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Germany: Memories of a Nation

Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, explores 600 years of Germany's complex and often challenging history using objects, art, landmarks and literature.

Radio 4,30 episodes

Episodes

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The View from the Gate
Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Neil visits the Brandenburg Gate.
29 Sep 2014,15 mins
Divided Heaven
Neil MacGregor examines the story of the two Germanys, East and West, created in 1949.
30 Sep 2014,15 mins
Kafka, Kant and Lost Capitals
Neil MacGregor visits Kaliningrad, now in Russia but formerly the German city Konigsberg.
01 Oct 2014,15 mins
Strasbourg - Floating City
Neil MacGregor visits Strasbourg, now in France but also a key city in German history.
02 Oct 2014,15 mins
Fragments of Power
Neil MacGregor discovers how coins reveal the range and diversity of the Holy Roman Empire
03 Oct 2014,15 mins
Luther and a Language for All Germans
Neil MacGregor examines how Luther created the modern German language.
06 Oct 2014,15 mins
Fairy Tales and Forests: The Grimms and Caspar David Friedrich
Neil MacGregor on how the Grimms and painter Caspar David Friedrich shaped German identity
07 Oct 2014,15 mins
One Nation Under Goethe
Neil MacGregor focuses on Germany's great national poet Goethe, who was born in 1749.
08 Oct 2014,15 mins
The Walhalla: Hall of Heroes
Neil MacGregor visits the Walhalla, a 19th-century temple to German-ness, built in Bavaria
09 Oct 2014,15 mins
One People, Many Sausages
Neil MacGregor focuses on two great emblems of Germany's national diet: beer and sausages.
10 Oct 2014,15 mins
The Battle for Charlemagne
Was Charlemagne a great French ruler, or was he Charles the Great, a German?
13 Oct 2014,15 mins
Riemenschneider: Sculpting the Spirit
Neil MacGregor focuses on the supreme limewood sculptures of Riemenschneider (c1460-1531).
14 Oct 2014,15 mins
Holbein and the Hansa
Neil MacGregor focuses on the Hansa, the great trading alliance, and the painter Holbein.
15 Oct 2014,15 mins
Iron Nation
Neil MacGregor focuses on 19th-century uses of iron, from jewellery to the Iron Cross.
16 Oct 2014,15 mins
1848: The People's Flag and Karl Marx
Black, red and gold become the colours of Germany, and Karl Marx publishes a manifesto.
17 Oct 2014,15 mins
Gutenberg: In the Beginning Was the Printer
Neil MacGregor examines how Johannes Gutenberg's inventions transformed our world.
20 Oct 2014,15 mins
Dürer: An Artist for All Germans
Neil MacGregor focuses on the work of Dürer (1471-1528), the defining artist of Germany.
20 Oct 2014,15 mins
Porcelain: The White Gold of Saxony
Neil MacGregor focuses on how German chemists discovered the secrets of Chinese porcelain.
21 Oct 2014,15 mins
From Clock to Car: Masters of Metal
Neil MacGregor focuses on the long tradition of German metalwork, from clocks to cars.
22 Oct 2014,15 mins
Bauhaus: Cradle of the Modern
Neil MacGregor focuses on the Bauhaus school of art and design, founded in Weimar in 1919.
23 Oct 2014,15 mins
Bismarck the Blacksmith
Neil MacGregor charts the career of Otto von Bismarck, known as the Iron Chancellor.
24 Oct 2014,15 mins
Kathe Kollwitz: Suffering Witness
Neil MacGregor focuses on the art of Kathe Kollwitz, witness to the suffering of war.
28 Oct 2014,15 mins
Money in Crisis
Neil MacGregor on the emergency money created to replace metal coins, and hyperinflation.
29 Oct 2014,15 mins
Purging the Degenerate
Neil MacGregor focuses on how the Nazis attacked art they viewed as degenerate.
30 Oct 2014,15 mins
At the Buchenwald Gate
Neil MacGregor visits Buchenwald, one of the earliest and largest concentration camps.
31 Oct 2014,15 mins
The Germans Expelled
Neil MacGregor focuses on the forced movement of more than 12 million Germans after 1945.
03 Nov 2014,15 mins
Out of the Rubble
Neil MacGregor talks to a woman who cleared rubble from the streets of Berlin in 1945.
04 Nov 2014,15 mins
The New German Jews
Neil MacGregor discusses why Germany has the fastest-growing Jewish population in Europe.
05 Nov 2014,15 mins
Barlach's Angel
Neil MacGregor focuses on Ernst Barlach's sculpture Hovering Angel, a unique war memorial.
06 Nov 2014,15 mins
Reichstag
Neil MacGregor ends his journey through 600 years of German history at the Reichstag.
07 Nov 2014,15 mins