn't all that difficult!
- (LAUGHING) But getting out!!!
What is the first thing you think of
when you think of the GDR?
PALIN: 0h! A big wall!
B0TH: The Wall?
But how are the GDR with the Wall?
0therwise named
the Anti-Fascistic Protector Wall!
0r the stigma of German history!
Just imagine, you are 1 8 years old!
You are standing there!
Young and liable for military service,
and also convinced
that socialism is the right thing
for the young GDR!
You're standing there, it's peace vigil!
The border between the two alliances!
0n a watchtower, you've sworn an oath!
I pledge, as a soldier
in the National People's Army,
side by side with the Soviet Army
and the armies of our allies,
the United Socialist Countries,
that I'm prepared at all times
to defend socialism against all enemies!
PALIN: The cost of defendlng Soclallsm
along the whole length of the wall
has been estlmated as anythlng
from 300 to 1,000 llves.
If there were one date whlch marked
the end of the Cold War,
It would be November 9th, 1 989.
The day the Wall fell.
So complete was the destructlon
of thelr clty In World War II
that most Berllners now llve
In huge concrete houslng estates.
(PE0PLE CLAPPING RHYTHMICALLY)
Thls Is one way of deallng wlth
the problems of Isolatlon
and allenatlon.
Kerrln Kopnlck's Laughter Yoga.
(SPEAKING GERMAN)
Kerrln has ways of maklng you laugh.
(ALL LAUGHING)
KERRIN: 0kay!
(LAUGHING IN RHYTHM)
(KERRIN SPEAKING GERMAN)
(ALL LAUGHING)
(LAUGHING IN RHYTHM)
For the last 1 0 mlnutes of the class,
Kerrln gets us all to lle down
and laugh.
Group hllarlty Is not somethlng
I'd normally assoclate wlth the Germans,
but thls lot has no trouble.
So how long have you been
coming to the classes?
I've been laughing here
since last August!
- Laughing since August?
- Yes!
- That's pretty impressive!
- Yes! 0nly once a week!
0nce a week? But do you laugh
during the rest of the week a lot?
- Yes, I do, but not so long!
- Yeah!
Not so long, that's very long!
I think at the end, it is!
- Yes! Well!!!
- Crowded, it's a very long laughter!
You don't often get the chance to laugh
for that long! Nothing's that funny!
No, I think it would be
a little bit silly!
Yes!!!
Everybody would think
you are a silly person!
You'd probably be taken out
and put into a police van!
(LAUGHING) Yes! Here you can be a child,
and the child is laughing!
- And it's helped you, has it?
- Yes, I think it helps everybody!
Everybody likes to laugh!
Maybe not everybody laughs,
but everybody likes it!
It's dlfflcult to walk
through Berlln wlthout senslng
ghosts of the past,
from the grand hopes of soclallsm
to the squares
where the Nazls held thelr rallles.
But to be able to walk unhampered
through the Brandenburg Gate
Is a reallty.
A reallty of a Germany reunlted,
and hopefully a Europe reunlted.
I'm leavlng for
my flnal destlnatlon aboard a DC-3,
whlch, nearly 60 years ago,
took part In one of the world's most
extraordlnary peace-tlme operatlons,
the Berlln alrllft.
In June 1 948, the Russlans,
mlstrustful of Allled Intentlons,
closed off all road and rall llnks
to the clty of Berlln,
wlth the Intentlon of
taklng control of the whole clty.
For 1 1 months, Amerlcan,
Brltlsh and French pllots
Jolned together In a masslve
slege-bustlng operatlon.
Two and a half mllllon tons of food
were flown In,
and at lts peak,
the planes were landlng at Intervals
no more than a mlnute apart.
This is one of the actual DC-3s
that flew during the Berlin airlift!
And they called them the candy bombers,
or the raisin bombers,
from the habit of one American pilot
who would open his cockpit window
and throw candy out to the kids
down below as he flew over the city!
I'm headlng toward Ruegen Island,
on Germany's Baltlc coast.
Here amld the sand dunes
and the plne trees
stands one of the more blzarre rellcs
of the Thlrd Relch.
It's a hollday camp three mlles long
wlth 1 0,000 rooms
and accommodatlon for 20,000 people.
Bullt here at Prora between
1 936 and 1 939,
It was Intended as a place
where the good workers of Nazl Germany
could bulld up thelr strength
and thelr collectlve wlll
for the great struggle that lay ahead,
the conquest of Europe.
(MAN SPEAKING GERMAN)
PALIN: Overseen by Hltler's
favourlte archltect, Albert Speer,
the camp at Prora was to be
the embodlment of the Nazl pollcy
of Kraft durch Freude,
strength through joy.
(MAN SPEAKING GERMAN)
Instead of houslng happy holldaymakers,
Prora was fllled wlth evacuees
from bombed cltles
and forced labour squads brought
here from Nazl-occupled Europe.
Now, as then, no one qulte knows
what to do wlth the place.
There's a museum, a few workshops,
but the scale of thls Nazl folly
has defled even the most
ambltlous development plans.
So It survlves, neglected,
empty and useless.
Well, I've finally reached
the end of my journey
here on the shores of the Baltic,
surrounded by the broken dreams
of the last attempt
to unite Europe by force!
But now, for the first time in history,
there's a real chance to create a Europe
out of cooperation rather than conflict!
And that would be a mighty achievement!
A New Europe indeed!