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00:28Transcription by CastingWords
00:49Transcription by CastingWords
01:00I am always aware that so much of our world has its roots in Europe, and modern Europe is one
01:05of the greatest achievements in human history.
01:08I want to share the grand saga of this continent, and in the process I hope to rediscover its wonders
01:15for myself.
01:25Today's leg of my journey begins in Paris, with a meeting that might surprise you.
01:31Does this lady here look familiar to you? Well, it's no wonder. She's the little Paris sister of Lady Liberty
01:38in New York.
01:39The French gave the Statue of Liberty to the Americans as a gift. In gratitude, it could be said, for
01:45America's role in inspiring the most important turning point in Europe's history.
01:50America had broken away from England. The American Declaration of Independence, which the Statue of Liberty holds in her arm,
01:57includes the lines,
01:58All men are created equal, and they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, including life, liberty, and
02:06the pursuit of happiness.
02:08In the fledgling United States, it seemed, freedom, equality, and progress reigned.
02:14Two years before the French Revolution, self-determination and the liberty of humankind were written into the American Constitution.
02:22It was as if the utopias of enlightened political theory had sprung to life.
02:30Pennsylvania, 1777. French nobleman Lafayette is fighting on the side of the American colonists for democracy and human rights,
02:40and against the English colonial rulers whom the settlers see as their oppressors.
02:47The old order begins to falter in Europe and the rest of the world. The Americans man the barricades in
02:54what will become known as the Revolutionary War.
02:57In the previous year, the United States of America, as the colonists now call themselves, had declared its independence from
03:04England.
03:15The Statue of Liberty in New York is still a symbol of freedom and democracy today.
03:21It was a gift from the French to the country that helped to spark a revolution in their own country.
03:29L'État, c'est moi. I am the state. That's how the kings of France think.
03:34The Palace of Versailles, just outside Paris, is a manifestation of absolutism and of the existing European order.
03:41Many European monarchs model themselves on French royalty.
03:47The monarch holds all executive power. There is no formal separation of powers into executive, judiciary and legislature.
03:55All chains of command converge on one person in one place, Versailles.
04:00This is a society of orders with different rights and responsibilities, the clergy, the nobility and, of course, the third
04:09estate encompassing the rest of society.
04:11Those at the top of the pyramid wallow in luxury while the poor often go hungry.
04:19The days of absolutism were numbered.
04:23Have the courage to make use of your own reason.
04:26With these words, the Königsberg philosopher, Immanuel Kant, summed up the meaning of enlightenment.
04:32Today, in what's sometimes called a post-factual era, his words are more important than ever.
04:38Profound discoveries in the field of the natural sciences had already paved the way.
04:43With their thinking and their precise reckoning, Galilei, Kepler and Newton had already transformed human understanding of the world and
04:51the universe.
04:52When the French philosopher René Descartes declared, I think, therefore I am,
04:57he made the reflecting, questioning consciousness of an individual human being the fulcrum of our knowable existence.
05:06In the European salons, often run by high society ladies, the old order is increasingly called into question, especially in
05:15France.
05:16Thinkers like Rousseau, Diderot, Montesquieu and Voltaire extol the principles of human equality, tolerance and the division of powers.
05:26By his nature, man is free, and all his actions must be based on reason.
05:32I tell everybody, think for yourself.
05:37We ourselves are responsible for what we do, but also for what we don't do.
05:44That's true, my dear Voltaire, but it's also important to set the limits on power.
05:51Experience teaches us that any man with power tends to abuse it.
05:57That is why the three powers of a state should be separated.
06:01The legislative, the executive and the judicial.
06:10Freedom can only exist when the powers of the state are separated.
06:15Reason would mandate that as well, don't you think?
06:21During the Enlightenment, knowledge is diligently collected and published in the form of encyclopedias.
06:28But these are not mere storehouses of knowledge.
06:30They are critical and argumentative.
06:41Ah, Monsieur Diderot, I'm glad you could make it today.
06:48Come with me.
06:51Here, I bring you the author of the Encyclopédie that you hold in your hands.
06:58Oh, this here is a declaration of war against the king.
07:03And why is that?
07:06When man starts listening to the voice of reason,
07:09he will strangle the last king with the guts of the last priest.
07:15Hmm?
07:19The writing is on the wall.
07:21Peasants and commoners are financing the extravagant lifestyle of the royal court.
07:26The nobility and clergy are largely exempt from taxation.
07:30The argument that this is a natural and God-given state of affairs
07:33comes to seem less persuasive.
07:40This is a menu from the court at Versailles.
07:44Twenty courses were served,
07:46from jellied lobster and scallops in oyster sauce
07:49to morel, souffle and leg of hare.
07:52And while the nobles of Versailles reveled and feasted,
07:56the people in many parts of the country starved.
07:59The world of the court
08:01and the world of everybody else drifted apart.
08:04This was just one of the reasons
08:05why the French monarchy failed to make it through
08:08to the end of the 18th century.
08:10The fundamental problem was government debt.
08:14France has become the most populous country in Europe.
08:18Twenty-five million people live here.
08:21Food is scarce and prices have spiked.
08:24We want bread!
08:25Down with the king!
08:26We want bread!
08:28Down with the king!
08:29We want bread!
08:30In 1788, bad harvests and catastrophic weather events
08:34only make the situation worse.
08:36Bread, the main food of the poor,
08:38is suddenly much more expensive.
08:40The French decide to take things into their own hands.
08:44Food riots break out across the country,
08:46particularly in Paris.
08:48Take what you can!
08:49Hey, what's going on?
08:50Take as much as you can carry it!
08:51Do not leave anything behind it!
08:52Keep your hands off!
08:53Do you hear me?
08:54Nothing!
08:55Take what you can!
08:57Take as much as you can carry it!
08:59Do not leave anything!
09:01Take all the bread!
09:04And the king's soldiers simply stand back and watch.
09:08When order breaks down in the capital,
09:10they refuse to intervene against the revolutionaries.
09:13On the contrary, many side with the rebels
09:15because there is unrest in the army as well.
09:22By the late 1780s,
09:24there wasn't even enough money
09:25to cover monthly payments to the troops.
09:27A fully functional and strongly motivated army
09:30could easily have put down
09:32the small hunger riot at the Bastille.
09:34But France no longer possessed
09:36an army loyal enough to do that.
09:40On the morning of 14 July 1789,
09:44an angry Parisian crowd
09:46storms the notorious state prison
09:49in the Bastille fortress.
09:50Their anger is directed at this symbol
09:53of the tyranny inflicted on them
09:55by the king and nobility.
09:59The revolutionaries demand freedom,
10:01equality and brotherhood.
10:03But are these ideals really compatible
10:06with one another?
10:07Contention over this question
10:08will shape the course of the revolution.
10:15In June 1789,
10:18the third estate breaks away
10:20from the other two orders
10:21and convenes an assembly.
10:23Its members see themselves
10:24as representatives of the entire nation.
10:28Open disagreement, debate,
10:29now becomes a central motor
10:31of political life.
10:33Drawing on the legacy
10:34of the American Revolution,
10:36General Lafayette and Honoré Mirabeau
10:38draft a bill of human rights.
10:41Article 1.
10:43Men are born and remain free
10:46and equal in rights.
10:47Social distinctions can be founded
10:51only on the common good.
10:56Article 2.
10:57The goal of any political association
11:00is the conservation of the natural
11:03and imprescriptible rights of man.
11:06These rights are liberty, property,
11:09safety and resistance against oppression.
11:14Fearing that the revolution underway
11:16in France will threaten their security,
11:19the rulers of Prussia and Austria
11:21declare their military support
11:22for the French king.
11:24The armies marching to Paris in 1792
11:26are stopped by French revolutionary forces
11:29in a battle at Valmy.
11:31Historical events begin to unfold
11:33at a breathtaking pace.
11:44France becomes a republic.
11:46The king has been deposed
11:48and is a prisoner of the people.
11:50He is put on trial.
11:51Both Louis XVI and his queen
11:53are beheaded by guillotine.
11:56France enters an era
11:57of profound political polarisation
11:59and radicalisation.
12:01The body count goes up.
12:10The French revolutionaries
12:12became armed missionaries
12:14using violence to propagate their ideals
12:17and that too is a European invention.
12:19The totalised application
12:21of a single political theory
12:22whatever the human cost.
12:24Just across the river
12:26in the Conciergerie prison
12:272,780 people were swiftly processed
12:31by revolutionary tribunals
12:33and sentenced to death.
12:35And throughout the country
12:36executions during this period
12:37numbered in the tens of thousands.
12:39The revolutionaries
12:41wanted to liberate all of humanity.
12:43That was one of the things
12:44that made them so radical.
12:46And the French National Assembly
12:47was the first organisation in Europe,
12:49in the world,
12:51to pose the question
12:52of whether and how
12:53one state could use military force
12:56to enforce the observation
12:57of human rights
12:58in another state.
13:00The age of the humanitarian intervention
13:02was born.
13:04The French National Assembly
13:06hopes to offer strong resistance
13:08to Europe's monarchs
13:09and mobilises the population
13:11with revolutionary slogans.
13:13Now,
13:14let us show Europe
13:16the 10 million French citizens
13:18when challenged
13:19will be fuelled
13:21by the fire of freedom.
13:24And armed with swords and reason
13:26will single-handedly
13:28change the world
13:29and make the tyrants
13:30tremble on their thrones.
13:32The future of the revolution
13:33is at stake.
13:35Ultimately,
13:36the advocates of war prevail.
13:38Now,
13:39let us vote.
13:41Peace
13:41or war?
13:43Who votes for peace?
13:50And war?
14:02Napoleon Bonaparte
14:03starts out as a general
14:05of the revolution,
14:06but once in power,
14:07he brings the domestic tumult
14:09to an end
14:10and focuses on projecting
14:12French power outwards
14:13onto Europe.
14:14His battles are legendary
14:16and his conquests numerous.
14:18Napoleon plunges the continent
14:20into a state of constant war
14:22and he leads his army
14:23from victory to victory.
14:25And then,
14:26Napoleon,
14:27a national hero at this point,
14:29names himself emperor.
14:30He is crowned in 1804.
14:33Napoleon casts himself
14:35as a successor
14:35to the Roman emperors
14:37and especially to Charlemagne.
14:39Like his hero,
14:40he wants to create
14:41a European empire.
14:45In 1806,
14:46Prussian troops
14:47encounter the Grande Armee
14:49at Jena and Auerstedt
14:50in Thuringia.
14:51The Prussians suffer
14:52a harrowing defeat.
14:54Further annexations follow.
14:56Napoleon now dominates
14:57almost the whole of Europe
14:58and he orchestrates
15:00his triumph accordingly.
15:02In Berlin,
15:03as in many other places,
15:04the response
15:04is ambivalent.
15:06Napoleon may be a tyrant
15:07to some,
15:08but to others,
15:09he is the herald
15:10of a new era.
15:14Napoleon and Europe.
15:16Some territories
15:17are simply annexed
15:18to France.
15:19Outside the borders
15:21of an enlarged France,
15:22Napoleon creates
15:23satellite states
15:24and confederations.
15:26Even great powers
15:27like Prussia and Austria,
15:29defeated by Napoleon,
15:30now pay tribute to him
15:32and accept his dominance.
15:35Napoleonic rule
15:36is a strange mix
15:38of military aggression,
15:39fiscal extraction
15:40and progressive institutions.
15:42He hopes to bring progress
15:44wherever he rules.
15:45His Napoleonic code
15:46promises civil rights,
15:48equal protection
15:49under the law
15:50and freedom for peasants.
15:52But the mood darkens
15:54as Bonaparte wages
15:56war after war.
15:57There's no exit strategy,
15:59no limit to his ambition.
16:00Resistance grows.
16:02In 1813,
16:03the Battle of the Nations
16:04rages in Leipzig.
16:06A European alliance,
16:08including Austria,
16:09Prussia, Russia and Sweden,
16:11mobilizes more than
16:12300,000 troops
16:14against Napoleon.
16:15More than 200,000 soldiers,
16:17including Frenchmen,
16:19Italian, Poles and Germans,
16:20fight on the side of France.
16:22Bonaparte is defeated.
16:24His dream of dominating
16:25the continent
16:25goes up in smoke.
16:36He may only have been
16:38one meter 68 tall,
16:40but when it came
16:41to his sarcophagus,
16:42there was no such thing
16:43as too big.
16:45Here lie the mortal remains
16:47of Napoleon
16:47in five coffins,
16:49each nesting inside the other
16:51like a Russian doll,
16:53as though the French
16:54wanted to preserve
16:55their most important national myth
16:57for all eternity.
16:59Napoleon was one of the sculptors
17:01of modern Europe.
17:01His tools of preference
17:03were armies,
17:04legal codes
17:05and administrative innovation.
17:06He was willing to use
17:08any means necessary
17:09to bring the nations
17:10of the old continent together
17:11as a family,
17:13united around
17:14and serving
17:15the motherland
17:16of human rights,
17:17France.
17:18He believed in open borders
17:20for people and goods
17:22and standardized weights
17:23and measures
17:24such as meters and kilos.
17:25and of course
17:26the original standard meter
17:28on which all the others
17:29are based
17:29resides here in Paris.
17:32France as the measure
17:33of all things.
17:34The laws of France
17:36must extend
17:37to all the United Countries
17:38from the pillars of Hercules
17:40to the Kamchatka Peninsula,
17:42Napoleon is reported
17:43to have said.
17:46With Napoleon defeated
17:47and banished,
17:48new negotiations
17:50begin in Vienna.
17:51After 20 years of war,
17:53Austria, Russia,
17:54Prussia and England
17:55are the victors.
17:56The objective
17:57is both to contain France
17:59and to block
18:01hegemonic projects
18:02by the other powers.
18:03France is invited
18:04to participate
18:05in a system
18:06that will come to be known
18:07as the Concert of Europe.
18:09The settlement
18:10hammered out in Vienna
18:11amidst a flurry
18:12of extravagant social events
18:14will define
18:15the future of Europe.
18:17Of course,
18:18the nations,
18:19the peoples as such,
18:21aren't involved
18:22in this process.
18:23They are objects
18:24to be acted upon,
18:25items on the negotiating agenda.
18:27The dynastic rulers
18:29view themselves
18:30as the guarantors
18:31of order in Europe
18:32and the result
18:34is a security architecture
18:35that spans the continent.
18:38This is the final act
18:39of the Congress of Vienna
18:41and here you can see
18:43the seals
18:43and the signatures
18:44of the statesmen
18:45who took part
18:46in the negotiations
18:46in Vienna.
18:48Here Prince Metternich
18:49for Austria,
18:51here Talleyrand,
18:52the French representative
18:54and on this side
18:55further significant figures,
18:59Hartenberg, Humboldt
19:00and many others.
19:04The ultimate result
19:06of the Congress of Vienna
19:07laid out in this final act
19:09was in a sense
19:10the rebirth of Europe.
19:12Napoleon had a vision
19:13of a united Europe,
19:14of course,
19:15but it was a Europe
19:16united under his control
19:18and under French hegemony.
19:19The new Europe
19:21allocated more power
19:22to the peripheral empires
19:23of West and East.
19:24Great powers,
19:25Britain and Russia,
19:26were granted a stronger voice
19:28in determining
19:29the fate of the continent,
19:30a state of affairs
19:31that anticipated
19:32in some ways
19:33the later standoff
19:34between the United States
19:36and the Soviet Union.
19:38In the future,
19:39problems would be solved
19:40not by uncoordinated
19:42individual initiatives,
19:43but harmoniously
19:45through the so-called
19:46concert of powers.
19:47This, in some ways,
19:49very impressive
19:50and intelligent solution,
19:51fell victim,
19:53like so many peace treaties,
19:55to the egoism
19:56of the most powerful states.
19:58One of Napoleon's
20:00unintended legacies
20:01was a surge
20:02in national feeling.
20:04Nothing galvanizes
20:05patriotic emotion
20:06like the experience
20:08of invasion
20:08and foreign domination.
20:11In May 1832,
20:12more than 20,000 people
20:14from Germany,
20:15France, Poland
20:16and other countries
20:17gather at a palace
20:18in the Pfalz region
20:20of Western Germany.
20:21They call for a united Germany
20:23and a confederated
20:24Republic of Europe,
20:25as well as for freedom
20:27of the press,
20:28speech and assembly
20:29and equal rights
20:30for women.
20:32Humbach is considered
20:33one of the cradles
20:34of modern democracy
20:35in Germany
20:36and some see it
20:37as the birthplace
20:38of European unity.
20:39But the European vision
20:40was still formless
20:42and incoherent
20:43and the old powers
20:44still dominated
20:45the continent.
20:45The kings and princes
20:47simply ignored
20:48the increasingly passionate
20:49demand for liberal reform.
20:56In 1848,
20:58another revolution breaks out.
21:00Once again,
21:01the French take to the streets,
21:03invoking the symbols
21:04and slogans
21:05of the French Revolution
21:06of 1789.
21:13But unlike the French Revolution,
21:15the revolution of 1848
21:17spreads like wildfire
21:18across Europe
21:19at a breathtaking pace.
21:22From all over the country,
21:24deep from every heart,
21:26a strong united
21:27German fatherland.
21:30The revolution,
21:33the revolution
21:34has won in Paris.
21:38With the exception
21:39of England and Russia,
21:41nearly all the major European states
21:43are affected.
21:43in the simultaneity
21:45of its tumult
21:46across the continent,
21:47this revolution
21:48is unique.
21:50The people want
21:51social reform
21:52and liberal constitutions
21:54and they're willing
21:55to use violence,
21:56if necessary,
21:57to get what they want.
22:01Full-blown revolutions
22:03rage in many cities
22:04and revolutionary hotspots
22:06flare up
22:07across the continent.
22:08The people rise up
22:09against the dynasties
22:10of Europe
22:10under the banner
22:12of freedom
22:12and self-determination.
22:16A wave of revolutions
22:19rolled across Europe
22:20from Palermo
22:21to Paris
22:22to Rome,
22:23Milan,
22:25Vienna,
22:26Budapest
22:26and Berlin.
22:28Hope,
22:29frustration
22:29and anger
22:30formed a combustible mix.
22:33The apparent unanimity
22:35of the revolutionary protests
22:36concealed a plurality
22:38of conflicting aims.
22:39political liberty,
22:41social justice,
22:42the unity of nations.
22:44In central Europe,
22:45national identity,
22:47the desire to be united
22:48in a common state,
22:49was at the centre
22:50of the revolutionary movement.
22:52In Germany,
22:54for example,
22:54the first freely elected
22:56German parliament
22:57convenes
22:58at St Paul's Church
22:59in Frankfurt.
23:00The focus
23:01is on uniting the nation.
23:06The parliament
23:07is modelled
23:07on France's
23:08national assembly
23:09parliaments
23:10during this era
23:11are still
23:11the domain
23:12of the elites.
23:15But how is a revolution
23:17expected to succeed
23:18without the support
23:19of an army?
23:20In most European nations,
23:22the army remains
23:23loyal to the rulers.
23:25There's little
23:25that militias
23:26or a network
23:26of revolutionaries
23:27can do
23:28against an armed
23:29military force.
23:30And yet,
23:31the shockwaves
23:32of this revolution
23:32would yield
23:33several important victories.
23:36new constitutions
23:37and parliaments
23:38are created
23:39and censorship
23:40is scaled back.
23:41Many of the European states
23:42absorb and channel
23:44the energy of the revolution,
23:45selectively implementing
23:47its demands.
23:49and these political upheavals
23:52take place
23:52against the background
23:53of an even more
23:54profound transformation,
23:56the industrial revolution.
23:58Enormous factories
23:59spring up first in England
24:01and then nearly everywhere
24:02in Europe.
24:03With the invention
24:04of the steam engine,
24:05manual labour
24:06is increasingly replaced
24:08by machines.
24:09The process
24:10will take over a century.
24:15Why did all of this
24:16begin in England
24:17of all places?
24:18For centuries,
24:19using the experimental method
24:21to probe the secrets
24:22of nature
24:23had been part
24:24of the culture here.
24:25So there was
24:26a long run-up.
24:27And then there was
24:28the pleasure
24:28that English scientists
24:30and inventors
24:30took in the practical
24:31application
24:32of their knowledge.
24:33They fuelled
24:35the industrial revolution.
24:36And among them
24:37was James Watt,
24:38inventor of the steam engine.
24:40The water
24:41in this boiler
24:42is heated to steam
24:45and the resulting pressure
24:46can be used
24:47to drive other engines,
24:49a loom, for example,
24:51or a locomotive.
24:52During the middle decades
24:53of the 19th century,
24:55the industrial revolution
24:56spread in fits and starts
24:57across Europe.
24:59It was a peaceful conquest,
25:00but for many,
25:01the consequences were grave.
25:05Finally,
25:06people can free themselves
25:07of the constraints
25:08of agricultural production.
25:10Crop failures and famines
25:12that impact entire populations
25:14are a thing of the past
25:16in industrialised societies.
25:18But industrial work
25:19is poorly paid,
25:20dangerous,
25:21and exploitative.
25:24Until late
25:25in the 18th century,
25:27the only effective way
25:28of increasing
25:29the production of goods
25:30was to increase
25:31the number of humans
25:33employed to make them.
25:34Then,
25:35the machines arrived.
25:36They didn't just
25:38replace muscle power,
25:39they also multiplied it.
25:41In factories like this one,
25:43huge machines
25:44performed the labour
25:45of hundreds of human beings.
25:47It was the most
25:48fundamental transformation
25:49in human social existence
25:51since the beginning
25:52of organised agriculture.
25:54In other words,
25:55it was a true revolution,
25:57an industrial revolution.
25:58The inventor of the term
26:00was none other
26:01than Karl Marx's
26:02close friend
26:03and collaborator,
26:04Friedrich Engels,
26:05who coined it
26:06in the 1830s
26:07in an analogy
26:08with the French Revolution
26:09of the 1790s.
26:11If the idea of communism
26:14had a birthplace,
26:15it would surely be Manchester.
26:17The unrestrained form
26:19of production
26:19that developed here
26:20came to be known
26:22as Manchester capitalism.
26:23In the mid-19th century,
26:25Friedrich Engels,
26:26whose father owned
26:27a factory like this one,
26:28could study as if
26:30in a laboratory
26:30the social and economic
26:32consequences
26:33of an unchecked capitalism.
26:35And in his writings,
26:37Karl Marx,
26:37Engels' friend,
26:38explored the implications.
26:41Workers of the world unite.
26:44Yes, that sounds good.
26:46But we need
26:46a strong message
26:47at the start.
26:49The aim was to raise
26:50the workers against
26:51a system that kept
26:52them poor and weak.
26:53That's good, that's good.
26:57Yeah.
26:58Not bad.
26:59A spectre is haunting Europe.
27:02The spectre of communism.
27:03Yeah.
27:04What do you think?
27:06Marx lives in exile
27:07in London.
27:08In 1848,
27:10he and Friedrich Engels
27:11published their
27:11communist manifesto,
27:13which will one day
27:13become the Bible
27:15of the global workers' movement.
27:16Marx and Engels
27:17called for a world
27:19without exploitative
27:19social relations,
27:20in which the means
27:21of production
27:22are owned not by capitalists,
27:24but by society itself,
27:26understood as
27:27a collective enterprise.
27:28Both of them reflect
27:29at length
27:29on the idea of revolution,
27:31but it's not until
27:32the early 20th century
27:33that the explosive
27:34potential of their ideas
27:36is fully realised.
27:38Meanwhile,
27:39the gap between rich
27:40and poor continues
27:41to expand.
27:42A workers' movement
27:43soon begins to take shape
27:45and with it
27:46come political parties
27:47championing the rights
27:48of waged labour.
27:53and thus Karl Marx,
27:55who incidentally
27:55claimed never
27:56to have been a Marxist,
27:57influenced European history
27:59in several ways
28:00at the same time.
28:02The idea of the working class
28:04as a structural feature
28:05of all modern capitalist systems
28:07united people
28:08across borders
28:09into a sort of
28:10community of fate.
28:11The slogan
28:12workers of the world unite
28:14offered a counterweight
28:15to national egotism.
28:17In the last decades
28:19of the 19th century,
28:20left-wing parties
28:21gained power
28:22and pushed through
28:23social reforms
28:24in dozens of European parliaments.
28:26Only under the immense
28:28social and political stresses
28:29of the First World War
28:31did the socialist left
28:32fracture.
28:33A communism emerged
28:35in whose hands
28:36the teachings of Marx
28:37hardened into
28:38an unbending doctrine.
28:40As the instrument
28:41of Soviet state power,
28:43communism became
28:44a force of global significance
28:45and in Europe,
28:47the tension between
28:48communist and capitalist
28:49social orders
28:50split the continent
28:51down the middle.
28:53It's the high noon
28:55of the national idea
28:57in every European country.
28:59In the course
28:59of the 19th century,
29:01the concept of nation
29:02becomes the pole star
29:04in the firmament
29:05of European values.
29:06But in Europe,
29:07where so many cultures
29:08and languages
29:09live in close proximity,
29:11one nation's dream
29:12can become
29:13another's nightmare.
29:19The leading monarchs
29:20of Europe
29:21are nearly all connected
29:22in the same
29:23gigantic clan network
29:25and in 1913,
29:27many of them
29:27come together
29:28at the wedding
29:28of the German
29:29emperor's daughter,
29:30Victoria Luise,
29:32in Berlin.
29:40No one realises
29:42just how close
29:43Europe is
29:43to the brink.
29:44This is the calm
29:45before the storm.
29:46An assassination
29:47in the multinational
29:49Habsburg state,
29:50the murder
29:51of the Austrian
29:52heir to the throne,
29:53captures the headlines.
29:55But does this
29:56automatically mean war?
29:58The great powers
29:59recognise the risk
30:00of escalation,
30:01but none of them
30:02does anything
30:03to prevent it.
30:04In 1914,
30:05the decision makers
30:06are like sleepwalkers.
30:08They manoeuvre
30:09for advantage,
30:10but in placing
30:11their own goals
30:12above the preservation
30:13of peace,
30:13they risk catastrophe.
30:15When war breaks out,
30:16each country
30:17sees itself as the victim
30:19and its opponent
30:20as the aggressor.
30:24Modern military technology
30:26means that this world war
30:28brings unparalleled carnage.
30:30Nearly 17 million people
30:32lose their lives
30:33on the battlefields
30:34and on the home front.
30:35And the First World War
30:37is a breaking point.
30:38The old European order
30:40collapses,
30:41but no new order
30:42emerges to take its place.
30:44The desire for compromise
30:45is there,
30:46but the differences
30:47between the fronts
30:48are overpowering.
30:50This is the dawn
30:51of an age of extremes
30:52shaped by fascism
30:54and Bolshevism.
31:04After the October revolution
31:06in Russia,
31:07the Bolsheviks seize power.
31:09Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
31:11is the man of the hour.
31:13He keeps an iron grip
31:14on power
31:15and hopes that this
31:16red revolution
31:17will spread to the rest
31:18of Europe.
31:20Versailles, 1919.
31:22How can peace endure
31:24if Europe's two strongest powers
31:26play no role
31:27in the peacemaking process?
31:29Russia doesn't even
31:30send a representative
31:31to the European conference
31:33at Versailles.
31:34And the German delegation
31:35is barred from participating
31:37in the negotiations.
31:42With its reparations,
31:44disarmament clauses
31:45and territorial penalties,
31:47and above all,
31:49with its insistence
31:50on German soul guilt
31:52for the outbreak of war,
31:54the Treaty of Versailles
31:55places a lasting burden
31:57on the new
31:58Weimar democracy.
32:02The multinational
32:04Habsburg Empire
32:05collapses.
32:06New independent nations
32:08arise in its place.
32:09Poland,
32:10Czechoslovakia,
32:11Hungary,
32:12Yugoslavia,
32:13the Baltic countries
32:14also gain their independence.
32:16But the losers
32:17refuse to accept
32:18the new post-war order.
32:20Voices of protest
32:22grow louder,
32:23particularly from
32:24the right wing.
32:25Germany is being
32:26oppressed and robbed,
32:27they claim.
32:34There are signs
32:36of rapprochement
32:37between Germany
32:37and France
32:38at an international
32:39conference in Locarno
32:40in 1925.
32:42It's a time of hope.
32:45German foreign minister
32:46Gustav Strezemann
32:48speaks of a Europe
32:49of cooperation,
32:51not confrontation.
32:52And his French
32:53colleague Briand
32:54makes an impassioned speech,
32:56away with the cannons,
32:57he says,
32:57make way for reconciliation.
33:03Both statesmen
33:05are awarded
33:05the Nobel Peace Prize
33:06for their efforts.
33:07But this vision
33:08of a peaceful Europe
33:10would soon evaporate.
33:17The National Socialists
33:19promise to liberate Germany,
33:21to restore the country
33:22to its former strength
33:23and independence.
33:24Hitler isn't interested
33:26in the balance of power,
33:27he wants unconditional
33:28domination of the continent.
33:30Attempts to appease
33:31the new German leadership
33:32fail.
33:33The Nazis intend
33:34to secure their objectives
33:36by force.
33:37Rearmament begins in earnest
33:39as soon as they take power.
33:49September 1939.
33:51The war begins
33:52with the invasion of Poland.
33:55The Nazis couple the technology
33:57of invasion and conquest
33:58with the subjugation
34:00and extermination
34:01of the peoples
34:02under their control.
34:03The systematic slaughter
34:05of civilians
34:06sets this war apart
34:07from past conflicts
34:09right from the very beginning.
34:11The Holocaust begins
34:13behind the front lines.
34:14It will claim the lives
34:16of six million Jews.
34:22May 1940.
34:24The German Wehrmacht
34:25attacks its neighbor
34:27to the west.
34:28Hitler always adheres
34:30to the same binary principle.
34:32All or nothing.
34:33Germany will be a great power
34:35or it will cease to exist,
34:37he declares in his book
34:38Mein Kampf,
34:39published years before
34:40he comes to power.
34:42With his victory secure,
34:44Hitler visits Paris.
34:45Among the sightseeing stops
34:47is Napoleon's tomb
34:48at the Dome des Invalides.
34:51He plans to surpass
34:52even the French emperor's prowess
34:54as a military leader,
34:55but his memory of Napoleon's
34:57achievements is selective.
34:59He seems to have forgotten
35:00the fact that Napoleon's
35:02invasion of Russia
35:03proved the disaster
35:05that undid his empire.
35:07The Nazi ideology
35:09leads further into ruin.
35:18The Siegesseule,
35:20or victory column of Berlin,
35:21was supposed to serve
35:22as an important element
35:23on the great east-west axis
35:26of the capital city
35:27of the Third Reich,
35:28Germania.
35:29In Hitler's grotesque vision,
35:32the Megapolis, Germania,
35:34bulging with oversized monuments,
35:36was to be the focal point
35:38of a pan-Germanic world empire.
35:40The Nazis liked the mural
35:42at the base of the victory column.
35:44We see an aroused German people
35:46raising their swords
35:48against Napoleon,
35:49who's dressed like a Roman emperor
35:51in a red toga.
35:52An historical event,
35:54the early 19th century wars
35:55of liberation
35:56against Napoleonic France,
35:58is elevated to the status
36:00of a world historical principle.
36:02For the Nazis,
36:04the state was an obsolete concept.
36:06They thought in ethnic racial
36:08rather than political categories.
36:10When Hitler imagined Europe,
36:12it was not the Europe of states,
36:14but a continental platform,
36:16a petri dish,
36:17inhabited by biological cultures,
36:20one in which the Germans
36:21would simply expand
36:22like a bacterial colony.
36:25Lebensraum,
36:25the German word for habitat,
36:27has nothing to do with politics.
36:29It's a concept from biology.
36:31In Europe,
36:32only the fittest
36:33were supposed to survive.
36:35Every being strives
36:37for expansion,
36:39Hitler wrote,
36:40and every nation strives
36:41for world dominion.
36:43Only those who keep
36:44this goal in mind
36:45will find the right path.
36:47The war Hitler launched
36:48on Central and Eastern Europe
36:50was a war of annihilation
36:51and enslavement,
36:53a war against the diversity
36:55of Europe's peoples
36:56and cultures.
36:57It was a war
36:58against Europe's history.
37:00The consequence
37:00was an unfathomable break
37:02with culture and civilization.
37:04And today's Europe
37:05is still deeply marked
37:07by this conflict.
37:09In June 1941
37:11came the invasion
37:12of the Soviet Union,
37:13a campaign
37:14of unexampled extermination
37:16to expand
37:17Germany's territory
37:18to the east.
37:19The dictator
37:20wants to create
37:21a German Europe
37:22from the Atlantic
37:23to the Ural Mountains.
37:25The Second World War
37:26would cost 60 to 70 million
37:29human lives,
37:30the majority civilians.
37:31The Holocaust,
37:33millions of slaughtered Slavs,
37:35bombing campaigns,
37:37prisoner of war camps,
37:38refugees and displaced persons.
37:40The war left
37:41a traumatized generation
37:42in its way.
37:52I'm in Kiev,
37:54where an enormous statue
37:56commemorates
37:56the great patriotic war
37:58as the struggle
37:59against Hitler's Germany
38:00is known in Russia.
38:02The fighting here
38:03was particularly violent.
38:06In a place like this,
38:08you can still feel
38:09the horror,
38:10the iron hand of war.
38:12These are the bloodlands,
38:13areas where
38:14two totalitarian powers
38:16fought over the same space
38:17in a life and death
38:19struggle for supremacy.
38:21Millions died,
38:22millions more were murdered,
38:23and even before
38:25the Second World War,
38:26millions had perished
38:27in a man-made famine
38:28engineered by Joseph Stalin
38:30to break the national will
38:32of the Ukraine.
38:33Hitler's war of annihilation
38:35claimed further millions of lives.
38:37Hundreds of thousands
38:38of soldiers died
38:39in battles of encirclement
38:40or in POW camps.
38:42The country was plundered,
38:44people starved,
38:45and a new wave of famines.
38:46There have been phases
38:47in the history of Europe
38:49where the violence
38:50was so devastating
38:51that the thread of memory
38:53was severed.
38:54The intimacy with the past
38:55was disrupted.
38:57Only trauma remained.
38:59These are the killing fields
39:01of Europe.
39:02In 1945,
39:03it seemed unimaginable
39:05that Europe would ever re-emerge
39:07from the abyss
39:08it had created for itself.
39:12Everyone suffered
39:14in this terrible war.
39:16Tens of thousands
39:17of soldiers and civilians
39:19lost their lives,
39:20German invaders
39:21and Russians alike.
39:22There is a story,
39:24a grieving family,
39:25behind every headstone.
39:27The military cemeteries
39:28in Ukraine bear witness
39:29to the countless dead
39:31on both sides.
39:55But the most terrible,
39:57the cruelest fate
39:58was suffered by the Jews.
40:00there was a campaign
40:02of extermination
40:03against the entire
40:04Jewish population of Kiev.
40:08And on this precise spot,
40:10the bloodiest mass shooting
40:12of Jews took place.
40:14If the name Auschwitz
40:15stands for industrial mass murder
40:17by the Nazis
40:18in gas chambers,
40:20Babi Yar, near Kiev,
40:22stands for the murder
40:23by shooting
40:24of tens of thousands
40:25of defenceless men,
40:28women and children.
40:29Holocaust by bullet.
40:32On the 29th and 30th of September,
40:341941,
40:35in this ravine near Kiev,
40:3833,000 Jewish men,
40:41women and children
40:41were shot.
40:42The Jewish population,
40:44whose roots here
40:45extended back for centuries,
40:47was annihilated
40:48by Hitler's henchmen.
40:49Babi Yar and Auschwitz,
40:52the nadir of the history
40:54of Europe,
40:54which had had such a high view
40:56of its own civilization.
40:59June the 6th, 1944,
41:02D-Day.
41:03The tides of war
41:04begin to turn.
41:05With the Allied attack
41:06on Normandy,
41:07the assault
41:08on Hitler's fortress,
41:09Europe, begins.
41:10The victorious powers
41:12want to put an end
41:13to the Nazi dictatorship
41:14once and for all.
41:15Never again
41:16should war originate
41:17from German soil,
41:19nor should one European power
41:21subjugate the others.
41:28Above all,
41:29the humanitarian catastrophe
41:31of the war
41:32should never be repeated.
41:56I'm standing
41:57in the old Jewish cemetery
41:59in Vienna.
41:59This is one of those places
42:01that reminds you
42:02of what was lost
42:03to Europe
42:03through the Holocaust.
42:05The industrialized
42:06killing centers
42:06of the Nazi genocide
42:08were unique in history,
42:09but so were their victims.
42:11Since the Middle Ages,
42:12Jewish culture,
42:14know-how and scholarship
42:15had left a deep imprint
42:17on Europe.
42:17Heinrich Heine,
42:19Franz Kafka,
42:20Marcel Pust,
42:21Stefan Zweig,
42:22Sigmund Freud,
42:23Hannah Arendt,
42:24Felix Mendelssohn,
42:26Gustav Mahler,
42:27Marc Chagall,
42:28Albert Einstein.
42:29You could add
42:30countless further names.
42:31The Holocaust put a brutal end
42:34to this remarkable history
42:35of cultural symbiosis.
42:37Europe has never quite recovered
42:39from this act
42:40of self-mutilation.
42:45Zero hour.
42:47The war is over.
42:48The Nazis' attempt
42:49to dominate the continent
42:51ends in catastrophe.
42:53Huge swathes of Europe
42:54lie in ruins.
42:56Buildings will be rebuilt,
42:58but the trauma
42:59will remain.
43:06At a conference
43:08in Potsdam,
43:08near Berlin,
43:09the victorious allies
43:11negotiate the post-war order,
43:13the future of Europe.
43:15The heads of state
43:16of the three allied powers
43:17come together here,
43:19U.S. President Truman,
43:21Soviet dictator Stalin,
43:22and British Prime Minister,
43:24Winston Churchill.
43:28When Churchill arrived
43:30on a hot July day,
43:31the first thing he did
43:32was to order a whiskey
43:34and a cigar.
43:38He spent a long time
43:39looking out
43:40over the peaceful
43:41Grychnitz lake.
43:42A Soviet sentry
43:43could be seen patrolling
43:44along the opposite shore,
43:46and perhaps Churchill
43:47reflected on how Europe
43:49would in future
43:49be divided
43:50into East and West.
43:58The Allies have won
44:00the war together,
44:01and together they want
44:02to work towards peace
44:04and to shape
44:05the future of Europe.
44:06But alliances
44:07rarely survive the wars
44:09they are created to fight.
44:11And now that their
44:12mutual enemy is defeated,
44:14the victorious allies
44:15begin to discover
44:16their differences
44:17as they sit talking
44:19at this table.
44:23After this war,
44:25the preeminent position
44:26of the old European continent
44:27was a thing of the past.
44:30Moscow and Washington
44:31now called the shots
44:32in Europe
44:33and would do so
44:34in the decades to come.
44:36Europe,
44:36like the world,
44:37would be divided,
44:39embedded in two opposing blocks.
44:41And this, too,
44:42was Hitler's work.
44:44The aim of defeating
44:45Nazi Germany
44:46Germany had united
44:47the world's two greatest powers
44:49in a struggle
44:50that brought them together
44:51in the heart of the continent.
44:53But when it came
44:54to shaping the peace,
44:56the tensions
44:56between two radically
44:57opposed systems
44:59proved impossible
45:00to contain.
45:01The so-called
45:02Iron Curtain
45:03separated the capitalist
45:05from the communist world
45:07and did so
45:08in the very center
45:09of Europe.
45:10The western power's
45:12zones of occupation
45:13become the
45:14Federal Republic of Germany.
45:15In the east,
45:16the Soviet Union
45:17creates a block
45:18of socialist
45:19satellite states
45:20which includes
45:21East Germany.
45:22The continent splits
45:24into a mainly
45:24capitalist and liberal
45:25democratic region
45:26and a communist region.
45:28And the two
45:29alliance blocks
45:30keep each other
45:31in check.
45:34The term
45:35balance of terror
45:36is often used
45:37in this era
45:38of nuclear arms build-up.
45:48Meanwhile,
45:50in The Hague,
45:51European leaders
45:52take up an idea
45:53that failed to acquire
45:54traction between
45:55the two world wars,
45:56the vision of a Europe
45:58united in peace
45:59and freedom.
46:02We can our day
46:03at anything less
46:04than the Union
46:06of Europe as a whole.
46:08Winston Churchill
46:10even floats the idea
46:11of a United States
46:13of Europe.
46:14This goes too far
46:15for many Europeans,
46:16but the heads of state
46:17manage to agree
46:18on the creation
46:19of the Council of Europe
46:21in Strasbourg.
46:22It's the precursor
46:23to the future
46:24European community
46:25and to the EU.
46:27In May 1949,
46:29ten founding fathers
46:30signed this
46:31institution into existence,
46:33a Western European forum
46:35for freedom,
46:36peace and social justice
46:37is born.
46:39The hope is
46:40that a spirit
46:41of solidarity
46:42will blossom
46:43from the conflict
46:44of the past.
46:44Shared values
46:46and symbols
46:46are at the heart
46:47of this project.
46:50Konrad Adenauer,
46:51the first Chancellor
46:52of the Federal Republic
46:53of Germany,
46:54sees an opportunity
46:55in this bond
46:56with Europe.
46:57By collaborating
46:58with the Western allies,
47:00he hopes to lead Germany
47:01back into the family
47:02of free peoples,
47:04or at least West Germany,
47:06even if doing so
47:07intensifies the division
47:08between the Eastern
47:10and Western halves
47:11of his country.
47:13The West German government's
47:15goal is to peacefully
47:17overcome the division
47:18of Germany and Europe.
47:20But what's the first step?
47:21Building bridges
47:23with France.
47:24France's Foreign Minister
47:25Schumann
47:26already has a plan.
47:28If we want to prevent
47:29war in the future,
47:30he argues,
47:31the coal and steel industries
47:33in various European countries,
47:35vital to any war effort,
47:37ought to be consolidated
47:38under one roof.
47:39In 1952,
47:41the European Coal and Steel Union
47:43is born.
47:44Now,
47:45iron and steel
47:47shall forge
47:48the peoples of Europe
47:49together
47:50in a community
47:51of actions
47:52and ideals.
47:54Just seven years
47:56after the war,
47:57national sovereignty
47:58over a crucial
47:59military resource
48:00is handed over
48:02to an international body,
48:03a world historical step.
48:06As the economy recovers,
48:07Europeans grow more mobile.
48:10Their horizons broaden.
48:12They drive their own cars
48:14or motorbikes
48:14or hitchhike
48:15to new destinations,
48:17traveling through a Europe
48:19that was opening up
48:20to the world.
48:20Today,
48:21we take it for granted.
48:27As early as the 1950s,
48:30some young Europeans
48:31are already calling
48:32for open borders.
48:33That's still a long way off
48:35at this point,
48:36particularly since
48:36a few early attempts
48:38at expanding the community
48:39fail.
48:40But the campaigners
48:41refuse to be deterred.
48:46And once again,
48:47all roads lead to Rome.
48:50The Roman Empire
48:51was one of the largest
48:52in history
48:53and the EU
48:54would later become
48:55the world's largest
48:56trading power.
48:57In 1957,
48:59representatives
48:59of West Germany,
49:00France,
49:01Italy
49:02and the Benelux countries
49:03come together in Rome
49:04to establish
49:05the European economic community.
49:07The EEC
49:09also results
49:10in closer political ties
49:11between the countries.
49:12It's open to new members
49:14and plans to expand
49:16its powers
49:16step by step,
49:18building the foundation
49:20for a shared future.
49:28Ancient Rome
49:29eventually fell,
49:30of course,
49:31thanks to financial crises,
49:33political conflict
49:34and barbarian invasions.
49:37And Europe
49:38has its own share
49:38of tensions today.
49:40The divide
49:41between North and South,
49:42the Euro crisis,
49:44immigration policies.
49:46These are all challenges
49:47that the continent
49:48will continue to face.
49:54But the European political order
49:56is robust.
49:58It's underpinned
49:58by long-standing
49:59common values,
50:00civil and political freedom,
50:02equality before the law,
50:04democracy,
50:05human dignity
50:06and a rational view
50:07of the world.
50:08This order
50:09is now in danger.
50:11If Europeans
50:12really want to inhabit
50:13a common house,
50:14they will have to make it
50:15so strong
50:16that it can withstand
50:17storms and earthquakes,
50:19even those
50:19that come from within.
50:21This can be learned.
50:22And wasn't Europe
50:23always a continent
50:25that learned?
50:32We'll never will say
50:34we'll never will
50:35live.
50:35And we'll be
50:40one of these
50:40of the nation.
50:40One book
50:53One book
50:54and the book
50:55it'sูed
51:00in 스�山
51:00of the European
51:00of the region.
51:00And I love