"Planet Earth." "When we human beings turn on the lights at dusk, the brightness of our cities can be seen from outer space." "Points of light stretch like a necklace of pearls along the Nile River." "Cairo and Alexandria glow in the darkness." "Europe." "A veritable sea of illumination." "And in the center of Europe:" "Germany." "The country only accounts for 0.07 % of the earth's surface, but 80 million people call it: home." "When Germans who have moved abroad to warmer shores are asked what they miss most about their homeland, almost all of them say "the seasons"." "And four seasons can fly by before you know it." "JANUARY" "GERMANY FROM ABOVE" "Winter has come to the Alps at Germany's southernmost point:" "the Allgäu." "Conservationist Henning Werth watches over Germany's largest colony of Alpine ibex." "Mountain goats were nearly extinct in the Alps." "But they were reintroduced to the wild near the source of the Lech River." "Now they're gradually spreading north in search of food and shelter against the cold." "Near the village of Oberstdorf, some 150 Alpine ibex are defying frigid winter." "The adult animals attempt to lead their offspring to higher altitudes." "where the wind blows away the snow to reveal the grass beneath." "But many of their routes are dead ends." "Climbing in these conditions saps a lot of strength." "A mountain goat can't afford to take too many paths to nowhere." "But this time the chosen route does bring the ibex family to its destination." "The wind has blown much of the snow from this exposed slope." "There's just enough dry grass here for the ibex to survive on." "Life in winter at more than 2000 meters elevation is always hard." "But this year. a sheet of ice and snow covers all of Germany, from the Alps in the south up to the North Sea coast." "Life... slows down." "January has the entire country in its icy grip." "KARWENDEL" "THE ZUGSPITZE GERMANY'S HIGHEST MOUNTAIN" "NEAR GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN" "THE RIVER SALZACH" "KEMPTEN" "MUNICH" "THE RIVER ELBE" "LAUENBURG" "BALTIC SEA NEAR TRAVEMÜNDE" "FEBRUARY" "The port of Hamburg in northern Germany." "More than 10,000 ships sail to and from here every year." "But today. in February, ship traffic is on the brink of coming to a complete halt." "Tugboats and icebreakers work round the clock to keep the major channels free of ice." "The temperature is minus 18 degrees Celsius." "If the Elbe River freezes over." "German factories won't get needed supplies." "And the supermarket shelves will empty out." "Huge container ships are heavy enough to break through ice on their own." "But the ice floes might stack up on top of one another and form barricades." "Not even icebreakers could get through them." "If the ice were not cleared, the Elbe would freeze over in a matter of hours." "Nine million containers pass through Hamburg every year." "At the mouth of the Elbe River, the Chongqing from South Korea is fighting its way toward Hamburg." "If the cargo carried by the Chongqing were transported by rail." "the train would be 40 km long." "This January, the ice on Lake Alster in Hamburg city center is 20 cm thick." "The authorities have deemed it thick enough to walk on." "Lake Constance, back at the southern border of Germany, is in hibernation." "The palm trees on the famous garden island of Mainau spend the winter in a greenhouse." "The medieval town of Meersburg is dusted with a thin layer of powder." "In nearby Sipplingen." "archaeologists are diving in search of traces of still older human settlements." "This can only be done in winter when the icy water is crystal clear." "Currents gradually uncover sunken remnants from the Stone Age." "Researchers are trying to preserve 6000-year-old artifacts from the first Lake Constance fishermen before they rot in the water." "The sight of Lindau Island gleaming in the evening sun makes it hard to imagine how Germany would look if human beings had not shaped it." "If they had not built villages and cities... and fairy-tale castles like Bavarian King Ludwig's Neuschwanstein." "Every evening 300,000 commuters drive home from the city of Frankfurt." "Not everyone who works in Germany's banking capital can afford the high rents here." "And more affluent people often prefer to live in the countryside." "Berlin is famous for its nightlife." "While the industrial Ruhr Valley is better known for nightshifts." "Since the steelworks and breweries of Dortmund closed, the Ruhr Valley's biggest city has found fresh energy in high-tech." "and in its beloved soccer team:" "Borussia." "Great rivals Bayern Munich are also dreaming of titles." "Hamburg port is back in operation." "Round the clock." "Sailors hardly have time for the notorious nightlife at the Reeperbahn." "MARCH" "In March, the sun finally shines stronger." "Above Hohenzollern Castle in southern Germany." "the sun hints at spring to come." "While to the north, it throws a spotlight on the North Sea mudflats near the island of Juist." "It even lends a bit of magic to the smokestacks along the rivers Rhine and Ruhr." "Yet these wild geese are heading out toward Siberia." "On the first mild days of the year, countless thousands of geese take to the air at the mouth of the Ems River." "Ahead of them is a journey with daily stages of up to 1500 km." "But no matter..." "geese enjoy flying." "The journey to their breeding grounds near the Arctic Circle follows an underlying schedule." "The geese always arrive at locations exactly when grass begins to grow there." "Fresh grass contains maximum protein and is easy to digest." "That's why wild geese leave Germany when the weather gets warm." "Researchers in East Frisia have counted up to 140,000 airborne migrants in a single day." "This animation shows the flight routes of 30 geese." "The data was gathered from GPS transmitters attached to the birds." "It shows how they follow the wave of spring towards the east." "all the way from Frisia in northwestern Germany to the Siberian Tundra." "A dangerous trip." "Not all the geese will return to the Ems River in fall." "High above Lake Möhne and the thousand hills of Sauerland in western Germany." "A group of skydivers are eagerly awaiting a jump... from 4000 meters." "Wingsuits reduce the velocity of their fall." "For five minutes or more these people will be able to fly." "Somewhere down below is the landing area, in the rural town of Bad Sassendorf." "But clouds have suddenly come up." "so for the moment." "the skydivers can't see anything at all." "APRIL" "The city of Heidelberg is one of Germany's sunniest places and the first warm days of the year are tempting people outside." "Springtime is here." "The winter is finally over." "It's time to get some fresh air." "Further south in Kappelrodeck." "the cherry trees are in bloom." "Spring lambs and other youngsters are at play in the fields." "And the storks have made it back, and are looking for a home." "Storks' nests are true works of art, consisting of up to 300 kg of wood." "Storks tend to be monogamous." "but then again:" "maybe they are more faithful to their nests than to their partners." "Meanwhile, in the Alps, the snow is beginning to melt from the slopes." "Female ibex are roaming around with their offspring." "While the males keep to themselves." "At least until the next mating season." "No, this is not the moon." "It's the Welzow coal mine in the Lausitz region in eastern Germany." "Measurements are being taken from helicopter to determine the amount of lignite mined last year." "For every ton of "brown gold"." "as the coal is called, six times as much soil must be dug up." "There's not much need for miners anymore." "A giant excavator, 70 meters high and more than a kilometer long, does the work." "15 million tons of coal are mined in Welzow every year." "Back in the days of Communist East Germany, that figure was ten times as high." "17 villages were demolished to supply power stations like Jänschwalde with the brown gold." "Coal plants aren't ecologically friendly." "But they do ensure a steady level of energy is always available in Germany's power grid." "In the west." "it's the same story:" "This plant is burning coal from open-pit mines near Cologne." "The nuclear power plant of Gundremmingen in Bavaria is set to be taken offline." "Germany has decided to stop using nuclear power." "But the steam from these cooling towers will continue for years to come to prevent a deadly meltdown." "These days energy corporations seek prosperity on the open water." "Alpha Ventus. 30 miles off the North Sea island of Borkum, is Germany's first deep-sea wind farm." "These twelve wind turbines may look familiar." "but each one is as tall as the Cologne Cathedral." "50 km from the German mainland is the country's only deep-sea island." "Heligoland." "Uncommon birds like the white-feathered northern gannet, are once again on the island's red sandstone cliffs to breed." "And the breeding season starts now, shortly before Easter." "Some 5000 feathered couples are here." "300 years ago, a storm separated the main island and the tiny island simply called "Dune"." "These residents, too, only returned here around 30 years ago." "Not so long ago grey seals almost became extinct in the southern part of the North Sea." "But since fishing has largely been banned around Heligoland, stocks of cod and herring have recovered." "And that's what brought the seals back." "But you'd have to be a seal to go for a swim here:" "the water temperature rarely gets above 16 degrees Celsius." "Scientists have attached GPS transmitters to eleven Heligoland seals." "These are their swimming habits." "They don't have to travel far from the island to fill their stomachs." "By contrast, seals from other North Sea islands nearer to the mainland have to swim up to 100 km to get a decent meal." "MAY" "Meanwhile, down in Kirchheim unter Teck in the southwest, there's a thermal lift." "Warm air from below is rising up into the colder regions of the upper atmosphere." "It's a perfect day for gliding." "Non-motorized flight is a German invention." "After World War I, the victorious Allies prohibited Germans from flying motorized planes." "Aviation pioneers discovered that air flows quicker across the upper surface of an aircraft's wings than the lower surface." "This principle allows people to fly without motors..." "In Lüneburg in northern Germany," "Eckhard Grote shows how human beings can defy gravity with the help of a thermal lift." "In May, the first tourists stroll along the streets of Bamberg." "This medieval German city was hardly damaged at all during the Second World War." "Bamberg is a World Cultural Heritage Site and a reminder of how most German cities looked before the war." "Medieval towns were centers of personal liberty." "Local dukes and despots had no say in urban centers like this." "Residents were free." "But cities like Bamberg were also perilous places to live." "There were regular outbreaks of the plague and cholera." "There were no garbage-removal or sewer systems." "But peoples' minds were free all over Germany, in medieval cities like..." "Freudenberg in western Germany." "or Nördlingen in the southeast with its perfectly preserved city walls." "Or Bautzen near the Polish border." "Calw, the birthplace of writer Hermann Hesse" "or the Hanseatic merchant city of Lüneburg." "Wismar on the Baltic Sea." "Seehausen to the east." "Or World Heritage Sites like Stralsund," "Lübeck in northern Germany" "or Regensburg in the south." "the "northernmost Italian city" as some people call it." "With a skyline dominated by its central cathedral," "Regensburg is like a toy city from the Middle Ages." "But satellite images reveal a much older, rectangular urban structure." "It corresponds exactly to the lines of the walls of the Roman fort Castra Regina." "Almost 2000 years ago." "some 6000 Roman legionnaires lived here." "The fall of the Roman Empire meant the end of the Castra and the chessboard patterns of its streets." "Between abandoned buildings and rubble, people beat new paths." "Over the centuries they evolved into alleys and streets." "Even today people still move about in Regensburg's old town on those very paths." "It's late May, and spring has long arrived almost everywhere in Germany." "Only atop a few Alpine peaks near Berchtesgaden does winter manage to cling on." "Mountain lodges like the Watzmannhaus are still dusted with snow." "2000 meters further down." "Königssee Lake is frigidly cold." "fed by water from melting ice." "Golden eagles circle, constantly on the hunt." "Down below, a privileged group of cattle is making the trip across the eight km of Lake Königssee." "By boat is the only way these cows can get to their summer residence." "the Fischunkel Alm on the shore of Lake Obersee in the Berchtesgaden National Park." "Some of the lodges used by hikers in the park are so isolated that supplies have to be flown in." "One example is Kärlinger Haus in Germany's coldest spot." "Lake Funtensee." "Everything, from kegs of beer to toilet paper, has to be brought in by helicopter." "Only hikers travel by foot through this valley." "JUNE" "The Elbe River near Hitzacker." "20 years ago this area was home to the only two remaining pairs of white-tailed eagles in the country." "Today more than 200 pairs of the birds live here." "When fisherman Thijs Köthke tosses unwanted fish back into the water, an eagle is always waiting." "The darker their beaks and feathers, the younger the birds are." "White-tailed eagles can live to become 20 years of age, if they and their habitat are left in peace." "White-tailed eagles have a wingspan of up to 2.4 meters." "But the most powerful of Germany's predatory birds rarely hunts for live prey." "Usually the eagles are content to glide around. looking for carrion." "The Elbe River used to be the border between East and West Germany." "Thus for decades, the surrounding floodlands slumbered undisturbed... like a Cold War Sleeping Beauty." "Approximately 4500 pairs of storks breed in Germany each year, a good dozen of them in the village of Bergenhusen in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein." "These swampy fields are full of food for baby storks, who have a long journey to make at summer's end." "It's the Pentecost holidays, and Germany's autobahns are clogged." "From the air. reporters inform drivers where traffic might continue flowing and which roads will be ensnarled by traffic jams." "Too many Germans want to head south at the same time." "Germany is located at the heart of Europe." "Anyone going east to west or north to south has to pass through the country." "It's a small miracle that the world-famous autobahns are ever this empty." "There's another "highway system" in the air above." "Three million flights criss-cross Germany every year." "In Frankfurt, home to Germany's largest airport." "as many as 90 airplanes take off and land every hour." "The GPS tracks of all flights over Frankfurt illustrate the complex ballet being performed over people's heads from morning to night." "The North Sea is a strange body of water." "In a few hours." "these waters. where shrimp boats are hauling their nets and seagulls are fighting for scraps, will have disappeared." "The Wadden Sea, as the coastal mudflats are known." "is subject to particularly strong tides." "Where shrimp swam not so long ago." "holiday makers are now hiking on the seafloor." "There is nothing like the ten small Halligen Islands anywhere else in the world." "And only here can you ride to an island on a horse-drawn carriage." "On June days like this, the North Sea looks like the South Seas." "and the village Wittdün like a fata morgana." "On islands like Sylt and Föhr, all you can see are dunes and the ocean." "And the occasional millionaire's home." "You wouldn't know it to look at the wicker beach chairs of Pellworm or the sand yachts of Sankt Peter Ording," "but the Wadden Sea contains a biological diversity second only to that of a tropical rain forest." "JULY" "The Isar River in Munich." "Summer is finally in full swing." "In the Hellabrunn Zoo, even these warm weather creatures are now right in their element." "Munich is the capital of summer in Germany, be it for the outdoor pools, the Isar, or its famous park, the Englischer Garten." "No other German city looks so well-turned-out in summer as the self-proclaimed village of a million people." "All the way to the north." "it's a special day on the Elbe River." "Whenever the Queen Mary docks in Hamburg." "a carnival atmosphere is guaranteed." "All the more so on a lovely day in July." "People flock to the Landungsbrücken." "Although it's been a long time since big boats docked at these piers." "Hamburg is beaming with pride, as if the Queen Mary has brought back the days when huge ships dropped anchor in the middle of the city." "It's an atmosphere of wanderlust and longing for a past age when sailing the seas was an adventure." "On days like these you can forget that there are no old buildings in the area around Saint Michael's Church." "This district was leveled by Operation Gomorrah on July 24. 1943." "one of the Allies' deadliest air raids on Nazi Germany." "This satellite animation shows what the bombardment must have looked like from the air." "The districts of Altona and Eimsbüttel are going up in flames." "Three days later another attack." "This time. more than 40.000 people perish in the working class areas in eastern Hamburg." "more than in any other air raid on Germany." "A third nighttime bombardment destroys the neighborhoods of Uhlenhorst, Winterhude and North Barmbek." "Only Eppendorf would survive unscathed." "By the end of 1943." "this was all that was left of Germany's second-largest city." "All of Germany's major cities would suffer similar fates:" "Essen and Dortmund." "Munich and Cologne." "Bremen and Hanover." "Until March 22, 1944, Frankfurt am Main was one of Germany's biggest and best preserved medieval cities." "Magdeburg was demolished on January 16. 1945." "On March 16 of that year." "destruction came to Würzburg, and its baroque palace." "And a year earlier 16,000 bombs rained down upon Münster." "The bells of the city's cathedral melted in the heat." "Today, Münster's historic center once again looks a bit like it did in 1648, when the Peace of Westphalia was signed here, ending the Thirty Years War." "After the massive destruction of World War Il." "the city fathers decided to rebuild the historic facades of most buildings." "Many of Germany's "historic cities" in fact only date back to the 1950s." "Nuremberg was another city that had to be almost completely rebuilt." "As it was considered the capital of the Nazi movement," "Allied bombers almost leveled it to the ground." "Even small towns like Rothenburg ob der Tauber weren't spared." "40 % of the historic city center was destroyed and later rebuilt with money donated by Americans." "Post-war Frankfurt only rebuilt the medieval Römer." "several churches and St. Paul's Cathedral." "which was also Germany's first parliament." "Instead, the city fathers decided Frankfurt should get a modern skyline." "This is the only place in Germany where you can jump off a skyscraper and parachute to the ground..." "If you dare to, that is." "Jürgen Mühling and Hannes Kraft have made their way up the 200-meter tall Main Tower." "They're repeatedly checking the air currents." "Skyscrapers can produce treacherous thermal lifts." "A jump from this height is a nervy affair even for an experienced base jumper." "Back to the Berchtesgaden National Park." "In Germany's only Alpine biosphere reserve residents are a bit worried about their trees." "A helicopter is sweeping away spruce trees that have become infested with bark beetles." "Normally. biologists at the park want to prevent human beings from interfering with the course of nature, even when parasites are threatening to destroy the forest." "However, the owners of neighboring forests, nature lovers and everyone who makes a living from tourism here have insisted that an exception be made." "Infested trees on the periphery of the park are being removed to avoid the danger of contamination." "The beetles in Berchtesgaden open up the question:" "To what extent can we leave nature alone and still enjoy it?" "AUGUST" "BALTIC SEA NEAR HEILIGENDAMM" "LAKE BERNSTEINSEE NEAR ROSTOCK" "LAKE SCHLIERSEE" "KÜHLUNGSBORN" "LAKE CHIEMSEE" "DANUBE GORGE" "BERCHTESGADEN ALPS" "LAKE CONSTANCE" "LAKE KIRCHSEE NEAR BAD TÖLZ" "BENEDIKTENWAND RIDGE" "UPPER RIVER ISAR" "THE ZUGSPITZE" "ISAR RIVER" "RÜGEN" "ELBE ESTUARY" "When the fields turn golden yellow near the Kiel Fjord, the busiest time of a farmer's year has begun." "The thrashers and tractors working these fields are being guided from space, via satellite." "The built-in GPS system knows exactly where the cut has to be deeper." "and that allows the farmer to mow uncannily precise rows in his fields." "Everywhere from north to south, Germany's fields are a buzz of activity." "More than half of the country is farmland." "And on Lake Constance alone, there are 1600 fruit farmers." "The storks are getting ready to head south for the winter." "For them. freshly mown meadows and ploughed fields are like a fully set banquet table." "Back to the Wadden Sea." "Five times a year, biologists fly over the sandbanks between the mouth of the Elbe River and the island of Sylt to conduct a seal census." "The seals are photographed at low tide." "when they're out on the sandbanks, and later counted by computer." "Nowhere in the world do biologists monitor seals more closely than in the North Sea mudflats." "Over 8000 of them were counted in this census." "Once almost gone. the seals have reoccupied the sandbanks and the tidal creeks." "And while summer slowly winds down on the North Sea, hiking season is starting in the mountains." "In the Alpine foothills, the Ostersee Lakes slumber securely in a nature reserve." "Temperatures are still high in late August, but there's something refreshing about the mountain air." "BERCHTESGADEN ALPS" "THE WATZMANN" "WIMBACHGRIES" "SAUGASSE PASSAGE" "THE ZUGSPITZE" "EISBACH VALLEY." "THE WATZMANN" "LAKE SCHRECKSEE" "SEPTEMBER" "The last wild horses in Germany live in Dülmen in the west of the country." "In 1845 the Duke of Croy granted 20 horses asylum from the "rapidly expanding farmland" in this part of Westphalia." "Since then." "the horses have been left to enjoy an area twice the size of Monaco." "Although once a year, all the one-year-old stallions are rounded up and sold." "Today, around 400 wild horses live in this sanctuary, located only about 30 km north of the industrial towns of the Ruhr Valley." "Molten slag from the forges." "Almost 2000 degrees hot." "this waste product of steel production is a kind of artificial lava that used to light up the night skies all over the Ruhr Valley." "The slag being poured off is still one of the greatest spectacles to be seen in Germany." "Duisburg, located directly on the Rhine River, is home to Germany's last remaining operational smelting plants." "Here, you can really feel the power of heavy industry that made Germany such a wealthy country." "With its five million inhabitants, the Ruhr Valley is-in a de facto sense- Germany's largest city." "From the gleaming office buildings in Dortmund to the steelworks of Bochum and Oberhausen." "to the business headquarters in Essen, to Mülheim, and on to the mouth of the Ruhr River in Duisburg." "It's a green park landscape broken up by industry." "There are even more monuments to German industry's past." "like this gasholder in Oberhausen." "Only in Duisburg can you see grazing pastures side by side with blast furnaces, both bathed in the setting sun." "In the Elbe Valley floodplains." "it's the final evening these young storks will spend in their childhood nests." "This group of youngsters are about to head south." "two weeks earlier than their parents." "The route they need to take is programmed into their heads inherited from birth like a navigation system." "Scientists have been using GPS transmitters to track storks for years." "Here you can see the exact routes taken by hundreds of real-life storks." "They cleverly fly over the narrow passages of Gibraltar and the Bosphorus to avoid having to cross long stretches of water." "Some storks migrate 10,000 km." "all the way to South Africa." "where summer is about to arrive." "It's a dangerous trip." "but the storks that survive it will return to Germany next spring." "It's the highlight of the Bavarian almanac:" "the Oktoberfest." "The opening Saturday is still an intimate event. just for the locals." "Well. almost intimate." "It's record-breaking time in these beer tents:" "Half-a-million servings of chicken." "six million liters of beer." "and not to forget: 1800 toilets." "But seen from above." "the Oktoberfest is like theatre come to life." "OCTOBER" "Above Linum, north of Berlin, air traffic is heavy today." "The October skies are full of migrating cranes." "Tens of thousands of the birds stop here for a few weeks before continuing on their journey from the Siberian tundra to the south." "Other cranes carry on further west." "To the forests of Sauerland." "Year in, year out." "Their routes take the birds over seemingly endless stretches of autumnal forest." "Including the beech trees in Hainich National Park." "Germany's largest deciduous forest is located in central-eastern Germany, near Wartburg Castle." "where Martin Luther translated the Bible into German 500 years ago." "Germany used to be almost entirely covered in woodlands." "Now national parks are needed to preserve the forests that are left." "A bit further west." "near Waldeck Castle, the primeval beech forests continue." "The Kellerwald-Edersee National Park is alive with the colors of fall." "Further south, at Binger Loch." "the leaves begin to turn a bit later." "The castles dotting the Rhine are the very definition of Romanticism." "But the castles were actually built because they allowed local lords." "who were chronically short of money." "to demand tariffs and duties from ships sailing up and down the Rhine." "According to one legend. two brothers." "owning neighboring castles, fell out over the love of a beautiful female cousin." "The story ended tragically." "But perhaps, as so often was the case with medieval lords." "their quarrel was just about money." "On the terraced slopes of the Kaiserstuhl hills." "near Freiburg in southwestern Germany, the grapes are being harvested." "This is an extinct volcano, and that makes the soil unusually rich." "The climate is warm as well." "People say. "In Germany you can't get any closer to the Mediterranean than here"..." "In the beginning." "Berlin was the seat of the Prussian royal family." "Then came the Industrial Revolution." "Then the Iron Curtain." "Then German Reunification and the German capital." "No city in Germany has a higher population density than Berlin." "Nowhere are the courtyards narrower or the architectural monuments more grandiose." "Every epoch has left behind its symbols of power and status here." "The Alexanderplatz TV tower was built in East Berlin in the 1960s as a 368-meter-tall hymn to Socialism." "Soft-spoken modesty has never set the tone in this city." "The world's tallest building used to be located on the Rhine River:" "the Cologne Cathedral." "Its patina is obvious." "But there's no way to resist the lure of its clean architectural line." "In contrast, Dresden's Frauenkirche." "the Church of Our Lady, looks absolutely spick and span." "That's because it was only rebuilt in 2005." "So of course." "this "lady" looks a bit tidier." "Starting in the 17th century, the baroque splendor of Dresden was set in sand." "Well. the sand-stone typical of the area around the Elbe River." "A bit upstream from Dresden, there are more than 1000 freestanding sandstone pillars." "usually with a tourist or two on top." "The tourists are roughly 100 million years too late for a holiday by the sea." "The Elbe Sandstone Mountains were originally formed at the bottom of a primeval ocean." "Shifts in the earth's crust, and erosion from water and wind." "created these uncanny pillars." "NOVEMBER" "November begins with fog." "The entire Alpine foothills disappear in the swirling mists." "Whooper swans don't mind this sort of weather at all." "As many as 20,000 of them migrate to Germany every year to spend the winter." "They come from Iceland and Scandinavia." "the taiga and the tundra." "This group of swans has almost reached the first place they'll stop this winter, the wetlands of Linum in eastern Germany." "There are always some daring aerial maneuvers in the main flight path of this migratory-bird paradise." "Arriving whooper swans overtake departing cranes, as well as wild geese that are also coming back to Germany." "Five km from the North Sea coast, in Wittmund." "Fighter Squadron 71 Red Baron trains every day to deal with the worst-case scenario." "Defending Germany's airspace against invaders." "Down below, the first cold snap has left snow that now highlights the patterns of the fields." "But during military maneuvers there's no time to enjoy the view." "Phantom F4 fighter jets fly at twice the speed of sound." "But the twelve-ton planes are vintage models and will soon be decommissioned." "These are their farewell flights along the German coastline." "DECEMBER" "On the North Sea, December is kicking up a fuss." "A force 10 wind whips the clouds." "driving them along." "Waves swell to six and eight meters in height." "It's storm season in the German Bight." "The rescue cruiser Hermann Helms is battling its way through the high seas." "It takes 1700 liters of fuel to power a boat for one hour in weather like this." "Off the coast of Heligoland, the sailors abroad the 'Hermann Marwede' have secured a Christmas tree to the deck." "But there can be no decorations or candles in this sort of weather." "In force 10 winds, tugboats have to stay in harbor so ships are guided into port with helicopters." "Container ships dock and set sail in just about any weather." "and their captains need pilots to navigate in local waters." "Guiding big boats like this into German ports isn't for the faint hearted." "With the storm raging, the seals of Heligoland seek shelter in the dunes." "December is when seals start to bear their young." "The first newborn pups in their oversized fur coats already crawling across the cold sand." "More than 100 baby seals are born every year on Heligoland." "Most survive." "Seal milk is so nutritious that it can fatten up a baby seal to more than 50 kg in only three weeks." "Layers of snow have fallen in the mountains." "Everything is once again still and slow." "Red tailed deer seek shelter from the wind and the freezing temperatures in the woods." "Snow laden pines look almost as though they are posing for a Christmas photo." "Another year is coming to an end... as is our flight over Germany." "It's time to turn up the heat, eat a few Christmas cookies and think up some New Year's resolutions." "From above, we may be tiny." "But every one of us is here. present." "one of many." "Subtitles:" "Michael-John McCabe et al."