East Prussia's Forgotten Castles - Planet Schule - East Prussia's Forgotten Castles - Part 1
East Prussia's Forgotten Castles - Planet School - East Prussia's Forgotten Castles - Part 1 / Broadcast from September 2, 2021 - 7:20 a.m. - Germany - WDR - NDR - History
Planet School: East Prussia's Forgotten Castles WDR Television
The two-part documentary "East Prussia's Forgotten Castles" documents and follows a unique initiative by researchers and students from three nations: Germany, Poland, and Russia. They embark on a search for a lost culture, for monuments and memorials that were destroyed in 1945 and afterward. The goal: to completely document what remains of these magnificent historical buildings, the baroque royal castles.
But the roughly 100 researchers and students from more than a dozen universities and institutes want more: Coordinated by the Herder Institute in Marburg, and funded by the Leibniz Association and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, they plan to undertake a virtual reconstruction of the destroyed buildings. The "resurrection" of the forgotten castles on the computer. The creation of a networked database for future generations, collecting all available information—historical paintings, photographs, plans, data, simply everything that still exists—as well as eyewitness accounts from the few survivors, including members of the Prussian high nobility who spent their childhoods in the castles.
Cinematic expeditions into historical East Prussia, now divided between Poland and Russia, to the castles of Schlodien, Schlobitten, Dönhoffstädt, and Friedrichstein, the largest of the baroque royal castles. Spectacular aerial shots, impressive camera work, and time-lapse sequences, along with rare glimpses of Kaliningrad, formerly Königsberg, the coronation city of the Prussian kings.
The documentaries intertwine three levels: First, the work of researchers against the backdrop of a landscape of unique beauty, with castles that still stand as impressive ruins; second, journeys through time to the historical turning points of a millennium and the era in which the royal castles were built; and third, the emotional recollections of eyewitnesses, survivors from the noble families of Dohna and von Dönhoff, the most prominent aristocratic families of East Prussia, combined with previously unseen film footage from the past century, including film recordings of East Prussia before the First World War, impressions of historical Königsberg, and finally, cinematic documents of the near-total destruction of Königsberg by Allied bombers and the "great exodus" in the winter of 1945, which would claim the lives of hundreds of thousands.
Finally, the emotional recollections of eyewitnesses, survivors from the noble families of Dohna and von Dönhoff, the most important aristocratic families of East Prussia, are interwoven with previously unseen film documents from the past century, including footage of East Prussia before the First World War, impressions of historical Königsberg, and finally, cinematic records of the near-total destruction of Königsberg by Allied bombers and the "great flight" in the winter of 1945, which would claim the lives of hundreds of thousands.
Young people from the once-warring nations of Germany, Poland, and Russia are using the technological possibilities of our time to create a parallel world. In computer labs, historical Königsberg is (re)emerging, with realistic computer reconstructions of Schlodien and Friedrichstein castles. Moving images of a vanished culture. The reconstructed buildings convey an impression of the cultural and economic importance of the region, which in modern times was lauded as the "breadwinner of Europe," while its ruins stand as powerful reminders of the consequences of Nazi megalomania.
A milestone in the fight against the decay of our shared cultural heritage.
Author: Martin Papirowski
Editor: Marc Brasse
Production Manager: Eva-Maria Wittke
Das Erste - History -
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