Wild River Rhine (German version)

Countless natural treasures are strung together like pearls on a string along the Rhine. Although the Rhine has been densely populated for thousands of years and has been used continuously as a waterway, the typical habitats still exist along its banks: sun-drenched riparian forests and thundering waterfalls, lush meadows and shady gorges, sun-scorched steep slopes and cool oxbow lakes. This diversity of landscapes is the reason why the Rhine provides a habitat for so many creatures like no other river in Europe - despite river straightening and regulation, chemical accidents, water pollution and fish kills in recent decades. The film follows the Rhine upstream from its mouth in the Dutch Wadden Sea through six countries up to the sources of the Rhine in the Swiss Alps and shows the animals that live on or in the Rhine: Long-time residents like the pike, returnees like the beaver and new arrivals like the collared parakeet. Seals frolic in the estuary delta and ibex look down on its waters in the upper reaches. Emerald lizards, eagle owls, wild boars and grey partridges are among the animal stars of the show, as are dippers, dormice, mouse-eared bats and hundreds of thousands of waterfowl that rest along the Rhine during the cold season and spend the winter here. For two thousand years, the Rhine has been one of the most important links between the Alpine region and the sea. It connects six countries – and with them, different cultures. Even in the age of rail and road, it remains one of the most important trade routes on the European continent, through the heart of which it flows. WILDER RHEIN (Wild Rhine) is a two-part documentary about the nature and life along its course. The journey begins in the Dutch Wadden Sea. Here, the three estuary arms of the Delta Rhine - Waal, Lek and IJssel - form the most water-rich tributary of the North Sea coast. On a sandbank in the middle of the Rhine delta, seals bask in the sun. These creatures, which are actually at home in the sea, are found in the Rhine delta. The Rhine delta is about 100 kilometers wide. If you want to travel from here along the course of the river back to the source of the Rhine, you have to cover more than 1200 kilometers. Rotterdam, with its gigantic seaport, is one of the cities in the Rhine delta. The city itself lies below sea level and is constantly being drained with the help of pumps. In Holland, people already knew how to reclaim land through drainage in the age of windmills.