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00:02Europe.
00:03I would not want to miss this.
00:07Rich in history and culture.
00:11Absolutely beautiful.
00:13For centuries, this continent has played a central role on the world stage.
00:18Look at that.
00:19But this is Europe's most perilous moment since the Second World War.
00:26This is the bunker.
00:27It faces an aggressive Russia.
00:31An ambitious China.
00:33It's quite shocking to hear you say that it is much closer right now to Beijing than it is to
00:38Washington.
00:39And Europe's most powerful ally can no longer be fully relied on.
00:44I said, if you're not going to pay your bills, we're not going to defend you.
00:51I'm Katja Adler.
00:53And after years of living and working in Italy, France, Spain and Germany, I've got to know them really well.
01:01You said that Germans don't have an excellent sense of humour.
01:05So how are these four countries with mainland Europe's biggest economies responding to this turbulent new world?
01:12There are a lot of police vans behind us.
01:16What strengthens them?
01:18Oh, wow. It looks like a shark.
01:20And what weakens them?
01:25In this episode, I'll continue my travels through Germany to see how a surprising descendant of this country has changed
01:33everything.
01:34Ancestral home of the Trumps.
01:36Then I'm off to Spain.
01:41A country still coming to terms with its painful past.
02:01I'm starting this part of my German journey in a quiet corner of the country.
02:06In the Bavarian Alps, in the far south.
02:09Of all the countries that I'm visiting on this journey, I think Germany is the most misunderstood.
02:16We go often to France, Italy, Spain on holiday, but look at this. It's spectacular.
02:24And there's only one way to really see this landscape.
02:29So I'm a bit nervous, but I'm quite thrilled at the same time, actually.
02:40What if I'm doing this?
02:45Hi.
02:46Hi.
02:47Hi.
02:47I'm Katja.
02:48What am I doing?
02:50Hello.
02:51Hi.
02:51Hi.
02:51Nice to see you.
02:52Oh lordy lord.
02:53Nice to see you up here and take you back.
02:54Yes.
02:55I'm quite happy to be up here.
02:56I'm just a bit nervous about jumping off there.
02:59Yeah.
02:59I've known these mountains since I was young, but I have never done this.
03:05You have to run.
03:06If I tell you to run, run.
03:07I have to run.
03:08Okay.
03:09Katja, are you ready?
03:10Oh god.
03:11The mountain is coming.
03:15Go forward.
03:16Go forward.
03:17Go forward.
03:17Go forward.
03:19And run.
03:20Run, run, run.
03:21Oh.
03:23Lord.
03:24Oh my god.
03:25Ah.
03:27Wow.
03:28Oh my lord.
03:30My brain is kind of, it's like, oh wow, this is amazing.
03:34And then it's like, oh my god, I'm so high.
03:41Absolutely beautiful.
03:43Look at that.
03:43You know, people think of Germany and they think of the Autobahn and they think of
03:50factories.
03:51Here we are.
03:52Not an Autobahn, not a factory in sight.
03:57And I cannot get the smile off my face.
04:03Look what we have down there.
04:06What a castle.
04:10This castle looks so much like something out of a fairy tale that apparently it caught the eye of Walt
04:16Disney.
04:17It's said to be the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's castle and it became part of Disney's logo as well.
04:25That is impossibly romantic.
04:27I mean, no wonder Disney fell in love with this castle.
04:31I think that tells you a lot about Germany.
04:33There is a lot of unashamed romance in this country.
04:41OK, we're going to land now.
04:43OK.
04:45Perfect.
04:46It's all getting closer.
04:48It's coming faster.
04:50Let's lift up.
04:52Yeah, all good.
04:54Great.
04:55It was pretty amazing.
04:57It was, I didn't expect I was going to love it as much as I did.
05:01And I would also say that I've spent a lot of time in my career trying to persuade people how
05:10interesting and beautiful Germany is.
05:15But I've never gone to those lengths before.
05:20For outsiders, Germany is often associated with high-tech engineering or its Nazi past.
05:28But there's another less well-known side to this country which is just as important to its identity.
05:35I've stopped off in Fussen, a medieval town just a couple of miles from the castle.
05:42Gorgeous, isn't it?
05:43This is classic Bavaria.
05:46Look at the pharmacy.
05:49These painted buildings are also, you see them a lot.
05:53Whenever I travel to Germany for work, if I have five minutes free, I'll always look for an old town.
06:01And I love it.
06:07You find quaint town centres like this across Germany.
06:12They are dripping with nostalgia.
06:18I grew up in the UK, but parts of my family are from Germany and I love its culture and
06:24traditions.
06:25Not good for the figure, but you know, it's very good for the soul.
06:29And actually, Kaffee and Kuchen, coffee and cake, it's like a religion in Germany.
06:37This is another part of the German character that isn't so well-known.
06:41There's a word in German, gemütlichkeit.
06:44It sort of means comfy coziness.
06:47It's very hard to translate into English.
06:49And it's just very German.
06:51Sit and have your cup of coffee.
06:53It's not glamorous like in France.
06:56It's not dramatic like in Italy.
06:59It's kind of quiet comfort.
07:02That inclination towards quiet comfort tells you a lot about Germany.
07:08Long haunted by the horrors of their country's Nazi past, modern Germans have shied away from taking the lead politically
07:16or militarily in Europe.
07:18The leaders they choose can come across as a little bland compared to Italy's or France's.
07:25Angela Merkel, one of Germany's longest serving prime ministers, was nicknamed Mutti, meaning mummy.
07:33But now Germany is being forced to step out of the shadows.
07:40Like much of Europe, it's facing a new and different kind of threat.
07:46Hybrid warfare.
07:48Munich airport has halted all flights after unidentified drones were spotted in the area.
07:53Airports in Denmark, Norway and Poland have all recently suspended flights due to drones.
07:58Moscow denies any involvement.
08:00But these incidents have raised fears that Moscow is testing Europe's defences.
08:05From drones shutting down airports, to packages planned to explode on planes, to underwater cables being cut.
08:15Hybrid attacks on Germany, blamed on Russia, have increased significantly in the last couple of years.
08:24Senka?
08:25Yep.
08:25Hello.
08:27You look busy.
08:29Please join me at the table.
08:31Pleased to meet you.
08:32Nice to meet you.
08:34Senka Mararins is a colonel in the German Air Force and a specialist in hybrid warfare.
08:40He advises military and political leaders on the attacks that Europe's facing.
08:45But instead of using a PowerPoint presentation to illustrate the threats, he's made a board game.
08:53It comes from the military war gaming.
08:55Every time I see an article, I create a gaming card so that my players really learn this is happening.
09:01Not just making stuff up.
09:04Well, this was an event in the Baltic Sea and someone fired from a ship onto a German helicopter.
09:11Other thing, this happens in the UK. The nuclear power plant of Sellafield was hacked.
09:15You see someone going out of a real critical infrastructure.
09:21Mines are floating. This is something what happened in the Black Sea.
09:25Affecting now shipping, the same like we have seen with the drones around airfields.
09:29You have to clear the area. You can't go on with that.
09:31The frontline of Russia's war may be in Ukraine, but all of Europe is under attack now.
09:39We are in a hybrid war with Russia. It's happening every day all around us.
09:45How much has Germany been affected by it?
09:47Germany is affected almost every day.
09:49Every day?
09:50Every day. Something's happening somewhere.
09:53Here on this map, you really can see what happened over the last three years.
09:57But these are high-level events.
10:00We have seen much more on a lower scale.
10:03But here you see attacks against governmental organization.
10:06You see attacks against industry.
10:08You see attacks against critical infrastructures.
10:11You see something like a water company which was attacked.
10:14So I can see the United Kingdom.
10:16I can see Poland, Lithuania, different countries that have had these high-level attacks.
10:21But most of them are concentrated in Germany.
10:24Why?
10:25We are the second best provider for Ukraine.
10:27In terms of military?
10:29In terms of military support, in terms of humanitarian aid.
10:35None of these attacks feel significant enough to provoke all-out war.
10:40And that's the point.
10:42They allow Russia to cause fear and division.
10:45They weaken Europeans' confidence in their governments.
10:48And cause rifts between allies, with very little risk of retaliation.
10:54If Russia would be able to crack the German public opinion, that the German public opinion would say to the
11:01politicians, please don't use our money for Ukraine any longer, this would be a victory for Russia and Ukraine.
11:07And this is really the challenge we see in the 21st century.
11:13You know, it's not always easy to say, with 100% certainty, with each individual incident, Russia's behind that, or
11:22China.
11:22But it is clear that the number of hybrid attacks in Europe is on the rise, and that when it
11:29comes to big countries like Germany or NATO as a whole, while they may have discussed what to do if
11:35tanks roll over borders, when it comes to hybrid warfare, there is no joined-up plan.
11:47And it's hard to make a plan, when NATO's most powerful member appears increasingly disinterested in German and European security.
11:58I'm just arriving at Rammstein Air Base. It's the headquarters for US Air Forces in Europe and Africa, and of
12:07NATO Allied Air Command.
12:08It's a pretty significant place, and I'm not supposed to film going in through the gate, so it's cameras down.
12:19Hello.
12:20Oh, hi.
12:20Nice to be Asia.
12:21Yes, nice to meet you.
12:22Hi, I'm Katya. I'm pleased to meet you, and I'm looking forward to having a tour.
12:27Yeah, absolutely. I'd love to take you around.
12:29Fantastic.
12:30Okay.
12:32Master Sergeant Asia Hinson has been stationed at Rammstein for two years.
12:38So, Rammstein is a very unique base, just because of how much the base actually does.
12:45Here is kind of like a medical complex.
12:48The dental clinic is huge. It's a dental squadron, it's not just a clinic.
12:53Dental squadron.
12:54Yes.
12:54Well, you do have a lot of mouths to look after.
12:57Yes.
12:57We also have a dog grooming facility here as well.
13:02Ramstein is the largest American air base in Europe, part of a local cluster of U.S. military bases, which
13:08are home to 55,000 Americans.
13:12Actually, this is the largest American community outside of the United States.
13:17Full stop, not just military?
13:19Not just military.
13:21The base was built after the Second World War, when Germany was split in two.
13:27The Soviet Union treated East Germany as a satellite state.
13:32The Americans built Rammstein military base in West Germany and invested heavily in Western Europe as a buffer against the
13:41spread of communism from the East.
13:43And as Germany was forbidden for a while from having its own military, because of its Nazi past, the U
13:49.S. provided its defense, plus a security guarantee that all of Europe has benefited from.
13:57Meanwhile, these American troops benefit from experiencing life in Europe.
14:02Well, sort of.
14:14It's kind of like a huge mall.
14:16It has multiple stores.
14:18Yes.
14:19So they definitely adhere to all the American traditions.
14:23Yeah.
14:23So it's like going to a mall back home.
14:26Yes, absolutely.
14:27You get popcorn, hot dogs, nachos with nacho cheese and all that great stuff.
14:32You've got Taco Bells, Starbucks.
14:35Okay.
14:36People typically flock to Popeyes and Panda Express.
14:40Where are we going to get our lunch?
14:42I like Panda Express.
14:43Okay.
14:45I'll take the teriyaki chicken.
14:47So you're paying with U.S. dollars?
14:49Yes.
14:50That does feel odd, actually, to see dollars in Europe.
14:55Yeah.
14:58Thanks, Asia.
14:59You're welcome.
15:01I mean, the base is so huge, and this place is so huge.
15:05Could you just sort of spend your time in Germany, in here?
15:09You know, not really venture outside into Germany?
15:12Yeah, I think you would be missing out, but absolutely.
15:15You could live on the base and not go anywhere.
15:18These troops seem really settled here.
15:21But while Russia remains Europe's most pressing security concern, Washington has new priorities.
15:28Donald Trump has made it clear.
15:30Europe must be more self-reliant when it comes to defence.
15:34He isn't the first U.S. president to say it, but he's certainly the most direct.
15:39I said, if you're not going to pay your bills, we're not going to defend you.
15:44The threat has worked.
15:46Feeling suddenly vulnerable, Germany is massively increasing its defence spending, roughly tripling its budget over a ten-year period, with
15:56more promised if needed.
15:58Germany's new drive when it comes to defence is the biggest single turnaround I've seen in this country in all
16:06my years reporting on it.
16:08The German government now says it wants to build the biggest army in the whole of the European Union.
16:14It's a massive change, but so is the attitude of Germany's European neighbours.
16:19They used to fear the idea of a mighty German military because of its history.
16:25Now, they're begging for it.
16:38It's hardly a secret that Donald Trump has an uncomfortable relationship with Europe, shall we say.
16:44But Germans feel particularly got at, even if you look at when Donald Trump was a property magnate in New
16:51York.
16:51He's said to have talked often about wanting to get rid of German cars on the streets of Manhattan.
16:58Yet, as it happens, his grandparents were from Germany, from its prosperous wine country.
17:05The Vineyard.
17:07I'm just down the road from the American airbase.
17:13Ancestral home of the Trumps.
17:16Wow, look at that church.
17:19And the vineyard, and pretty houses, and no golf course in sight.
17:25Trumps first moved here over 400 years ago.
17:30And there are still some who live in the area.
17:33Oh, look!
17:35Bakkerai Trump.
17:37Trump Bakery.
17:38I am going to go in there.
17:41The former owner of this bakery was a distant relative of the American president.
17:49They don't want to talk.
17:52There's been a lot of grief.
17:53Just being associated with the name Trump has caused a lot of problems, it seems, for the family.
18:00Trump is not popular in Germany.
18:02You don't even need to go on the streets.
18:04You can see that very clearly in opinion polls.
18:08Apart from the bakery, there are few other signs of this area's most famous descendant.
18:14Hello.
18:15But the mayor of Karlstadt, Thomas Jaworek, is taking me to see the grave of Donald Trump's grandad.
18:28Oh, yes. Is there a lot of interest in the Trump graves?
18:32No.
18:33Okay.
18:34Trump's grandfather, Friedrich Trump, grew up in Karlstadt in the 1870s.
18:40It was Friedrich Trump who went to the United States just for income reasons.
18:49From there he then went to the gold rush and he bought land in New York.
18:55And that's actually the fundament for the...
18:58The Trump empire?
19:00Yeah.
19:01Friedrich's wife, Elisabeth, Donald Trump's grandmother, was also from Karlstadt.
19:06They got married and that's one of the wedding pictures.
19:11Who do you think looks most like Donald Trump?
19:13I think none of them.
19:15No, I think I can see a bit in Elizabeth.
19:19Maybe I'm imagining it.
19:21Perhaps for the hair.
19:23I do find it intriguing that, you know, Donald Trump's ancestry on his mum's side goes to Scotland.
19:30That seems to play in the UK's favour, you know, when it comes to personal relations with Donald Trump.
19:36But so far, this link to Germany hasn't helped.
19:40I mean, your former Chancellor Angela Merkel, she even writes about it in her autobiography,
19:44that he, Donald Trump seemed to be out for Germany, you know, not in a friendly way.
19:49It's what it is.
19:50Do you hope to tempt him here now?
19:52He's slapping tariffs on German cars and Germany's building its military,
19:56so maybe he's more favourably disposed.
20:00Will you invite him?
20:00I think we cannot afford the security taxes to run this invitation.
20:07It's a good thought, though.
20:09It's an interesting thought.
20:10Donald Trump used to say his grandfather was Swedish, not German.
20:15Now he seems proud of his heritage.
20:17But two thirds of Germans, according to polls, look at the US as one of the biggest threats to world
20:23peace,
20:24more than China and just behind Putin's Russia.
20:40I think it's a good thought.
20:41My next stop is Berlin, Germany's capital city.
20:46And before German reunification in 1990, East Berlin was the capital of communist East Germany,
20:52a country more or less controlled by the Soviet Union, which in turn played a huge role in defeating the
21:00Nazis.
21:04I'm visiting Treptower Park, a memorial to the Soviet soldiers who died here in 1945.
21:13That you can see the statue to the hero Soviet soldier with a crushed swastika at his feet.
21:23I've never been here before.
21:25And the enormity of it all really hits you.
21:30There is no way that the Allies would have won the war against the Nazis without Soviet help and sacrifice.
21:38All in all, 25 million Soviet civilians and soldiers died in World War Two.
21:4625 million.
21:52Guilt about the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis still shapes Germany in all sorts of ways, including its relationship with
22:01Russia.
22:02Professor?
22:03Or can I say Jens?
22:05Yeah, just Jens.
22:06Hello, I'm Katja. Pleased to meet you.
22:09Professor Jens Wendland's father was a senior figure in the Nazi occupation of the Soviet Union.
22:16Professor Jens Wendland-Artson
22:20Das ist mein leiblicher Vater und das ist Himmler. Mein leiblicher Vater, Hans-Adorf Prutzmann, SS-Obergruppenführer,
22:29by personal orders of destruction,
22:33the death of 400,000 people.
22:36That's what you can imagine.
22:38That's what you can't imagine.
22:40And he brought himself together with Himmler together to the end of the war.
22:47Jens says he's sickened by the Nazis' mass murder of Soviet citizens.
22:53He's devoted much of his career to building bridges with Russia,
22:57teaching media studies in Moscow.
23:00I thought it was important to work in Moscow for two reasons.
23:05The one is, yes, also schlechtes Gewissen, Schuldgefühle.
23:09And the second one was, I had the dream,
23:14in the moment it's just a dream,
23:16that really Russia belongs to Europe.
23:19I always thought that culture belongs to us and it belongs to Europe.
23:28Even when it comes to the war in Ukraine,
23:31Jens is very open to Russia's perspective.
23:34You speak so warmly about Russia and about your time in Russia,
23:40about working in Russia.
23:42Do you see Russia though as an aggressor these days?
23:46You know, it marched into Ukraine, a sovereign country.
23:50Do you accept that?
23:52Yeah, Putin was a aggressor, of course, that was so, but it came not from about it.
23:59The Germans have for this cooperation,
24:03or for the cooperation of Russia and Europe,
24:07too much done, too much concrete.
24:10To keep the trust, it's never been set out.
24:14And we have too much done for it to be set out to be set out to be set out.
24:21Since the end of the Cold War, Germany has worked really hard to build close business
24:27ties with Russia, and the invasion of Ukraine came as a huge shock.
24:33That was really interesting.
24:35What a contrast to the UK, where when it comes to Ukraine, Russia is definitely seen as the
24:42aggressor.
24:44Jens was explaining it all very much from Russia's point of view.
24:50Jens is far from alone in wanting to normalise relations with Moscow.
24:55The AFD party, which regularly leads opinion polls in Germany, wants to end sanctions on
25:00Russia and start buying cheap Russian energy again.
25:10The shadow of Germany's Nazi past hangs over everything in this country in one way
25:16or another, including attitudes to immigration.
25:20I've come to Mannheim, a city in the rich, industrialised west of the country.
25:31We hear Turkish everywhere here.
25:36We've got a kebab shop, there's another one down there, and another one, a jewellery shop,
25:42the kind that you see all over the place in Amman and Jordan.
25:46There's another one, two, three of them down this street, and delicious cakes.
25:52I feel like I'm back in the Middle East.
25:54Germany's economic rise from the ashes of World War II was supported by lots of foreign workers.
26:01Germany's large immigrant population goes back to the 1950s, 60s and early 70s, when it was looking
26:09for workers to come and feed the booming economy in West Germany.
26:13And they came from all over the Mediterranean, and a lot from Turkey.
26:19Germany called them Gastarbeiter, that means guest workers.
26:22The implication was, you come here and work, and then you go home.
26:26But a lot of people stayed.
26:29Today, a quarter of Germany's population is either an immigrant or the child of an immigrant.
26:36Here in Mannheim, it's almost half.
26:49Nisa Okal runs a wedding dress shop together with her mum.
26:53Du bist hier geboren?
26:54Ja, tatsächlich.
26:55Ich bin hier geboren.
26:56Mein Opa, väterlicherseits, der ist damals hergekommen aus der Türkei, ist dann als Gastarbeiter
27:01hergekommen.
27:03Meine Vorgeneration, die hat hier so viel hergebracht.
27:06Die hat hier die Brautläden reingebracht, die hat hier die Goldläden reingebracht, die ganzen
27:11Restaurants, die ganzen Speisen, dass wenn man sieht, ey, die Familie hat sich hier was aufgebaut.
27:16Und Steuer bezahlt, ja, das ist Teil Deutschlands, also das war die Idee von den Gastarbeiter,
27:21oder?
27:22Dass man die Wirtschaft hilft.
27:24Ja, die Wirtschaft einfach ankurbelt.
27:27Für decades, immigrants into Germany, along with their families, were broadly accepted
27:32and seen as a necessary part of a growing economy.
27:35But in 2015, that changed radically.
27:41This year has seen an unprecedented number of migrants arriving in Europe.
27:48Most have come from Syria, 11 million Syrians have been left homeless, and many have fled
27:53abroad.
27:54No bus, no train, we are very tired.
27:59As over a million Syrian refugees and other migrants arrived in Europe, many EU countries
28:05shut their borders.
28:08But Chancellor Angela Merkel did an extraordinary thing.
28:12She welcomed them.
28:23Germany expects to take in 800,000 asylum seekers in 2015, far more than any other country.
28:30But Merkel's decision has had profound consequences.
28:37A trail of devastation after a car ploughed in to protesters.
28:42Three people have died in a knife attack in southern Germany.
28:45About an hour or so this news broke that a car had driven into a crowd at a Christmas market,
28:50possibly 60 to 80 people being injured.
28:58A string of attacks over the last few years, carried out by asylum seekers and immigrants,
29:04has fueled concerns that immigration is out of control.
29:07Many German Christmas markets now have barriers to make people feel safer.
29:14There was an attack here in Mannheim's central square too, when an Afghan man stabbed and killed a policeman.
29:24All these attacks have made Germans feel incredibly insecure.
29:30It's pushed up support for the far right, because a lot of people feel that migration is totally out of
29:37control now.
29:39The attacks are fueling support for views that are tough on migration.
29:45And breaking taboos that have existed in Germany since the end of the Second World War.
29:55As a result of changing attitudes, the AFD has become the first hard-right nationalist party to be voted into
30:03the German parliament since World War II.
30:06It's Germany's biggest opposition party by far.
30:12And it's very well known, and liked, for its hard-line policies on immigration.
30:19A very clear statement to all the world, the German borders are closed, dear friends.
30:28They are closed!
30:31One leading AFD politician was even found guilty of using Nazi slogans and downplaying the Holocaust.
30:39They are forced.
30:41They are forced.
30:41They are forced.
30:43They are forced.
30:43They are forced.
30:44They are forced.
30:46They are forced.
30:55Support for the AFD is particularly noticeable in Germany's east.
31:02This is a map of the election results from the last year.
31:08The last general election here in Germany.
31:10Look at that.
31:11The blue is AFD.
31:14And you can see a clear split between the country, east and west.
31:19I mean, and that is the dividing line between West Germany and what was former communist East Germany.
31:25If this isn't a picture of a country still deeply divided, I don't know what is.
31:32I've come to a city in east Germany called Schwerin.
31:37Oh, look at that.
31:40Now that is...
31:42Wow!
31:42You know, there is a tendency to think of East Germany as an ugly, poverty-stricken, former communist version of
31:57the West.
31:58But, oh my God, does it have some beautiful secrets.
32:01Look at that.
32:03I mean, a fairytale castle on a lake.
32:08It's gorgeous.
32:10Oh, this is stunning.
32:14The reason I'm here is to get a better idea of why the AFD is gaining ground in places like
32:20this.
32:22I am on my way to meet a couple of young podcasters, supporters of the AFD.
32:33And I'm going to arrive just before they start recording, so we're going to have to be very quick, quick,
32:39quick.
32:41Punctuality, that's what Germans believe in, and I think I've just failed the test.
32:45As the AFD has gained popularity, Berlin's position towards it has hardened.
32:52In 2025, the German authorities officially classified the party as extremist, describing their policies as anti-democratic.
33:01There's even been talk of banning the AFD outright.
33:06The local government here is also investigating the man I'm about to meet for extremism.
33:12A claim he contests.
33:15Hello.
33:16Hi.
33:16I am so sorry.
33:18I hope I'm not too late.
33:20It's fine.
33:20It's fine.
33:21No worries.
33:22I'm Katja, sorry.
33:23Boris, hello.
33:24Nice to meet you, Boris.
33:26That's Matthias.
33:27Hi, Matthias.
33:28Boris von Morgenstern is a journalist who vlogs on YouTube about immigration and culture wars.
33:35I'm just going to sit and observe, so please just carry on as you would.
33:39Okay, then we'll start.
33:41You can get inside.
33:42The inner sanctum.
33:43Yeah.
33:44Excellent.
33:44Where shall I put myself?
33:46You can come through here.
33:48Okay.
33:49Today Boris is joined by regular guest Matthias Schröder.
33:54So you're going to tell your listeners that we're here today?
33:56They already know, yeah.
33:57They already know, yeah.
33:58I had to tell them, this time it's not my fault that we're late.
34:01Usually it is, but now I have someone to blame.
34:04Come on then, yeah.
34:06Oh, okay.
34:09I had a wonderful day to go together.
34:11I'm happy to go together.
34:11The main topic is Maya T.
34:14You've decided to go as a non-binary person.
34:20Is Maya actually a woman in a psychiatric unit?
34:23That is not what I know, but I think she's definitely given a little separate beneath that.
34:28There are now dozens of AFD supporters like Boris and Matthias.
34:35using social media far more skillfully than traditional parties
34:39and helping to bring the AFD's agenda to huge numbers of young voters.
34:49Boris and Matthias have invited me to meet some of their friends.
34:54Why is it, do you think, that so many Germans are moving towards the AFD?
35:03No such a simple question. I think that it's basically with uncertainty.
35:09And many people in Germany have the feeling that the only way possible,
35:15how you can give a voice through this party is.
35:19And that very many topics that have been ignored in the last years
35:27For example?
35:28That's the issue of Migration as the main topic.
35:31There is always been spoken about it.
35:33And when you're talking about these problems,
35:36you have to hear often,
35:38you're an extremist in any way.
35:41And I think, on good German said,
35:44people have just the mouth full of it.
36:07I just wondered how can young people long for a homeland or a good old days that they've never, that
36:14they've never really experienced.
36:15Is it real the dream that the AFD is selling even?
36:41The AFD has millions of supporters, like Boris and his friends, who feel alienated from traditional establishments.
36:51For them, classifying the AFD as extremist is just a ploy to weaken support for the party.
36:59That's the first time, when the AFD as safe as extremist was,
37:04was the time when the AFD suddenly stopped the CDU in a country.
37:11Are you suggesting that it's the German establishment trying to shut the AFD down?
37:17Yeah.
37:17Rather than actually having bona fide arguments why the AFD should be shut down.
37:23That's what you're saying?
37:24Yeah.
37:24So it's against democracy?
37:33You don't have to agree with them, but the AFD is huge in Germany, and it's growing,
37:41and it feels victimised by the German establishment.
37:44And the danger of the German establishment trying to shut the AFD up, or even shut it down altogether,
37:50is that increasing numbers of its supporters will lose faith in traditional politics here altogether,
37:56and become more open to arguments that the freedom of speech, or the voice of the people, are being muzzled.
38:09It's time for me to leave Germany.
38:13This is a country in flux at home, and under pressure from its European neighbours
38:18to step up on the world stage.
38:23Right now, Germany is uneasy in its own skin.
38:27It's unsure of who or what to be just at the moment that this continent is at its weakest since
38:33the Second World War.
38:35And as Europe's biggest economy, it is time for Germany to stand up and to take far more of a
38:42leadership role,
38:43one that it's been afraid to take since World War II.
38:52Next, I'm heading to Spain.
38:58Of all the countries I'm visiting, this is the one that Brits are most familiar with.
39:03We make more than 15 million trips here a year, enjoying white sandy beaches and stunning coastal villages.
39:14But although we may think of Spain as being united by paella, sangria, flamenco, living here it can feel less
39:22like one nation,
39:24and more an assembly of 17 often very different regions, with distinct identities.
39:31I'm starting in the region of Catalonia, in a small town called Villafranca, not far from Barcelona.
39:42I've come here on a day when the town celebrates one of its most colourful and craziest traditions.
39:50We've got one group playing something over there, these guys playing something completely different.
39:56I say, you know, this is what I love about Spain.
39:59This mix of, you know, festivities, but absolutely chaotic people of all ages all coming together.
40:21But today is about far more than the music.
40:26If you look at that lady's shirt at the back, the yellow and red stripe, that is the Catalan flag.
40:33These are very proud Catalans.
40:36Today the town is celebrating its Catalan identity, with an age-old tradition, building giant towers made of people.
40:51So if you have a look at the people on the bottom here, everyone is kind of moving forward to
40:56give support to the base structure.
41:00The lightest scramble to the top.
41:05Oh, the little ones are coming now, like, small children.
41:09But their helmets are on protection.
41:11OK, here we go.
41:19Wow, it can happen.
41:25You can see they're shaking, but thankfully everyone's OK.
41:29They're OK.
41:34It's not unusual for a collapse to lead to a hospital visit.
41:38But that's not enough to put them off.
42:09They did it, they did it.
42:1810, 12 hours a week of practice, and it lasts a couple of seconds, but it is really amazing.
42:26To find out why they do something so dangerous, I'm catching up with one of the climbers, Maria Camel, whose
42:32young children take part as well.
42:35So I have to say, first of all, congratulations.
42:39That was amazing.
42:41What does it mean to you and to everybody here to do these castels?
42:45What does it, what does it represent?
42:47It represents a tradition, it's a very strong symbol of the Catalan character, of the Catalan people.
42:56We are strong, we work together, we like to reach the sky.
43:01You have Catalan music playing, what happens, lots of people wearing Catalan flags.
43:06What's your mother tongue?
43:08My mother tongue is Catalan.
43:10I always speak Catalan at home, and I learn to speak Spanish at school.
43:16So later, six or seven years old.
43:19Yes.
43:19And what about your children?
43:20My children speak Catalan at home, and also in the school.
43:25They learn Spanish as a second language?
43:27Yes.
43:27Or a foreign language?
43:28Yes.
43:29The main lessons in Catalonia are done in Catalan.
43:33Do you feel more Spanish or Catalan?
43:36I definitely feel Catalan.
43:38I don't feel Spanish at all.
43:41At all?
43:41No.
43:42I have nothing against Spanish people or Spanish country, but I don't think I belong to Spain.
43:48I think for a lot of people, that's quite a dramatic thing to say in a way.
43:53Many tourists come to Barcelona, to Catalonia, and they just think, oh, it's a region of Spain.
44:00Yes.
44:00Not for you.
44:01Not for me.
44:04Maria is far from alone amongst Catalans in not feeling Spanish.
44:15Near to Villafranca is the largest city in Catalonia, Barcelona.
44:25I've come to Barcelona on a really special day.
44:29It's Catalan National Day.
44:33Today is about celebrating Catalan culture.
44:37But a lot of people aren't just here for a celebration.
44:40They're here because they want independence from Spain.
44:44The Catalan flag has red and yellow stripes, but on proud display today are also Catalan flags with a star,
44:52and they symbolise a call for independence.
44:56I'm trying to look for one flag that's not calling for independence.
45:05I can't see one.
45:11From the very, very young to the very, very old, Catalan nationalists, they do feed that to their children with
45:20mother's milk.
45:21It is felt so strongly, so deeply.
45:27Catalonia does have considerable autonomy from Spain with its own parliament and police force, but many here feel that isn't
45:35enough.
45:36Isn't there a difference between having your language, learning catalan, having your traditions, and wanting to break away from Spain?
45:46Yes, the truth.
45:47The problem is that Spain doesn't allow us to grow our culture.
45:51There are some interests to eliminate or to have the Catalan culture.
46:06So much passion on the streets today.
46:10A lot of joy, but also anger and frustration.
46:18You know, it does seem remarkable in modern day Spain, and of course it's not all Catalans, but there are
46:26so many people who feel hostile,
46:30almost disgusted at the idea of being called Spanish, or just being part of this country.
46:43So much of that hostility towards Spain, in Catalonia and other parts of the country, can be traced back to
46:49Spain's civil war of the 1930s.
46:59First of the actual pictures from Spain in revolt tells a graphic story of bloodshed and violence.
47:04The land of smiling tomorrow is grim today.
47:08After almost three years of fighting, General Francisco Franco's nationalist forces defeated Spain's Republican government.
47:17Franco went on to rule Spain as a dictator for almost 40 years.
47:23He imprisoned political opponents, sent many to forced labour camps, and executed tens of thousands.
47:33In his drive to dominate Spain, he tried to centralise and control it all from Madrid.
47:40Franco violently clamped down on regional identities in areas like Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia, which all had their
47:48own languages and independence movements.
47:52Franco felt really threatened by regional pride and local nationalist sentiment, and he tried to crack down on all that
48:01hard and fast.
48:03But the thing is, if you try to repress people's passions and their sense of identity, they often just come
48:11out all that much stronger.
48:14Across Spain today, many still burn with resentment about the brutality inflicted by the Franco regime.
48:22Yet just outside Madrid, there's still a giant memorial Franco commissioned essentially to glorify himself.
48:32Oh, that is massive.
48:42Franco claimed this memorial and its 150-metre-high cross stand in honour of everyone who died during the war,
48:51on both sides.
48:52But Franco's political prisoners were forced to build it, and it's become a symbol of what opponents believe is lingering
48:59sympathy for his legacy.
49:03This place always sends shivers down my spine.
49:08It's thought that more than 30,000 bodies are buried here.
49:12But the families of those who were killed opposing Franco said, no one asked them if the remains of their
49:19loved ones could be brought here,
49:21to a place they saw, and still see, as a homage to right-wing nationalism and a successful military coup,
49:30and ultimately where Franco's body was laid to rest in glory inside that basilica.
49:38After Franco's death, instead of confronting what he'd done and trying to heal the country,
49:44Spain's political class imposed what they called a pact of forgetting that many Spaniards have not forgotten.
49:55Look, two banners have just been unfurled. While we've been filming, I've just seen the activists' run-off.
50:021936 and 1975, you know, that's from the start of Franco's military coup until the end of his dictatorship.
50:09That is a message saying glory to a freed Basque country.
50:14The activists are showing the repression they were put under by Franco and his regime.
50:23Oh, look, they're taking them, they're taking them off now.
50:26Yeah.
50:28Yeah, the security guard's making sure they disappear.
50:34These aren't images Spain wants us to see.
50:44This remains a hugely divided country between those who feel they still haven't received justice and those who saw the
50:52Franco era as one of political stability and economic growth.
50:57But a public memorial, perceived to be celebrating Franco, is surprising.
51:03What a contrast to the fates of two other famous European 20th century fascist dictators, Mussolini and Hitler.
51:13Franco's body was taken away from here just a few years ago.
51:17But the shadow of this place still looms large here.
51:34In the 50 years since Franco died, little has been done to help the families of his victims move on.
51:43I've come to the south of the country, to Cordoba, and I'm on my way to a cemetery that has
51:48a mass grave from the Franco era.
51:55At first glance, this cemetery looks much like any other, the final resting place for thousands of loved ones.
52:06But tucked in a corner, at the far end, lie the remains of people executed by Franco's followers.
52:14Hi, Daniel.
52:16Hi, I'm Katia.
52:20Daniel Quiroga is coordinating the exhumation of the bodies buried here.
52:25This is a mass grave.
52:27This is a communal forest.
52:28Totally.
52:29In fact, we have more than 140 victims, killed people.
52:35In this cemetery, we know that there are more than 1,400 people killed.
52:41And in the city of Cordoba?
52:43In the city of Cordoba, according to the latest research, there are 5,000 people.
52:47Wow, in all these mass graves?
52:49Yes.
52:52How many people in Spain have disappeared?
52:54I can't give you a number. 120,000? 140,000?
52:58The base of all this process is the occult.
53:02It's thought that across Spain, there are up to 6,000 mass graves sites.
53:08Around a quarter have been dug up.
53:11And while bodies of the Republican leftists who fought against Franco were tossed into the ground in unmarked graves,
53:18those who fought for Franco were often given proper burials.
53:22These are people who fell on the front, from the communist side, from the Franco's side,
53:28to whom they gave them honor, and they gave them space in perpetuity,
53:32as you can see, with their names, with their death dates,
53:36with a monumental cross that speaks of that they were dead by Dios and Spain,
53:41to whom they gave them pensioners to their wives, and they tried to seek a good life.
53:48It's a big contrast between this part of the grave yard and an unmarked mass grave.
53:55Totally, totally.
53:57Well, think that in Spain, in that time, and from that time,
54:01all of them are like this in all the towns.
54:03Some forgotten and buried,
54:06almost 90 years, fighting to recover.
54:09No, some bones of theirs,
54:11that everyone would agree, because they are human rights, they are killed.
54:15They are very emotional.
54:17It's a real wound, that's open in Spain still.
54:22No, we are trying to close that pain, which is still dying today.
54:29Spain is a modern Western European country,
54:33but it still has one of the highest numbers of disappeared people in the world.
54:39Hi, I'm Katia. I'm so pleased to meet you.
54:43Rafael Amor and his daughter, Maria Jose,
54:45have been waiting for decades to find the remains of Rafael's father.
55:12Rafael's father, Francisco, was a captain fighting against Franco's army.
55:17But he was captured.
55:18But he was captured.
55:18He was brought to this cemetery, shot, and thrown into a mass grave.
55:26Well, and at the end,
55:28that is what we most emocionate to us,
55:31when he knows the date that he was going to kill,
55:34he begins to write letters of death,
55:37the one that my grandmother wrote to death.
55:40He says,
55:41a my dear wife,
55:44today I die,
55:46I am going to know that I am with your name in my eyes.
55:51I forgive you the sins that I have committed with you without wanting.
55:55I will always honor you my memory,
55:57telling my children the truth of the sad story of his father.
56:02My Rafael.
56:04He had the eyes of his father more than two times in my face.
56:23I'm so sorry, Rafael. I'm so sorry.
56:31This happened so many years ago, but there's still so much pain.
56:37In the war, people die, that's obvious, right?
56:41But I think everyone has the right to know where their relatives are
56:45and to have a fair burial.
56:50To be able to take a flower.
56:57Work is due to start soon to unearth the remains in this cemetery.
57:02Once they're recovered, the aim is to identify them through their DNA,
57:06to finally bring some closure.
57:10Francisco Amor Cuadrado.
57:13Just one of so many Spaniards thrown away like rubbish into mass graves
57:19by Franco's fascists.
57:21This pain and division in Spain is just going to keep on being passed
57:26from generation to generation until this country confronts its ugly past
57:31and then finally puts it to rest.
57:35These old wounds divide and weaken Spain, politically as well as socially.
57:42It's continental Europe's fourth richest power.
57:46But the role Spain plays on the European stage is far off its potential.
57:57Next time I'll come face to face with one of Spain's biggest threats.
58:03Another fire starts there, another there, another there.
58:07Before heading to a European rainforest.
58:10You do not get this in Paris.
58:12And finding out why the heart of France is hurting.
58:17Looking in my wing mirror there, there are a lot of police vans behind us.
58:23In the back in a minute, the American rainforest.
58:31In the back out, the landscape in France is a very professional knows
58:31that you can't dare to stop.
58:32A쟁 is up.
58:33A great adventure.
58:37A great adventure.
58:37The game is off.
58:37The game is off.
58:41They are a great adventure.
58:42The games is off.
58:42The game is off.
58:43The games are on the ground.
58:45The game is off.
58:45The games are on the ground.
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