Northrhein Westfalia at 75: Unser Bundesland - A History

A fresh wind is blowing across North Rhine-Westphalia in the 1970s. Business with coal and steel is booming again, domestic energy is in demand, and the unemployment rate in 1970 is a sensational 0.4 percent. There is building, founding and planning going on in this decade. People hoped that the crisis was an aberration, but soon realized that it would be part of everyday life for many years to come. Soon, the first major economic crisis shakes "Our Land." But North Rhine-Westphalia is still at the top in the Federal Republic, and they want to show it. The tallest house, the largest exhibition center, the "fastest breeder" and the most highways are built in this decade. All of this can still be discovered today, although some of it is quite different from what was planned. In the Rhineland, digging begins - the open-pit lignite mine in Hambach, at this time the largest hole in the world. With almost 20 technical colleges and universities, an educational landscape is created that is unique in the world, including the Open University in Hagen, now Germany's largest university. The Foals from Mönchengladbach leave their mark on German soccer, and in Dortmund a temple of soccer is opened in 1974 with the Westfalenstadion, the largest soccer temple in the country. Artists from North Rhine-Westphalia such as Joseph Beuys, Kraftwerk, Marius Müller-Westernhagen and Heinrich Böll become stars who have not lost their luster to this day. Structural change has the Ruhr region firmly in its grip during these years. Collieries die, smelters are closed, the first smog alarm shocks. But there is also hope; the new Minister President Johannes Rau promises to invest billions. Successful at the end of the 1970s are the largest demonstrations the country has ever seen: Tens of thousands come to Kalkar to demonstrate against the construction of a nuclear power plant, as they are planned and built all over Germany. Never before has there been a larger police deployment in NRW - but the demonstrators cannot be kept out. While the power plant in Kalkar is prevented, a whole new movement is formed that makes environmental policy an important issue. The third episode of "Our Country" is marked by the upheavals and changes of the times. It's the big stories and little anecdotes that bring a decade back to life.