00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.455
(gentle electronic music)

00:00:02.455 --> 00:00:05.251
(seagulls squawking)

00:00:05.251 --> 00:00:07.653
(bike bell dings)

00:00:07.653 --> 00:00:10.570
(crowd chattering)

00:00:12.360 --> 00:00:15.226
(seagulls squawking)

00:00:15.226 --> 00:00:18.143
(crowd chattering)

00:00:27.146 --> 00:00:31.896
(voices indistinctly speaking in German)

00:00:38.514 --> 00:00:42.264
(distorted electronic music)

00:00:48.261 --> 00:00:50.844
(somber music)

00:00:52.890 --> 00:00:53.790
- Watch your step.

00:00:57.060 --> 00:01:00.600
And, now, open your
mind for this great view

00:01:00.600 --> 00:01:03.000
of what you can get here, yeah?

00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:05.760
So, don't feel afraid
about how it looks now,

00:01:05.760 --> 00:01:07.620
because we will do something here.

00:01:07.620 --> 00:01:08.740
This building

00:01:10.590 --> 00:01:14.850
was built brick by brick in 1939,

00:01:14.850 --> 00:01:16.140
and it still stands,

00:01:16.140 --> 00:01:17.940
so you can feel sure that it will stand

00:01:17.940 --> 00:01:19.607
for the next 100 years too.

00:01:19.607 --> 00:01:23.357
(realtor speaking in German)

00:01:32.501 --> 00:01:34.834
And this could be your view.

00:01:36.023 --> 00:01:41.023
(children chattering)
(curtain rustling)

00:01:43.283 --> 00:01:46.933
(realtor speaking in German)

00:01:46.933 --> 00:01:49.069
There is no off-season here.

00:01:49.069 --> 00:01:51.570
There will be no off-season here.

00:01:51.570 --> 00:01:53.742
The whole year is season.

00:01:53.742 --> 00:01:57.242
(gentle electronic music)

00:02:00.402 --> 00:02:04.235
(Misgajski speaking in German)

00:02:17.729 --> 00:02:21.479
(Schack speaking in German)

00:02:31.080 --> 00:02:33.910
- [Spode] It's very
misleading to think that

00:02:34.962 --> 00:02:39.120
the German industrial, German social,

00:02:39.120 --> 00:02:42.690
and German architectural politics

00:02:42.690 --> 00:02:45.557
were apart from the rest of the world.

00:02:45.557 --> 00:02:49.307
(Hachtmann speaking in German)

00:02:53.880 --> 00:02:56.160
- [Baranowski] How do you provide access

00:02:56.160 --> 00:02:58.140
to an important leisure practice?

00:02:58.140 --> 00:03:01.243
Tourism, as inexpensive and accessible.

00:03:01.243 --> 00:03:04.993
(Hachtmann speaking in German)

00:03:16.650 --> 00:03:20.460
- [Spode] The Nazis came
very quickly to the idea that

00:03:20.460 --> 00:03:23.520
the whole sphere of leisure time,

00:03:23.520 --> 00:03:26.430
and in particular, of tourism and travel,

00:03:26.430 --> 00:03:30.423
will be a good tool to gain legitimacy.

00:03:31.830 --> 00:03:34.560
- [Bonekämper] Looking at
what Prora could have become,

00:03:34.560 --> 00:03:36.090
it could have been beautiful,

00:03:36.090 --> 00:03:38.310
and this, of course, is disturbing,

00:03:38.310 --> 00:03:40.470
because you would suppose that

00:03:40.470 --> 00:03:43.050
authoritarian, totalitarian, racist,

00:03:43.050 --> 00:03:46.680
whatever kind of architecture
in Nazi time, must be ugly.

00:03:46.680 --> 00:03:50.013
You have to dislike it
and this doesn't work.

00:03:52.050 --> 00:03:53.730
- [Jaskot] There are thousands,

00:03:53.730 --> 00:03:55.170
millions of buildings in Germany

00:03:55.170 --> 00:03:56.670
that were built in this period.

00:03:56.670 --> 00:03:58.260
Is a building culpable?

00:03:58.260 --> 00:04:01.113
That's an interesting question.
Can a building be guilty?

00:04:02.778 --> 00:04:07.778
(birds chirping)
(gentle electronic music)

00:04:10.242 --> 00:04:15.242
(distorted electronic music)
(crowd chattering)

00:04:21.047 --> 00:04:26.047
(waves crashing)
(birds squawking)

00:04:31.177 --> 00:04:32.520
- [Kempé] When I was a kid,

00:04:32.520 --> 00:04:34.590
I was once on the island of Rugen,

00:04:34.590 --> 00:04:37.590
and you were passing by quite
often this huge complex.

00:04:37.590 --> 00:04:40.560
You couldn't enter it, but
you saw it from a distance,

00:04:40.560 --> 00:04:44.370
and you knew it was there,
and I had experienced

00:04:44.370 --> 00:04:47.340
soldiers running beyond the
fence with the Kalasnikovs

00:04:47.340 --> 00:04:49.983
and just shooting, and,
you know, stuff like that.

00:04:52.350 --> 00:04:56.100
(Schack speaking in German)

00:05:14.670 --> 00:05:16.710
- [Bonekämper] I had a different,

00:05:16.710 --> 00:05:18.480
yes, I had a different impression,

00:05:18.480 --> 00:05:21.447
because I went into one of
the buildings and I walked up,

00:05:21.447 --> 00:05:23.760
and it was quite transparent,

00:05:23.760 --> 00:05:26.054
like those 1950s staircases

00:05:26.054 --> 00:05:29.460
in tenement houses of that style,

00:05:29.460 --> 00:05:32.730
and I thought, "Wow, it looks like light."

00:05:32.730 --> 00:05:37.730
Mhm, interesting, and
still not at all gloomy.

00:05:38.290 --> 00:05:41.957
(Rostock speaking in German)

00:06:03.300 --> 00:06:05.220
- [Bonekämper] Then I tried to look at

00:06:05.220 --> 00:06:07.548
these very long corridors.

00:06:07.548 --> 00:06:11.730
They looked indeed very much
like factories I had visited.

00:06:11.730 --> 00:06:13.590
So, it looked matter-of-fact-ish,

00:06:13.590 --> 00:06:16.470
and the first time when I felt different

00:06:16.470 --> 00:06:18.480
was when I visited the only really

00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:21.270
almost completed social building,

00:06:21.270 --> 00:06:24.753
and looked at what was meant
to be built next to them,

00:06:24.753 --> 00:06:27.990
a huge hall with strong columns or pillars

00:06:27.990 --> 00:06:30.240
that would be really high up,

00:06:30.240 --> 00:06:33.199
and I walked around this social building,

00:06:33.199 --> 00:06:36.327
and I thought, "Well, this looks elegant."

00:06:37.200 --> 00:06:39.540
And then, again, I thought,
"No, it shouldn't look elegant.

00:06:39.540 --> 00:06:41.212
It's Nazi."

00:06:41.212 --> 00:06:44.712
(Bering speaking in German)

00:07:01.362 --> 00:07:05.190
- [Bonekämper] Only when I
was walking along the beach,

00:07:05.190 --> 00:07:07.830
and I came, of course, to the walls,

00:07:07.830 --> 00:07:09.450
and then I thought this looks like

00:07:09.450 --> 00:07:13.927
it was meant to look
Roman, monumental, strong,

00:07:13.927 --> 00:07:16.740
and this is where I had
this feeling of sublime,

00:07:16.740 --> 00:07:19.440
because it was so high
up and I was so small,

00:07:19.440 --> 00:07:23.973
and so the theatrical
side of it worked on me,

00:07:25.590 --> 00:07:29.001
like I would hear some music and walk up

00:07:29.001 --> 00:07:33.564
and then step into this
special area of vacation,

00:07:33.564 --> 00:07:38.564
and not freedom but controlled leisure,

00:07:38.793 --> 00:07:41.280
and controlled leisure would be something

00:07:41.280 --> 00:07:43.833
I would oppose very much
if it happened to me.

00:07:45.688 --> 00:07:50.040
In a way, the oppressive
character of the whole thing

00:07:50.040 --> 00:07:54.570
comes into mind only if you
imagine you were a part of it,

00:07:54.570 --> 00:07:58.530
of that choreography with
authority always around,

00:07:58.530 --> 00:08:00.259
but also beauty.

00:08:00.259 --> 00:08:05.259
(birds chirping)
(solemn music)

00:08:14.471 --> 00:08:18.304
(narrator speaking in German)

00:08:30.750 --> 00:08:33.750
- I knew of this mythical project,

00:08:33.750 --> 00:08:37.651
where they were training
special forces, you know,

00:08:37.651 --> 00:08:40.170
guys which do all the dirty jobs,

00:08:40.170 --> 00:08:42.210
and you heard all these
stories that there might be

00:08:42.210 --> 00:08:45.060
a secret underground
harbor for submarines.

00:08:45.060 --> 00:08:47.580
It was a horror story
when you were a young guy

00:08:47.580 --> 00:08:49.616
and you had to go to army, at Prora.

00:08:49.616 --> 00:08:53.389
That was one of the most unwishful
things you could imagine.

00:08:53.389 --> 00:08:55.972
(solemn music)

00:08:56.982 --> 00:09:00.732
(Hachtmann speaking in German)

00:09:17.201 --> 00:09:21.034
(Misgajski speaking in German)

00:09:35.144 --> 00:09:38.894
(Hachtmann speaking in German)

00:09:51.922 --> 00:09:55.589
(Rostock speaking in German)

00:10:05.542 --> 00:10:10.542
(plane whirring)
(solemn music)

00:10:12.188 --> 00:10:17.188
- I started with real estate
projects in the late 1990s,

00:10:18.894 --> 00:10:23.415
and in 2004, the mayor of Binz asked me

00:10:23.415 --> 00:10:25.533
if I'd be interested in buying

00:10:25.533 --> 00:10:28.800
the first and the second block of Prora,

00:10:28.800 --> 00:10:31.470
and I said, "Okay, I will do it."

00:10:31.470 --> 00:10:35.940
Every developing in real
estate is a little bit risky,

00:10:35.940 --> 00:10:37.647
a little bit less, a little bit more.

00:10:37.647 --> 00:10:38.480
Here, it is a little bit more.

00:10:39.630 --> 00:10:44.480
My job is to bring the
development of this block

00:10:44.480 --> 00:10:47.340
to the investors and to the customers,

00:10:47.340 --> 00:10:52.244
because the people come and
they see it for the first time.

00:10:52.244 --> 00:10:56.490
You have two choices. You like
it or you hate it, you know?

00:10:56.490 --> 00:10:57.323
So,

00:10:59.970 --> 00:11:01.227
I liked it.

00:11:01.227 --> 00:11:06.227
(people chattering)
(somber music)

00:11:13.041 --> 00:11:16.541
(Bering speaking in German)

00:11:43.025 --> 00:11:46.775
(Jacobi speaking in German)

00:12:11.069 --> 00:12:16.069
(plane whirring)
(solemn music)

00:12:17.920 --> 00:12:20.190
- [Busch] The only thing we have here

00:12:20.190 --> 00:12:23.101
is a four and a half
kilometers long real estate.

00:12:23.101 --> 00:12:25.184
Nobody has this anywhere.

00:12:26.234 --> 00:12:31.234
(pilot speaks in German)
(radio crackles)

00:12:40.441 --> 00:12:44.274
(Misgajski speaking in German)

00:13:16.618 --> 00:13:20.285
(Rostock speaking in German)

00:14:00.088 --> 00:14:04.588
(Rostock continues speaking in German)

00:14:21.220 --> 00:14:23.803
(solemn music)

00:14:27.617 --> 00:14:31.367
(Hachtmann speaking in German)

00:14:50.250 --> 00:14:52.980
- The trouble with Prora was, of course,

00:14:52.980 --> 00:14:56.800
that it was not finished
during the Nazi time,

00:14:56.800 --> 00:15:00.540
and it was not finished
during the GDR time either,

00:15:00.540 --> 00:15:02.910
because they didn't use all the space.

00:15:02.910 --> 00:15:04.077
It was much too large.

00:15:04.077 --> 00:15:07.910
(Misgajski speaking in German)

00:15:29.650 --> 00:15:33.570
- There is an important
aspect of Nazi culture

00:15:33.570 --> 00:15:37.320
that was been well identified
that, on the one hand,

00:15:37.320 --> 00:15:39.060
they're building for today,

00:15:39.060 --> 00:15:42.240
or painting for today or
making films for today,

00:15:42.240 --> 00:15:43.073
but, on the other hand,

00:15:43.073 --> 00:15:46.110
they're always imagining
that idealized future.

00:15:46.110 --> 00:15:48.750
It's not surprising then,
for example, that you see,

00:15:48.750 --> 00:15:50.880
not only actual buildings being built

00:15:50.880 --> 00:15:52.620
in Nuremberg or Berlin,

00:15:52.620 --> 00:15:55.590
but you see films of those building models

00:15:55.590 --> 00:15:56.850
as though they were done.

00:15:56.850 --> 00:16:01.200
So, this projection of the
future onto the present

00:16:01.200 --> 00:16:04.170
was a consistent strategy

00:16:04.170 --> 00:16:09.081
to imagine that world in which
everything would be achieved.

00:16:09.081 --> 00:16:12.914
(triumphant orchestral music)

00:16:20.340 --> 00:16:24.173
(narrator speaking in German)

00:17:06.867 --> 00:17:10.950
- Mass tourism was the big
thing, and that became, I think,

00:17:10.950 --> 00:17:13.980
arguably the Nazi's
most successful program,

00:17:13.980 --> 00:17:16.680
and there was a lot of
domestic tourist packages

00:17:16.680 --> 00:17:18.570
to see various parts of Germany

00:17:18.570 --> 00:17:20.820
in which the objective was to send Germans

00:17:20.820 --> 00:17:22.950
from one part of the country to another

00:17:22.950 --> 00:17:26.340
to try to overcome still
persistent regional divisions,

00:17:26.340 --> 00:17:27.990
but there were also the cruise ships,

00:17:27.990 --> 00:17:30.603
and by 1938, there were 12 of them.

00:17:30.603 --> 00:17:33.540
They were supposedly one-class ships,

00:17:33.540 --> 00:17:36.000
so there would be no
first class, second class,

00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:38.640
and those who went on those cruises

00:17:38.640 --> 00:17:40.320
went to the fjords in Norway.

00:17:40.320 --> 00:17:42.060
They went to Lisbon and Madeira.

00:17:42.060 --> 00:17:45.510
They went to North Africa, to
Italy, Greece, and Yugoslavia.

00:17:45.510 --> 00:17:48.000
Part of this, I think,
was to get participants

00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:51.722
to become aware of
Germany's imperial destiny,

00:17:51.722 --> 00:17:55.020
and along with it, sort of subtle messages

00:17:55.020 --> 00:17:56.610
to encourage participants

00:17:56.610 --> 00:17:59.496
to recognize German racial superiority.

00:17:59.496 --> 00:18:03.329
(Misgajski speaking in German)

00:18:26.155 --> 00:18:29.488
(lively marching music)

00:18:38.387 --> 00:18:40.970
(solemn music)

00:18:45.030 --> 00:18:50.030
(ominous music)
(waves crashing)

00:18:54.513 --> 00:18:59.513
(solemn music)
(birds chirping)

00:19:06.033 --> 00:19:08.264
- [Brosseit] Okay.

00:19:08.264 --> 00:19:09.264
First floor.

00:19:10.343 --> 00:19:14.569
Here, we've got 500 beds
inside of this youth hostel.

00:19:14.569 --> 00:19:15.810
100 rooms.

00:19:15.810 --> 00:19:19.830
You need a lot of money to
renovate a building like this.

00:19:19.830 --> 00:19:24.750
We spent 16.8 million euros
in just about 200 meters.

00:19:24.750 --> 00:19:28.586
So we've got here two
or three star standard.

00:19:28.586 --> 00:19:30.420
We don't care if you get money.

00:19:30.420 --> 00:19:33.120
Some clients who came here with a Porsche

00:19:33.120 --> 00:19:36.690
or even some who came by
bike, and this is the idea,

00:19:36.690 --> 00:19:39.894
to offer every kind of people a holiday.

00:19:39.894 --> 00:19:44.894
(people chattering)
(solemn music)

00:19:46.809 --> 00:19:49.476
(ominous music)

00:19:58.482 --> 00:20:01.590
- The youth hostel organization
is kind of a special club

00:20:01.590 --> 00:20:05.250
and dates back to the 1910s
or something like that,

00:20:05.250 --> 00:20:09.570
as a kind of reformer-ish idea
to offer the possibility for,

00:20:09.570 --> 00:20:12.260
especially workers'
children, to have vacation

00:20:12.260 --> 00:20:14.190
in a place where you usually cannot afford

00:20:14.190 --> 00:20:15.150
a hotel or whatever,

00:20:15.150 --> 00:20:17.242
but, anyway, the project
was, from the beginning on,

00:20:17.242 --> 00:20:19.230
actually full of constraints,

00:20:19.230 --> 00:20:22.920
because architects are forced to make,

00:20:22.920 --> 00:20:27.120
out of an old coach, a modern
Porsche or Mercedes-Benz,

00:20:27.120 --> 00:20:29.880
which in itself is already
kind of silly to imagine.

00:20:29.880 --> 00:20:33.060
It's just impossible, but,
actually, that's the requirement.

00:20:33.060 --> 00:20:36.330
For instance, in Prora, you
have these endless corridors,

00:20:36.330 --> 00:20:39.030
which are a very important part

00:20:39.030 --> 00:20:40.167
of the charm of the building, actually,

00:20:40.167 --> 00:20:43.170
but the fire protections, you
have to make compartments.

00:20:43.170 --> 00:20:44.460
You have to cut it in pieces,

00:20:44.460 --> 00:20:46.890
which, by definition,
already changes the building.

00:20:46.890 --> 00:20:49.613
So you can wonder, is it
still the same building?

00:20:49.613 --> 00:20:51.401
(plane whirring)
(radio crackles)

00:20:51.401 --> 00:20:54.000
- The problem is, in the last 20 years,

00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:56.744
a lot of architects come to Prora,

00:20:56.744 --> 00:21:00.033
and they were thinking
about how we can change it,

00:21:01.035 --> 00:21:04.794
and the thing is, you
can't change this project,

00:21:04.794 --> 00:21:09.377
but you have hold all the
five blocks in a union.

00:21:09.377 --> 00:21:12.450
That means in a union in color,

00:21:12.450 --> 00:21:15.870
in a union in the
structure, in the windows,

00:21:15.870 --> 00:21:18.453
and all the things you
have in the surrounding.

00:21:19.692 --> 00:21:21.630
The monument is not only one block.

00:21:21.630 --> 00:21:26.220
The monument is the whole
area, and this is a monument,

00:21:26.220 --> 00:21:28.003
because nobody was able to build

00:21:28.003 --> 00:21:30.540
a four and a half kilometer building

00:21:30.540 --> 00:21:33.060
in the last thousand years, you know?

00:21:33.060 --> 00:21:34.870
And we have it here.

00:21:34.870 --> 00:21:37.453
(solemn music)

00:21:41.140 --> 00:21:43.080
- [Kempé] Prora is a landscape idea.

00:21:43.080 --> 00:21:45.687
They conceived it as a building

00:21:45.687 --> 00:21:48.519
which is parallel to the coast.

00:21:48.519 --> 00:21:50.760
The idea was that they come by ship

00:21:50.760 --> 00:21:54.120
and are welcomed by this large gesture.

00:21:54.120 --> 00:21:58.350
- The larger scale ambition
comes around with '35, '36, '37.

00:21:58.350 --> 00:22:00.643
That is at the same point
at which the state itself

00:22:00.643 --> 00:22:03.210
has been consolidated by the Nazi party

00:22:03.210 --> 00:22:07.065
and now they're turning to not
merely controlling Germany,

00:22:07.065 --> 00:22:09.420
but starting to plan the war.

00:22:09.420 --> 00:22:11.880
They're starting to
re-organize the economy

00:22:11.880 --> 00:22:14.910
on a systematic level as
opposed to regional level,

00:22:14.910 --> 00:22:17.940
and so this difference literally in scale

00:22:17.940 --> 00:22:20.550
is a difference also in ambition

00:22:20.550 --> 00:22:23.479
that speaks to changes
in the architecture.

00:22:23.479 --> 00:22:27.229
(Hachtmann speaking in German)

00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:51.900
- Prora is not a hotel.

00:22:51.900 --> 00:22:55.560
Prora is a holiday resort on
the model of a sanatorium.

00:22:55.560 --> 00:22:57.450
If you want to have a sea resort

00:22:57.450 --> 00:22:59.010
with everyone looking at the sea,

00:22:59.010 --> 00:23:00.600
you can't use the backside.

00:23:00.600 --> 00:23:02.460
If you have a sanatorium for people

00:23:02.460 --> 00:23:03.871
in the mountains or wherever,

00:23:03.871 --> 00:23:07.050
it's going to have the
same asymmetric layout.

00:23:07.050 --> 00:23:10.350
So this was a building type
that was already established,

00:23:10.350 --> 00:23:12.300
and this is what Prora follows,

00:23:12.300 --> 00:23:14.520
but then there is another twist too,

00:23:14.520 --> 00:23:17.340
because looking at the social buildings,

00:23:17.340 --> 00:23:19.440
rounded on both sides with theaters

00:23:19.440 --> 00:23:21.450
and restaurants and everything,

00:23:21.450 --> 00:23:24.837
are again put into another tradition,

00:23:24.837 --> 00:23:29.730
and this is sea resort
architecture of the bourgeois kind,

00:23:29.730 --> 00:23:33.990
because semi-circles close to the beach

00:23:33.990 --> 00:23:37.066
are quite characteristic for casinos.

00:23:37.066 --> 00:23:42.000
(upbeat old-timey music)
(crowd chattering)

00:23:42.000 --> 00:23:43.830
But, of course, on that large scale,

00:23:43.830 --> 00:23:46.320
it has to be matter-of-fact-ish also,

00:23:46.320 --> 00:23:48.720
because this is serial architecture,

00:23:48.720 --> 00:23:50.733
and so this is how it looks very modern.

00:23:52.440 --> 00:23:53.640
- In the structure of the buildings,

00:23:53.640 --> 00:23:55.410
you have this corridor
and you have the rooms,

00:23:55.410 --> 00:23:57.900
which all have a window towards the sea,

00:23:57.900 --> 00:23:59.070
which is a clear statement

00:23:59.070 --> 00:24:02.460
on how a building should be
conceived that is healthy,

00:24:02.460 --> 00:24:04.020
that just takes the best advantages

00:24:04.020 --> 00:24:07.590
out of orientation towards
the sun, et cetera, et cetera.

00:24:07.590 --> 00:24:09.360
All this was very much also in the spirit

00:24:09.360 --> 00:24:11.760
of the classical modern
avant garde, in the end.

00:24:12.608 --> 00:24:17.608
(wind howling)
(birds chirping)

00:24:21.750 --> 00:24:23.070
- In the beginning of

00:24:23.070 --> 00:24:26.398
the new building of the
revolutionary style,

00:24:26.398 --> 00:24:29.700
international style, as it was called,

00:24:29.700 --> 00:24:32.340
they believed that form follows function.

00:24:32.340 --> 00:24:35.232
That means that the aesthetics

00:24:35.232 --> 00:24:39.393
should be an expression
of the hidden function.

00:24:40.590 --> 00:24:42.660
- [Bonekämper] So there was
a mode for youth hostels

00:24:42.660 --> 00:24:44.580
that were supposed to be regionalist.

00:24:44.580 --> 00:24:46.430
There was a mode for
the big party buildings

00:24:46.430 --> 00:24:47.820
that were supposed to be

00:24:47.820 --> 00:24:50.310
that neo-classical authoritarian style,

00:24:50.310 --> 00:24:52.320
and there was the factories

00:24:52.320 --> 00:24:54.240
that were supposed to
be matter-of-fact-ish,

00:24:54.240 --> 00:24:57.750
with a lot of light and in
the good tradition of Bauhaus.

00:24:57.750 --> 00:25:02.179
- But there was also a moderate modernity.

00:25:02.179 --> 00:25:05.460
Prora belonged to this moderate modernity.

00:25:05.460 --> 00:25:08.910
It was not very modern.
It was rather modern.

00:25:08.910 --> 00:25:11.340
Let's say, if you look,
for instance, here,

00:25:11.340 --> 00:25:15.953
at the whole building,
it's a very modern airport.

00:25:15.953 --> 00:25:19.920
Norman Foster called it
the mother of all airports,

00:25:19.920 --> 00:25:23.430
but only if you look from the other side,

00:25:23.430 --> 00:25:25.920
where the airplanes were, you know?

00:25:25.920 --> 00:25:30.418
From here, it is disguised
as neo-classicism,

00:25:30.418 --> 00:25:35.340
with impressive pillars
and so on, you know?

00:25:35.340 --> 00:25:38.880
And this building in the isle of Prora

00:25:38.880 --> 00:25:41.163
was in the middle, in between.

00:25:42.570 --> 00:25:45.060
- The resort itself is
a real mixture of style,

00:25:45.060 --> 00:25:48.180
and in many ways, it's a way of addressing

00:25:48.180 --> 00:25:53.180
the goals of the regime
without undermining

00:25:53.610 --> 00:25:56.460
the desire of tourists.

00:25:56.460 --> 00:25:59.250
Images of Imperial Rome were
very important to Hitler.

00:25:59.250 --> 00:26:01.590
So you get the entrance
hall, which is supposed to be

00:26:01.590 --> 00:26:04.770
this enormous, quintessentially
fascist sort of thing,

00:26:04.770 --> 00:26:06.960
where supposedly all 20,000 vacationers

00:26:06.960 --> 00:26:09.000
could be fitted in there,

00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:13.140
and it's in that sort of
Nazi neoclassical style,

00:26:13.140 --> 00:26:15.550
like parts of the
Nuremberg parade grounds.

00:26:15.550 --> 00:26:19.300
(Hachtmann speaking in German)

00:26:53.280 --> 00:26:56.947
(Rostock speaking in German)

00:27:35.808 --> 00:27:40.308
(Rostock continues speaking in German)

00:27:53.986 --> 00:27:56.287
- After the war, Clementz
Klotz went to Dusseldorf

00:27:56.287 --> 00:28:00.690
and built very elegant
houses and business centers,

00:28:00.690 --> 00:28:04.575
and comes in the question
of morals and style.

00:28:04.575 --> 00:28:07.080
Does somebody necessarily build

00:28:07.080 --> 00:28:09.306
office buildings with bad morals

00:28:09.306 --> 00:28:12.362
if he has done Nazi buildings before?

00:28:12.362 --> 00:28:17.362
(gentle music)
(birds chirping)

00:28:19.062 --> 00:28:22.729
(Rostock speaking in German)

00:29:04.999 --> 00:29:09.499
(Rostock continues speaking in German)

00:29:40.307 --> 00:29:45.307
(vehicle whirring)
(solemn music)

00:29:46.496 --> 00:29:50.329
(Misgajski speaking in German)

00:30:07.255 --> 00:30:11.377
(birds chirping)
(solemn music)

00:30:11.377 --> 00:30:15.210
(Misgajski speaking in German)

00:30:47.695 --> 00:30:51.195
(Bering speaking in German)

00:31:07.723 --> 00:31:11.390
(Rostock speaking in German)

00:31:39.849 --> 00:31:43.682
(Misgajski speaking in German)

00:32:08.023 --> 00:32:11.690
(Rostock speaking in German)

00:32:24.100 --> 00:32:26.933
(machinery whirs)

00:32:27.883 --> 00:32:32.050
(radio voices speaking in German)

00:32:35.437 --> 00:32:39.020
(peaceful old-timey music)

00:32:39.870 --> 00:32:43.770
- Before '33, when the Nazis seized power,

00:32:43.770 --> 00:32:46.590
to partake in tourism was a privilege of,

00:32:46.590 --> 00:32:50.460
let's say, 10, 15% of the population,

00:32:50.460 --> 00:32:54.060
and to be closed out or shut out

00:32:54.060 --> 00:32:56.700
from this bourgeois way of life

00:32:56.700 --> 00:33:00.960
became a problem for many
industrialized countries,

00:33:00.960 --> 00:33:04.680
because the masses say, "We
are not part of the society.

00:33:04.680 --> 00:33:07.860
We are shut out from the real life."

00:33:07.860 --> 00:33:09.363
Yeah? The good life.

00:33:11.130 --> 00:33:14.040
The Germans had the idea.

00:33:14.040 --> 00:33:18.120
There is a right to travel to everybody.

00:33:18.120 --> 00:33:22.710
We have, in '48, after the war,
this United Nations charter,

00:33:22.710 --> 00:33:24.690
and there is a paragraph that

00:33:24.690 --> 00:33:27.423
everybody has the right
to partake in tourism.

00:33:28.425 --> 00:33:33.425
(water splashing)
(old-timey music)

00:33:39.540 --> 00:33:40.890
- I knew about Strength Through Joy,

00:33:40.890 --> 00:33:44.610
but I was really very interested
in exploring this project

00:33:44.610 --> 00:33:48.240
as the Nazi regime's attempt to deal with

00:33:48.240 --> 00:33:51.540
an emerging consumerism,
organized mass tourism,

00:33:51.540 --> 00:33:52.740
especially for workers,

00:33:52.740 --> 00:33:56.076
and to what extent it
helped encourage Germans

00:33:56.076 --> 00:33:57.733
to think that there was something valuable

00:33:57.733 --> 00:33:59.423
in the Nazi regime.

00:33:59.423 --> 00:34:02.840
(upbeat old-timey music)

00:34:05.880 --> 00:34:06.900
Strength Through Joy

00:34:06.900 --> 00:34:09.450
was a division of the German Labor Front,

00:34:09.450 --> 00:34:11.130
which was one of these sort of

00:34:11.130 --> 00:34:13.140
amoeba-like Nazi organizations

00:34:13.140 --> 00:34:15.090
that had a number of different functions,

00:34:15.090 --> 00:34:17.790
starting with improving
conditions on shop floors.

00:34:17.790 --> 00:34:20.601
The Beauty of Labor was
what that was called.

00:34:20.601 --> 00:34:24.018
(upbeat old-timey music)

00:34:24.975 --> 00:34:26.670
(audience applauds)

00:34:26.670 --> 00:34:28.680
But it also had this very, very important

00:34:28.680 --> 00:34:32.400
leisure time aspect,
providing inexpensive tickets

00:34:32.400 --> 00:34:36.300
for workers to attend concerts
and orchestral performances,

00:34:36.300 --> 00:34:38.883
the opera, but mass
tourism was the big thing.

00:34:40.129 --> 00:34:42.330
It was very clear that leading Nazis

00:34:42.330 --> 00:34:45.090
were participating in a kind
of transnational discussion

00:34:45.090 --> 00:34:47.370
that was taking place
in the '20s and the '30s

00:34:47.370 --> 00:34:52.370
about the purposes of leisure
and the benefits of it

00:34:52.770 --> 00:34:55.950
in terms of helping workers to recuperate.

00:34:55.950 --> 00:34:59.280
Modern industrial methods could, you know,

00:34:59.280 --> 00:35:01.080
wear down workers.

00:35:01.080 --> 00:35:03.690
Having to, you know, come
in and observe a time clock,

00:35:03.690 --> 00:35:06.330
and produce certain things
within a given period of time,

00:35:06.330 --> 00:35:09.960
it was noisy, it was innervating,

00:35:09.960 --> 00:35:13.200
and more important, it
could be alienating.

00:35:13.200 --> 00:35:15.390
- The broader Volksgemeinschaft project,

00:35:15.390 --> 00:35:17.280
that is the people's community,

00:35:17.280 --> 00:35:20.010
was not the class labor of communism,

00:35:20.010 --> 00:35:23.790
but it was the social labor,
the ethnic labor of Germany.

00:35:23.790 --> 00:35:25.800
So, by racializing labor

00:35:25.800 --> 00:35:28.230
and by making them part of that community,

00:35:28.230 --> 00:35:30.270
the Nazi apparatus was able to say

00:35:30.270 --> 00:35:32.310
that it was your entire world

00:35:32.310 --> 00:35:34.590
that made you part of
the people's community.

00:35:34.590 --> 00:35:37.110
It was your work, your weekends,

00:35:37.110 --> 00:35:39.299
your vacations, your family,

00:35:39.299 --> 00:35:43.470
and showing that community
as an eternal, a utopia,

00:35:43.470 --> 00:35:48.242
was an important part of
naturalizing the racist worldview.

00:35:48.242 --> 00:35:52.530
(crowd chanting in German)
(somber music)

00:35:52.530 --> 00:35:56.760
- [Spode] This idea of being
an equal member of society,

00:35:56.760 --> 00:35:58.620
this was a very promising idea,

00:35:58.620 --> 00:36:00.900
and in this sense, KdF
was a dream machine,

00:36:00.900 --> 00:36:05.823
because, in reality, they were
still a class society, yes?

00:36:07.273 --> 00:36:11.023
(Hachtmann speaking in German)

00:36:52.983 --> 00:36:57.983
(solemn music)
(crowd murmuring)

00:36:58.533 --> 00:37:01.533
(boat horn blaring)

00:37:04.650 --> 00:37:06.270
- Travel is no longer

00:37:06.270 --> 00:37:09.000
a privilege of the privileged, as to say.

00:37:09.000 --> 00:37:11.790
Now you can travel. Everybody can travel.

00:37:11.790 --> 00:37:14.250
Even the lower workers can travel.

00:37:14.250 --> 00:37:18.870
This was a promise, but,
in fact, it was only 10%.

00:37:18.870 --> 00:37:21.360
90% didn't have the time or the money

00:37:21.360 --> 00:37:24.570
to go with the KdF on holiday,

00:37:24.570 --> 00:37:27.690
but 10% was better than nothing.

00:37:27.690 --> 00:37:31.107
(upbeat old-timey music)

00:37:35.123 --> 00:37:38.610
I think the way historians
should look at the Nazi time

00:37:38.610 --> 00:37:43.080
is always to include the experiences

00:37:43.080 --> 00:37:47.970
and the dreams of the people at that time

00:37:47.970 --> 00:37:50.790
and not from '45 backward.

00:37:50.790 --> 00:37:53.670
How does it come that it was so successful

00:37:53.670 --> 00:37:56.880
in the first years of its existence?

00:37:56.880 --> 00:37:59.880
From, the 12-year Reich, you know?

00:37:59.880 --> 00:38:02.790
Six years, seven years,
it was rather successful.

00:38:02.790 --> 00:38:04.860
How did they manage to get

00:38:04.860 --> 00:38:07.170
the souls and the hearts of the people,

00:38:07.170 --> 00:38:09.725
not only in Germany, but also abroad?

00:38:09.725 --> 00:38:11.760
(upbeat old-timey music)

00:38:11.760 --> 00:38:13.410
- A lot of the KdF literature

00:38:13.410 --> 00:38:17.340
frequently had reports of
people or their employees,

00:38:17.340 --> 00:38:20.610
who went on these trips and
shared their experiences.

00:38:20.610 --> 00:38:22.170
My favorite report is a young woman

00:38:22.170 --> 00:38:23.970
who talked about her trip to Madeira,

00:38:23.970 --> 00:38:26.610
and she talks about
the people that she saw

00:38:26.610 --> 00:38:29.550
and how struck she was
that young women in Madeira

00:38:29.550 --> 00:38:32.580
were not permitted to
venture outside themselves.

00:38:32.580 --> 00:38:36.300
They had to be accompanied
by their mothers,

00:38:36.300 --> 00:38:39.180
and, by contrast, she thought
that that was wonderful,

00:38:39.180 --> 00:38:43.230
because, in Germany, young
women had no such restrictions.

00:38:43.230 --> 00:38:46.734
Here is a very, very
repressive dictatorship,

00:38:46.734 --> 00:38:50.608
and yet this young German
woman is talking about it

00:38:50.608 --> 00:38:52.923
in terms of liberation
and personal freedom.

00:38:53.880 --> 00:38:55.260
I read a lot of these stories.

00:38:55.260 --> 00:38:57.157
It convinces you that,

00:38:57.157 --> 00:39:00.940
in many cases, Germans
ended up having fun.

00:39:00.940 --> 00:39:04.357
(upbeat old-timey music)

00:39:07.385 --> 00:39:11.135
(distorted electronic music)

00:39:14.132 --> 00:39:17.067
(crowd chattering)

00:39:17.067 --> 00:39:20.010
(dramatic music)

00:39:20.010 --> 00:39:22.593
(solemn music)

00:39:27.523 --> 00:39:31.273
(Jacobi speaking in German)

00:40:13.239 --> 00:40:18.239
(waves crashing)
(people distantly shouting)

00:40:20.973 --> 00:40:24.140
(steam horns blaring)

00:40:28.738 --> 00:40:32.910
- Industrialization of
travel makes travel cheaper.

00:40:32.910 --> 00:40:34.513
Henry Ford had the idea,

00:40:34.513 --> 00:40:38.082
industrialization of
the production of cars

00:40:38.082 --> 00:40:40.184
made cars cheaper,

00:40:40.184 --> 00:40:43.293
and this is the idea of serial production.

00:40:44.790 --> 00:40:46.848
- [Narrator] A car comes
off the end of the line

00:40:46.848 --> 00:40:48.639
every 10 seconds.
(upbeat music)

00:40:48.639 --> 00:40:52.389
(Hachtmann speaking in German)

00:41:30.358 --> 00:41:34.941
(Hachtmann continues speaking in German)

00:41:52.279 --> 00:41:56.112
(triumphant orchestral music)

00:42:03.643 --> 00:42:07.393
(Hachtmann speaking in German)

00:42:20.053 --> 00:42:23.040
- Henry Ford was bitterly anti-union,

00:42:23.040 --> 00:42:24.930
anti-communist, and anti-Semitic.

00:42:24.930 --> 00:42:26.550
There was the prospect of finding

00:42:26.550 --> 00:42:28.860
a kind of non-socialist, non-communist way

00:42:28.860 --> 00:42:32.373
of easing class tensions
by convincing all Americans

00:42:32.373 --> 00:42:35.550
that they share in a piece of the pie.

00:42:35.550 --> 00:42:39.030
The American approach fascinated
leading Nazis, you know,

00:42:39.030 --> 00:42:41.550
especially as they
connected it with Fordism,

00:42:41.550 --> 00:42:43.800
because it wanted to provide broadly

00:42:43.800 --> 00:42:46.470
a middle class standard of
living for all Americans

00:42:46.470 --> 00:42:49.462
that sort of undermined social tensions.

00:42:49.462 --> 00:42:51.540
(upbeat music)

00:42:51.540 --> 00:42:53.610
- As far as we know, the
only English language book

00:42:53.610 --> 00:42:56.640
in Hitler's library in his
office in the Reichskanzlei

00:42:56.640 --> 00:42:58.590
was Henry Ford's autobiography.

00:42:58.590 --> 00:43:02.280
Hitler admired, of course,
his racism and anti-Semitism,

00:43:02.280 --> 00:43:06.240
but Ford was also naturally
admired by German industry,

00:43:06.240 --> 00:43:09.030
and his production techniques,
the time management,

00:43:09.030 --> 00:43:12.540
all of this was closely
monitored and closely followed

00:43:12.540 --> 00:43:15.579
by German industry and certainly employed.

00:43:15.579 --> 00:43:18.662
(lively piano music)

00:43:23.103 --> 00:43:26.853
(Hachtmann speaking in German)

00:44:05.094 --> 00:44:09.677
(Hachtmann continues speaking in German)

00:44:25.623 --> 00:44:28.920
- What they didn't like
about American consumerism

00:44:28.920 --> 00:44:32.430
was that it seemed shallow and emphasized

00:44:32.430 --> 00:44:35.880
sort of individual pleasure
and self-realization too much,

00:44:35.880 --> 00:44:39.240
rather than encouraging people

00:44:39.240 --> 00:44:42.746
to think of themselves
as part of the community.

00:44:42.746 --> 00:44:45.150
(upbeat music)

00:44:45.150 --> 00:44:50.150
(Hachtmann speaking in German)
(somber music)

00:45:30.627 --> 00:45:35.210
(Hachtmann continues speaking in German)

00:45:41.781 --> 00:45:44.302
- [Narrator] Here at the
Rouge Plant, as we shall see,

00:45:44.302 --> 00:45:48.260
there is no such thing as
labor-saving machinery.

00:45:48.260 --> 00:45:50.636
It is labor-serving.

00:45:50.636 --> 00:45:53.219
(solemn music)

00:45:55.103 --> 00:45:58.770
(Rostock speaking in German)

00:46:25.560 --> 00:46:29.936
- The racist attitude towards
so-called less worthy people

00:46:29.936 --> 00:46:33.630
means that the labor managers
can forget about efficiency,

00:46:33.630 --> 00:46:35.340
can forget about feeding you enough,

00:46:35.340 --> 00:46:38.640
can forget about allowing
you to have enough sleep

00:46:38.640 --> 00:46:41.010
so that you're even more
productive the next day,

00:46:41.010 --> 00:46:43.380
and instead they can focus
on very short-term goals

00:46:43.380 --> 00:46:46.082
of working you as much as possible,

00:46:46.082 --> 00:46:49.080
all with the understanding
that, if you died,

00:46:49.080 --> 00:46:52.129
they would have someone
else to take your place.

00:46:52.129 --> 00:46:55.050
(machinery rattling)

00:46:55.050 --> 00:46:56.820
Not labor in the sense of bodies,

00:46:56.820 --> 00:46:57.870
in the sense of individuals.

00:46:57.870 --> 00:46:59.670
They were labor in terms of a resource.

00:46:59.670 --> 00:47:01.710
They were like so much steel.

00:47:01.710 --> 00:47:03.810
So they didn't need to
worry about efficiency.

00:47:03.810 --> 00:47:06.240
Productivity was what they
needed to worry about,

00:47:06.240 --> 00:47:08.460
and productivity was all they cared about.

00:47:08.460 --> 00:47:11.652
That is you can kill
people, which is a goal,

00:47:11.652 --> 00:47:14.010
and you can make them
productive at the same time.

00:47:14.010 --> 00:47:16.863
Not one, not the other. You do both.

00:47:17.874 --> 00:47:21.060
(birds chirping)

00:47:21.060 --> 00:47:24.750
(somber electronic music)

00:47:24.750 --> 00:47:29.750
This tendency we have to think
of culture as, if it's good,

00:47:29.760 --> 00:47:31.950
it can't possibly be involved with

00:47:31.950 --> 00:47:33.090
something like forced labor.

00:47:33.090 --> 00:47:35.700
It can't possibly be involved with racism,

00:47:35.700 --> 00:47:37.380
but it strikes me as very naive,

00:47:37.380 --> 00:47:40.290
because that's a very
20th-century point of view.

00:47:40.290 --> 00:47:41.580
No one in their right mind

00:47:41.580 --> 00:47:44.340
would say that the great
buildings of Europe

00:47:44.340 --> 00:47:47.610
weren't done on the backs
of the exploitation of labor

00:47:47.610 --> 00:47:49.650
in South and North America.

00:47:49.650 --> 00:47:51.300
In Egypt, we talk about that.

00:47:51.300 --> 00:47:53.370
In Rome, we would talk about that,

00:47:53.370 --> 00:47:55.020
so, suddenly, it only becomes our period

00:47:55.020 --> 00:47:57.180
in which art becomes good, critical,

00:47:57.180 --> 00:47:59.156
and somehow beyond politics.

00:47:59.156 --> 00:48:02.550
We need to reassess that and
we really need to think about

00:48:02.550 --> 00:48:05.287
the integration of art and politics,

00:48:05.287 --> 00:48:08.460
not only in this case, which
is, of course, an extreme,

00:48:08.460 --> 00:48:11.063
but also in other cases,
even in our own world.

00:48:11.940 --> 00:48:16.940
(birds chirping)
(radio crackling)

00:48:28.339 --> 00:48:30.220
(somber music)

00:48:30.220 --> 00:48:34.053
(Misgajski speaking in German)

00:49:16.182 --> 00:49:18.532
(solemn music)

00:49:18.532 --> 00:49:22.365
(Misgajski speaking in German)

00:49:45.919 --> 00:49:50.919
(solemn music)
(plane whirring)

00:49:51.297 --> 00:49:52.950
- The GDR history is, of course,

00:49:52.950 --> 00:49:56.280
something that has been so
much obscured and obliterated.

00:49:56.280 --> 00:49:59.220
I do remember what
happened just a few months

00:49:59.220 --> 00:50:01.470
after the wall came down
or was brought down.

00:50:01.470 --> 00:50:05.310
It didn't come alone, and
it was that GDR history

00:50:05.310 --> 00:50:09.360
would be just a footnote and nothing more,

00:50:09.360 --> 00:50:12.180
and I think this is a
terrible thing to say

00:50:12.180 --> 00:50:15.570
for so many people who
lived in that state.

00:50:15.570 --> 00:50:18.930
I cannot just ignore that
it has been a living space

00:50:18.930 --> 00:50:22.876
for millions of people who
somehow were connected, attached,

00:50:22.876 --> 00:50:27.604
caught, imprisoned, whatever, lived there,

00:50:27.604 --> 00:50:32.043
and the ambivalences about it
being real existing socialism.

00:50:33.360 --> 00:50:36.211
Whether this was true, I don't know,

00:50:36.211 --> 00:50:38.070
but so many people believed in it,

00:50:38.070 --> 00:50:41.860
so, again, things are not black and white

00:50:43.191 --> 00:50:45.524
or red and blue.

00:50:45.524 --> 00:50:48.107
(solemn music)

00:50:49.971 --> 00:50:53.721
(Schack speaking in German)

00:51:30.309 --> 00:51:34.892
(Schack continues speaking in German)

00:51:39.625 --> 00:51:43.292
(Schack singing in German)

00:51:45.756 --> 00:51:49.882
(gentle orchestral music)
(sirens wailing)

00:51:49.882 --> 00:51:53.465
(chorus singing in German)

00:51:58.037 --> 00:52:00.067
(vocalist singing in German)

00:52:00.067 --> 00:52:01.997
(explosions booming)
♪ Ra-ta-ta, ra-ta-ta ♪

00:52:01.997 --> 00:52:04.064
(vocalist singing in German)

00:52:04.064 --> 00:52:05.936
♪ Ra-ta-ta-ta-ta ♪

00:52:05.936 --> 00:52:09.519
(chorus singing in German)

00:52:16.201 --> 00:52:20.034
(Misgajski speaking in German)

00:52:50.976 --> 00:52:54.726
(Schack speaking in German)

00:53:30.232 --> 00:53:34.815
(Schack continues speaking in German)

00:53:48.420 --> 00:53:52.504
(dramatic music)
(fire whooshing)

00:53:52.504 --> 00:53:54.283
- [Narrator 1] On July 1st, 1945,

00:53:54.283 --> 00:53:55.764
it's the D-Day of Operation Crossroads,

00:53:55.764 --> 00:53:59.310
the atomic bomb equal
to 50,000 tons of TNT

00:53:59.310 --> 00:54:02.044
while an electric metronome
counts the final seconds.

00:54:02.044 --> 00:54:04.280
(metronome clicking)

00:54:04.280 --> 00:54:05.838
- [Narrator 1] Cover your eyes

00:54:05.838 --> 00:54:08.671
(explosion booms)

00:54:12.736 --> 00:54:14.280
- [Narrator 2] Ready to take their places

00:54:14.280 --> 00:54:15.750
in forward trenches.

00:54:15.750 --> 00:54:18.570
In a grim new age of
warfare, today's fighting men

00:54:18.570 --> 00:54:21.367
must be taught survival
on an atomic battlefield.

00:54:21.367 --> 00:54:22.826
- [Narrator 1] A deadly radioactive cloud

00:54:22.826 --> 00:54:24.439
rises over seven miles.

00:54:24.439 --> 00:54:27.348
- [Narrator 2] To keep
strong in a restless world.

00:54:27.348 --> 00:54:29.723
(explosion booms)

00:54:29.723 --> 00:54:33.473
(Schack speaking in German)

00:54:54.887 --> 00:54:59.418
(explosion booms)
(somber music)

00:54:59.418 --> 00:55:03.168
(Schack speaking in German)

00:55:15.548 --> 00:55:17.478
(gunshots banging)
(birds chirping)

00:55:17.478 --> 00:55:21.311
(Misgajski speaking in German)

00:55:41.654 --> 00:55:45.404
(Schack speaking in German)

00:56:25.215 --> 00:56:29.798
(Schack continues speaking in German)

00:56:35.328 --> 00:56:36.540
(birds chirping)
(solemn music)

00:56:36.540 --> 00:56:39.600
- We've got a lot of
people who were soldiers,

00:56:39.600 --> 00:56:42.690
special forces, and even Spatensoldaten.

00:56:42.690 --> 00:56:44.700
We've got a big group of nearly 100

00:56:44.700 --> 00:56:46.470
who came here with two buses,

00:56:46.470 --> 00:56:47.827
and before they came, I said,

00:56:47.827 --> 00:56:50.070
"You could come here and
you could do some holidays,

00:56:50.070 --> 00:56:52.950
but please don't wear
uniforms or whatever,

00:56:52.950 --> 00:56:54.600
because this time is gone.

00:56:54.600 --> 00:56:55.680
Just recognize this."

00:56:55.680 --> 00:56:58.680
But they came here. They were uniformed.

00:56:58.680 --> 00:57:02.190
I said, "No, please accept
that the Nazi era is finished

00:57:02.190 --> 00:57:05.010
and the GDR era is finished too,"

00:57:05.010 --> 00:57:08.820
and where could you see it
better than here on the ruins?

00:57:08.820 --> 00:57:12.620
Either you do something new,
with a new spirit, a new idea,

00:57:12.620 --> 00:57:16.440
and try to handle the
history very, very carefully,

00:57:16.440 --> 00:57:18.690
or either you just finish it,

00:57:18.690 --> 00:57:21.743
let it be like it is, and put grass on it.

00:57:22.758 --> 00:57:27.758
(gentle electronic music)
(seagulls squawking)

00:57:31.702 --> 00:57:35.369
(ethereal electronic music)

00:57:40.177 --> 00:57:42.760
(solemn music)

00:57:46.796 --> 00:57:51.796
(crickets chirping)
(somber music)

00:57:51.835 --> 00:57:54.835
(people chattering)

00:57:57.139 --> 00:58:02.139
(exciting music)
(crowd chattering)

00:58:19.122 --> 00:58:21.058
(solemn music)

00:58:21.058 --> 00:58:24.725
(Rostock speaking in German)

00:58:36.782 --> 00:58:41.782
(crowd cheers)
(Rostock speaking in German)

00:59:06.233 --> 00:59:08.728
(gentle music)

00:59:08.728 --> 00:59:12.561
(Misgajski speaking in German)

00:59:31.998 --> 00:59:33.390
(solemn music)

00:59:33.390 --> 00:59:36.590
- I bought block number
one and block number two

00:59:36.590 --> 00:59:40.743
in 2006 for 455,000 euros,

00:59:41.580 --> 00:59:45.090
and now a lot of apartments
has the same price

00:59:45.090 --> 00:59:49.002
because the whole area
became more valuable.

00:59:49.002 --> 00:59:53.187
(solemn music)
(machinery whirring)

00:59:53.187 --> 00:59:57.020
(Misgajski speaking in German)

01:00:16.497 --> 01:00:19.997
(Bering speaking in German)

01:00:43.458 --> 01:00:46.263
(birds chirping)
(people distantly chattering)

01:00:46.263 --> 01:00:49.763
(Bering speaking in German)

01:01:11.256 --> 01:01:13.180
(somber music)

01:01:13.180 --> 01:01:16.847
(Rostock speaking in German)

01:01:33.219 --> 01:01:36.003
(birds chirping)
(somber music)

01:01:36.003 --> 01:01:37.830
- The buyers of the units here,

01:01:37.830 --> 01:01:42.002
they feel as part of this big project,

01:01:42.002 --> 01:01:47.002
and that's why we are a really
big family right now, yeah?

01:01:47.730 --> 01:01:50.790
You have to give the investors
not only an investment.

01:01:50.790 --> 01:01:52.893
You have to give them a vision.

01:01:54.456 --> 01:01:55.946
"Shut up and come with me."

01:01:55.946 --> 01:01:57.030
(Busch chuckles)

01:01:57.030 --> 01:01:59.473
There's nothing else to do.

01:01:59.473 --> 01:02:01.230
You have to trust me or not,

01:02:01.230 --> 01:02:04.590
and you can make money,
you can make history,

01:02:04.590 --> 01:02:07.236
and you can be part of the history.

01:02:07.236 --> 01:02:10.332
(birds chirping)
(gentle music)

01:02:10.332 --> 01:02:14.165
(Misgajski speaking in German)

01:02:27.458 --> 01:02:30.570
(solemn music)

01:02:30.570 --> 01:02:32.310
- The monument protection guys look at it

01:02:32.310 --> 01:02:35.073
as something which has to be documented.

01:02:36.202 --> 01:02:41.202
We look at it more as
architecturally consistent.

01:02:41.490 --> 01:02:46.115
What would the architect do
today with his own building?

01:02:46.115 --> 01:02:47.940
For instance, the roof edge.

01:02:47.940 --> 01:02:49.980
This is a quite important element

01:02:49.980 --> 01:02:52.440
from the architectural point
of view of this complex.

01:02:52.440 --> 01:02:53.580
The monument protection guys,

01:02:53.580 --> 01:02:55.220
they look on a different
perspective on it.

01:02:55.220 --> 01:02:57.810
In the end, they wrapped insulation

01:02:57.810 --> 01:03:00.690
around this very elegant concrete element,

01:03:00.690 --> 01:03:03.810
which, of course, messes it up completely.

01:03:03.810 --> 01:03:07.320
The monument guys don't care,
and why don't they care?

01:03:07.320 --> 01:03:10.500
Because the original
roof edge is still there.

01:03:10.500 --> 01:03:15.500
It's underneath this wrap,
wrapping polystyrene disaster.

01:03:16.749 --> 01:03:19.107
(solemn music)

01:03:19.107 --> 01:03:22.940
(Misgajski speaking in German)

01:03:31.228 --> 01:03:33.811
(solemn music)

01:03:37.882 --> 01:03:38.715
- In '

01:03:38.715 --> 01:03:39.930
96 or '97,

01:03:39.930 --> 01:03:43.950
I got involved with this
moderation procedure

01:03:43.950 --> 01:03:47.160
to find out what to do
with this huge object,

01:03:47.160 --> 01:03:48.750
and how to deal with it

01:03:48.750 --> 01:03:52.950
in practical and economic
and conservational terms.

01:03:52.950 --> 01:03:55.260
It would be impossible to do nothing

01:03:55.260 --> 01:03:56.670
because you couldn't use it,

01:03:56.670 --> 01:03:59.223
so it would be necessary
to intervene, but how?

01:04:00.960 --> 01:04:04.593
- As an architect, we were
confronted, first of all,

01:04:04.593 --> 01:04:06.405
with a building that was,

01:04:06.405 --> 01:04:09.130
in its appearance, quite depressive.

01:04:09.130 --> 01:04:12.063
- [Bonekämper] But if you
want to use it for a holiday,

01:04:12.990 --> 01:04:15.120
people wouldn't go around gloomy.

01:04:15.120 --> 01:04:18.960
They would like to have
fun, and why shouldn't they?

01:04:18.960 --> 01:04:22.470
- So we proposed a slight
trick, one could say,

01:04:22.470 --> 01:04:24.930
to detail the windows flat in the facade.

01:04:24.930 --> 01:04:27.960
The whole building becomes
like a skin full of tension,

01:04:27.960 --> 01:04:30.090
and by that appearance,

01:04:30.090 --> 01:04:32.910
the building would get some
lightness in its character.

01:04:32.910 --> 01:04:35.580
This whole story about
how to detail the windows

01:04:35.580 --> 01:04:36.930
was built up from

01:04:36.930 --> 01:04:41.010
an argumentation of authenticity
of the original state,

01:04:41.010 --> 01:04:43.800
but there's also aspects
we should improve now.

01:04:43.800 --> 01:04:47.419
- If it is to be used, why
not imagine this white?

01:04:47.419 --> 01:04:49.410
Because it was supposed to be white

01:04:49.410 --> 01:04:52.367
in that time in the 1930s.

01:04:52.367 --> 01:04:54.950
(solemn music)

01:04:58.050 --> 01:04:59.100
And, now, I discovered

01:04:59.100 --> 01:05:02.550
the photographs of the
youth hostel restored,

01:05:02.550 --> 01:05:05.370
reestablished, refurbished, white,

01:05:05.370 --> 01:05:09.253
and it looks just very
nice, and the point is now,

01:05:09.253 --> 01:05:13.831
do I miss what I first saw
when I came first time?

01:05:13.831 --> 01:05:16.530
When I came first time, I was disappointed

01:05:16.530 --> 01:05:18.990
because it wasn't shivery and gloomy.

01:05:18.990 --> 01:05:21.420
Then I discovered the
shivery and gloomy side,

01:05:21.420 --> 01:05:24.360
not in the architecture,
but in the history,

01:05:24.360 --> 01:05:29.360
and is the building in any way guilty?

01:05:29.415 --> 01:05:32.760
And do we have to be all gloomy

01:05:32.760 --> 01:05:37.171
and concerned about its actual surface

01:05:37.171 --> 01:05:40.500
because we shall never forget Nazism?

01:05:40.500 --> 01:05:42.420
Well, we will never forget Nazism

01:05:42.420 --> 01:05:44.676
even if we paint this white.

01:05:44.676 --> 01:05:47.134
(truck rumbling)
(solemn music)

01:05:47.134 --> 01:05:52.134
(radio announcer indistinctly
speaking in German)

01:05:59.023 --> 01:06:02.773
(Jacobi speaking in German)

01:06:40.429 --> 01:06:45.012
(Jacobi continues speaking in German)

01:07:04.264 --> 01:07:08.097
(Misgajski speaking in German)

01:07:22.642 --> 01:07:27.642
(machinery whirring)
(solemn music)

01:07:37.588 --> 01:07:41.255
(Rostock speaking in German)

01:07:52.088 --> 01:07:54.838
(exciting music)

01:07:58.124 --> 01:08:00.874
(waves crashing)

01:08:07.673 --> 01:08:10.423
(birds chirping)

01:08:14.089 --> 01:08:19.089
(lively street music)
(crowd chattering)

01:08:44.307 --> 01:08:46.890
(somber music)

01:08:48.997 --> 01:08:52.590
- So we are not renovating
a concentration camp, yeah?

01:08:52.590 --> 01:08:54.120
Nobody was killed here

01:08:54.120 --> 01:08:58.200
and it was not in military
use in the Nazi time,

01:08:58.200 --> 01:09:01.182
and the idea of this whole complex

01:09:01.182 --> 01:09:05.091
was coming before the Nazis became power.

01:09:05.091 --> 01:09:08.591
(solemn electronic music)

01:09:13.227 --> 01:09:16.977
(Jacobi speaking in German)

01:09:25.050 --> 01:09:28.750
- [Busch] It is not only the
revamping of one block or so.

01:09:28.750 --> 01:09:33.240
It is the beginning of a new
development of a village.

01:09:33.240 --> 01:09:36.990
(Jacobi speaking in German)

01:09:43.284 --> 01:09:46.784
(Bering speaking in German)

01:09:56.056 --> 01:09:58.806
(waves crashing)

01:09:59.950 --> 01:10:04.950
(plane whirring)
(radio chatters)

01:10:05.635 --> 01:10:08.218
(solemn music)

01:10:10.500 --> 01:10:12.930
- The resorts were put up on the Baltic

01:10:12.930 --> 01:10:15.120
and it was the doorway to the east,

01:10:15.120 --> 01:10:18.060
and having these resorts,
and ultimately five of them,

01:10:18.060 --> 01:10:21.540
were going to contribute to
this overall imperial project.

01:10:21.540 --> 01:10:22.912
One of the problems, of course,

01:10:22.912 --> 01:10:24.552
is that it was never finished.

01:10:24.552 --> 01:10:26.820
So we can talk at great length about

01:10:26.820 --> 01:10:28.500
what the regime's intentions were,

01:10:28.500 --> 01:10:30.906
but we just don't know how it played out.

01:10:30.906 --> 01:10:34.260
(solemn music)
(machinery whirring)

01:10:34.260 --> 01:10:36.537
- [Spode] Germany and
the aesthetical debates,

01:10:36.537 --> 01:10:40.230
the social debates, they
were so much entrenched

01:10:40.230 --> 01:10:42.420
in international debates,

01:10:42.420 --> 01:10:45.540
and this makes the thing interesting.

01:10:45.540 --> 01:10:48.690
If you say, "The Nazi
Germany, it was on the moon,"

01:10:48.690 --> 01:10:51.090
so what will you learn from this history?

01:10:51.090 --> 01:10:52.080
Nothing.

01:10:52.080 --> 01:10:54.390
In some parts, they were leading the world

01:10:54.390 --> 01:10:56.326
and leading the debates.

01:10:56.326 --> 01:10:59.160
This makes this regime attractive

01:10:59.160 --> 01:11:03.523
for intellectuals in England
and in America as well.

01:11:03.523 --> 01:11:06.150
(solemn music)

01:11:06.150 --> 01:11:08.460
- The larger message forces us to think

01:11:08.460 --> 01:11:10.830
that leisure activities, consumerism,

01:11:10.830 --> 01:11:12.870
is a way of defining an experience

01:11:12.870 --> 01:11:16.890
that makes it easy to avoid
parts of misery in the world,

01:11:16.890 --> 01:11:19.350
which helps divide people from one another

01:11:19.350 --> 01:11:23.253
and to be unable to connect
across experiential boundaries.

01:11:24.630 --> 01:11:27.420
Nazism, you know, is
fortunately in the past,

01:11:27.420 --> 01:11:30.840
but there are messages there
that can be employed now.

01:11:30.840 --> 01:11:35.138
(solemn music)
(chisel clanking)

01:11:35.138 --> 01:11:40.138
(radio voices indistinctly
speaking in German)

01:11:44.154 --> 01:11:45.894
(distorted electronic music)

01:11:45.894 --> 01:11:47.010
- [Bonekämper] If it was not visible

01:11:47.010 --> 01:11:49.530
in the architecture
immediately, of course,

01:11:49.530 --> 01:11:52.293
the Nazi ideology and
the violence come in,

01:11:53.250 --> 01:11:54.540
and you cannot escape it,

01:11:54.540 --> 01:11:57.360
because even though it is
not visible in the windows,

01:11:57.360 --> 01:11:58.800
it's not visible in the roofs,

01:11:58.800 --> 01:12:01.200
it's not visible in these long blocks,

01:12:01.200 --> 01:12:03.087
it somehow is attached.

01:12:03.087 --> 01:12:06.600
(distorted electronic music)

01:12:06.600 --> 01:12:08.280
So you cannot have the building

01:12:08.280 --> 01:12:10.480
without the ideology and the history.

01:12:15.085 --> 01:12:18.835
(Schack speaking in German)

01:12:50.047 --> 01:12:51.841
(seagulls squawking)
(crowd chattering)

01:12:51.841 --> 01:12:55.591
(Schack speaking in German)

01:13:28.908 --> 01:13:31.491
(solemn music)

01:13:37.800 --> 01:13:40.680
- [Jaskot] This very high
profile site, indeed,

01:13:40.680 --> 01:13:45.680
might stand out to us, but
there isn't a town in Germany

01:13:47.130 --> 01:13:50.310
that doesn't have some
kind of building project.

01:13:50.310 --> 01:13:52.470
Just as the United States
in the '30s was building,

01:13:52.470 --> 01:13:53.610
so too was Germany.

01:13:53.610 --> 01:13:56.858
The highway system you're
driving on, the Autobahn,

01:13:56.858 --> 01:13:59.550
the schools, the housing estates,

01:13:59.550 --> 01:14:01.830
are they all equally culpable?

01:14:01.830 --> 01:14:06.830
I don't think we should overly
fetishize most buildings.

01:14:08.351 --> 01:14:11.280
There are probably exceptions,
but most buildings,

01:14:11.280 --> 01:14:13.920
because most buildings
do have multiple lives,

01:14:13.920 --> 01:14:16.500
and it's really not the building

01:14:16.500 --> 01:14:20.310
that needs to be seen
as the site of guilt.

01:14:20.310 --> 01:14:23.111
It's the people and it's the system.

01:14:23.111 --> 01:14:28.111
(distorted electronic music)
(birds chirping)

01:14:30.309 --> 01:14:32.892
(solemn music)

01:15:15.277 --> 01:15:18.694
(solemn music continues)