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00:00Fortress, prisons, towers, the castles have witnessed our history for centuries.
00:30In Europe, over a hundred thousand are still standing, thousand years later.
00:40Let's visit the most spectacular and most mysterious castles.
00:47We will discover the secrets that are hidden behind their walls.
00:53And we will relive their long lasting legends.
01:29Can a marvel like this cost a king his life?
01:40The 13th of June, 1886.
01:44In Lake Starnberg, Bavaria, two bodies appear floating on the water.
01:51One of them is the psychiatrist Bernhard von Guden.
01:55The other, his patient, King Ludwig II of Bavaria, also known as the Mad King.
02:04The official cause of death? Suicide.
02:09But was it really suicide?
02:13Or a murder?
02:14September 2020.
02:16Every year, thousands of people turn this marvellous location into Germany's most visited tourist attraction, Neuschwanstein Castle.
02:31What is the mystery that links this huge castle and the two corpses floating on the water?
02:38What is the mystery that links this huge castle and the two corpses floating on a lake?
02:50Ludwig II was the last king of the small independent state of Bavaria.
02:56He was an eccentric character, obsessed with beauty and a lover of art, and of some artists.
03:04One of them was the composer and poet Richard Wagner, who became a friend.
03:10For Ludwig, this friendship is a bit like a replacement of a father. Wagner was older than him,
03:16and so he was looking for a father figure in this great composer whose work he admired,
03:20and he saw him as a companion who he would recreate this medieval world with.
03:26Ludwig II was captivated at the age of 16 when he attended one of Wagner's operas for the first time.
03:36The opera was Lohengrin, a fairy tale forming part of the Swan Trilogy.
03:45And this may have been the case because a few years later,
03:49he dedicated all his effort and the kingdom's money to building Neuschwanstein, which means New Stone Swan.
04:03Neuschwanstein was built specifically as a place where he wanted Wagner to come.
04:08He built this as a monument to Wagner's operas and to their friendship.
04:13And the tragedy is that Wagner never set foot in that castle.
04:18Neuschwanstein is not music, but many consider it a work of art.
04:23Its composition of walls and towers seeks harmony with the rivers and mountains that surround it.
04:33Its construction adheres to the canons of the Romantic current in architecture.
04:38Perhaps this is why the building has no defensive installations,
04:42but it does have 200 ornately decorated rooms.
04:47Frescoes depicting prowess in war and Nibelung legends.
04:59And royal halls fit for the role.
05:02Although the Golden Throne was never actually installed.
05:10The royal bedroom alone needed the work of 14 carpenters for four years.
05:22He wanted to be that prince who slaying dragons and rescuing princesses.
05:26The circumstances of his life, the times in which he lived in, really didn't allow for that.
05:32Ludwig II personally directed the decoration and spared no expense.
05:37He had abandoned his responsibilities to focus on his Romantic work.
05:46Apparently, he wanted to go down in history as the creator of an enormously transcendental work.
05:54With the kingdom's money.
05:58He was an extremely wealthy nobleman, but even that was too much.
06:03He was so obsessed with the castle that the doctors diagnosed him with schizophrenia.
06:11He started borrowing money and that became a problem.
06:14And so he was a parliamentary monarch.
06:17He wasn't an absolute monarch who could just do whatever he wanted.
06:20He was a parliamentary monarch.
06:22He wasn't an absolute monarch who could just decide what to do.
06:25He had to ask Parliament for money.
06:27So he asked them for a loan and they refused.
06:30And as a matter of fact, they decided to declare him insane.
06:37He was never seen by a doctor and the whole report has this very dubious background to it.
06:45A few days later, a group of men loyal to the Munich government
06:50arrested him and took him to a stately home on the shores of a lake,
06:55where he appeared drowned the following day.
07:00Was it suicide, as officially stated?
07:03Or were there vested interests in killing him and placing a successor on the throne?
07:10But the fact that she believed that she would tell people this shows you
07:13that immediately after his death, people just couldn't accept that he drowned.
07:20If he drowned, it is quite likely that it was not accidental
07:24because he was a very strong swimmer, had been since childhood.
07:28So either it was a suicide or it was a murder, or maybe a mix of both.
07:32Ludwig II never saw his great work finished.
07:35Although it was opened to the public a few months later,
07:38the design was so complicated that it took almost 20 years to finish.
07:44Whether mad or a genius, Ludwig II left this unique picture postcard as his legacy.
07:50Neuschwanstein is Germany's most famous and recognised card.
07:55Nevertheless, the mystery surrounding the death of the King of Bavaria
07:59lives on more than a century later.
08:03That mystery will always remain.
08:05And perhaps that's what Ludwig II would have wanted for himself.
08:09One of the sayings attributed to Ludwig II is that
08:12he was a man of great wisdom, a man of great courage,
08:16a man of great wisdom, a man of great courage,
08:19a man of great courage, a man of great courage,
08:22One of the sayings attributed to him was that
08:25he wanted to be the greatest enigma for himself and to others.
08:29And that's how he has ended his life and remains today a great enigma to us all.
08:37Authorisation has never been given to exhume the body
08:40to find out the real cause of his death.
08:44Mysteries surrounding magic footprints.
08:48Legends of witches.
08:51Secrets concealed in giant barrels.
08:56Everything, absolutely everything, comes together in Heidelberg,
09:01one of the most venerated castles by the German people.
09:05Whether because of its unusual red colour
09:08or because it is a fine example of Romantic architecture,
09:12Heidelberg is a monumental palace that maintains its elegance
09:16despite a large part of it being in ruins.
09:24The castle is a symbol of the city of Heidelberg,
09:27the capital of the city of Heidelberg.
09:30It was built in 1214 and grew in size for 300 years
09:34until a bolt of lightning destroyed the upper part of the building for the first time.
09:47Two centuries later, another bolt of lightning caused another fire,
09:51leaving the palace practically burned to the ground.
09:55Bad luck?
09:57Dark forces?
09:59Spirits?
10:04The name of the city, Heidelberg,
10:07there is a reference to the mountain behind the modern city,
10:11the Heidelberg, which was a sacred site to the Celts
10:15and people who lived in the area in the centuries before the birth of Christ.
10:19So there have been many archaeological discoveries made
10:24on that hill.
10:26It was a place of great power to them.
10:29And in fact, later on, the hills around Heidelberg,
10:33in the time of the Nazis, were used as so-called sacred sites
10:37for their big rallies that they were going to have.
10:41There's a place called the Thingstätte nearby,
10:45which was a Nazi parade ground slash sacred site.
10:49Its stones harbour 700 years of stories and legends.
10:55Heidelberg was the capital of the Palatinate, a bustling city.
11:00Farmers, merchants, knights,
11:03the castle was a meeting point for everyone.
11:10The entrance to the palace has a small door
11:13which opens up an unanswered mystery.
11:16What is this tiny door for?
11:19Or who is it for?
11:23The entrance has an iron door knocker, a ring typical of the period,
11:27but it has something strange.
11:31An unusual cleft.
11:36Legend has it that if anyone managed to bite through the metal knocker,
11:40Heidelberg Palace would become their property.
11:44Hundreds of powerful men tried it, breaking their teeth in the attempt.
11:51But then a little old lady turned up, and she said,
11:54oh, I would like to have a go at that,
11:56because I would really like to have the castle.
11:59And they thought, well, how could she destroy this metal ring
12:03with just her pure strength?
12:06So they said, yeah, go ahead, try it.
12:09And then she didn't try to tear it,
12:12and then she didn't try to tear it apart,
12:14she bit into the metal,
12:17and her teeth sank through the iron as if it was butter.
12:22Because that was not an ordinary little old lady, it was a witch.
12:29Apparently, she tried it with all her supernatural strength,
12:33but only managed to make a cleft, a visible mark in the cast iron,
12:37which has remained intact until today.
12:42The story goes that her failed attempt so annoyed the sorceress
12:47that she laid a curse on it as she left.
12:52In the ensuing centuries,
12:54three fires and a war left Heidelberg a castle in ruins.
13:02On the castle's great terrace,
13:04a deep footprint on the floor is the source of another mystery.
13:08Whose footprint is this?
13:13It is said that a handsome knight was trying to seduce a married lady
13:17when they were caught in flagrante,
13:20in a room whose balcony overlooked this terrace.
13:25The legend has it that the knight leapt from a height of several metres
13:32and left this deep impression,
13:35not only on the lady, but also in the sandstone floor.
13:42There's a legend that any man whose foot fits into that footprint
13:46is just as great a lover as he was.
13:54Another Heidelberg legend relates to this barrel of wine,
13:58which has a capacity of 220,000 litres.
14:03It is the world's largest barrel.
14:08It was built to restore interest in the city,
14:11which had lost its status as capital shortly before.
14:16It is 7 metres high, 3 metres wide and 8.5 metres deep.
14:24A stage was even built on top so that an orchestra could play there.
14:28And this is Perkeo, the court jester and a dwarf.
14:33Legend has it that he was capable of drinking the whole barrel,
14:37in a single gulp.
14:42In fact, he only drank 8 litres a day,
14:45which gave him particular motivation to entertain in the court.
14:49It is said that Perkeo had only ever drunk wine.
14:54And at the age of 80, he tried water for the first time.
14:59He died the very next day.
15:07A few years later, Perkeo was no longer a jester.
15:13He was no longer a jester.
15:16A death.
15:20A mysterious footprint.
15:24A curse.
15:27We arrive at one of Germany's most emblematic castles,
15:30Lichtenstein Castle.
15:37Its imposing tower, standing on a rocky escarpment,
15:41makes this castle quite a symbol,
15:43defying the abyss overlooking the city of Honau.
15:54The rock on which it stands forms part of its history,
15:58and of a little-known legend
16:00about the disappearance of three young people.
16:08Lichtenstein was built in 2004,
16:11Lichtenstein was built in just two years, at the end of the 1800s.
16:16It was constructed on an old-walled fortress,
16:19using the light-coloured stone that makes it a singular castle.
16:25One of Germany's most visited.
16:31The architect of this spectacular work was Duke Wilhelm von Urak,
16:37the nephew of the king, and quite a character.
16:41And he was a real military expert.
16:44He had ascended to the rank of general, even,
16:47and he was especially well-versed in coordinating and fighting with artillery,
16:52which was really seeing a lot of developments in that time of the 19th century.
16:57He himself developed some new methods for how to construct cannons,
17:02so that they wouldn't be as volatile when you fired them,
17:05that it wouldn't be as dangerous to work with them,
17:07that you could be more precise and more effective with them.
17:11He made a number of contributions, such as reducing recoil in cannons,
17:17as well as researching improvements in munition.
17:23His passion for arms took the form of an extensive collection
17:27that can be visited on the first floor of the castle,
17:33together with a large collection of paintings.
17:41The Knights Hall is practically an art gallery.
17:46Hanging on one of its walls is the famous painting of the Archer of Liechtenstein.
17:57Everything seems to be in order, but when we look closely, something catches our eye.
18:04Why is there a bullet hole in a large mirror?
18:07Who was that bullet intended for?
18:12In 1945, when the French came through this area,
18:15they took the nearby town of Reutlingen.
18:18Nobody can say for sure how it happened,
18:21but knowing that there was quite a lot of fighting in this area,
18:25it's not surprising that bullets might go flying and hitting mirrors within the castle.
18:32The Allied soldiers discovered a number of passageways
18:35that could be used for escape in case of emergency or siege.
18:43Two of them end a few metres beneath the gallery,
18:46which gives access to the main door.
18:51But there is a third gallery, which is located in the middle of the castle.
18:55An opening in the rock, partly concealed by the scrub.
19:00During the Middle Ages, it was very important to have an escape route.
19:04If your castle was under siege or you were about to be taken by enemy forces,
19:09having a tunnel where you could send everybody out was a good idea.
19:14It was also a good idea to have an escape route
19:17so that if you were to be attacked by enemy forces,
19:20and about to be taken by enemy forces,
19:22having a tunnel where you could send everybody out was a really good investment.
19:27These tunnels could also be used as stores for food and supplies.
19:36Liechtenstein's most secret legend, one which is little known,
19:40has it that three young people disappeared through one of these passageways
19:44after being discovered stealing precious objects.
19:50Some even say that the stolen booty was a royal crown.
19:56According to the legend, the young people never reappeared in the town.
20:08And were swallowed up by the Liechtenstein rock.
20:15Discovering whether this is a legend or an unanswered secret
20:19continued to be a mystery locked in the Liechtenstein Tower 100 years later.
20:50This is a recording from 1952 from the Armed Forces Network radio station
20:55for American soldiers in Germany.
21:06It was the night of Halloween, broadcasting live from the castle in Mühltau,
21:11or to give it its other name, the authentic and terrifying Castle Frankenstein.
21:20When that spell moved, I thought that you could imagine
21:24what ran through our minds. It seemed like some type of...
21:33Help! Help, please!
21:36What started off as a macabre joke ended up in panic,
21:40the same panic that comes from knowing how the legend of Frankenstein came about.
21:45In 1818, the writer Mary Shelley published
21:49Frankenstein, the Modern Prometheus.
21:55The story of Dr. Frankenstein and his creature
21:58is considered the first science fiction horror novel.
22:05Where did Shelley get her ideas from to write such a story?
22:09She travelled Europe, she famously spent a summer at Lake Geneva
22:12where the weather was horrible, and so they sat around telling ghost stories
22:16where she had the idea for her great novel Frankenstein.
22:21As a 17-year-old, Mary Shelley appears to have visited this castle,
22:29discovering the sinister work of a shady character
22:34called Dr. Frankenstein.
22:37Called Conrad Dipple.
22:40Now, he had the reputation as an alchemist,
22:43but he was also something of a wild intellect in his day,
22:46arguing on the religious controversies of the period,
22:50even changing sides in the debates.
22:52And was imprisoned for heresy for a period of seven years.
22:55He was also accused, for example, of killing a man in a duel,
22:58and others said that he robbed graves, he experimented on corpses,
23:02and had even made a pact with the devil.
23:05Dipple returned to the castle as an expert alchemist.
23:09He had created the colour known as Prussian blue,
23:12which brought him considerable income at the time.
23:15This allowed him to return to devote himself obsessively
23:19to experimenting with corpses.
23:23His obsession? Bringing the dead back to life.
23:29What Dipple had in fact discovered, which was known as Dipple's oil,
23:33was a tarry, smelly substance
23:36formed from the destructive distillation of bones and animal skins.
23:41Its only real value is as an animal and insect repellent.
23:46He said that he had created an elixir of life
23:50which could reanimate dead bodies.
23:58It was said that Dipple had made a pact with the devil.
24:01Fear began to take hold of the local inhabitants
24:04until they discovered him dead in the basement of the castle,
24:09surrounded by fragments of mutilated bodies
24:12and with signs of having poisoned himself with one of his potions.
24:19So Dipple was believed to have died during an experiment in his laboratory,
24:24and his body was found foam at his mouth
24:27and in a terrible, contorted state.
24:29Perhaps he had tried his own oil in an attempt to live longer.
24:35Several days later, his laboratory went up in flames.
24:45Castle Frankenstein was already known through other legends
24:49arising from the dark forest in which it nestles.
24:53Ghosts of lovestruck maidens, dragons and the like,
24:58but nothing comparable to visiting the castle at Christmas.
25:03It is said that Dipple's ghost appears sitting on the chapel roof
25:07uttering heart-rending cries to the monster.
25:10This tough, sturdy castle is the longest in the world.
25:14It is more than a kilometre long,
25:17hence its appearance in the Guinness Book of Records.
25:21It also has a long history,
25:23and it is believed to have been the site of the death of the first king.
25:28It is believed to have been the site of the death of the first king.
25:33It is believed to have been the site of the death of the first king.
25:36It is believed to have been the site of the death of the first king.
25:39It also has a thousand years of history,
25:42a treasure and a wealth of military secrets that we're going to discover.
25:51It stands on the border with Austria
25:53and was built to withstand the ferocious attacks of the Turkish and Swedish armies.
25:59As its fame as an impregnable fortress grew,
26:02so its defences continued to increase.
26:06The way the castle developed was the oldest part
26:10was on the furthest end of this rocky spur.
26:14And over the centuries, they built it further and further out
26:18until there were in total six distinctive parts,
26:21each with its own courtyard, each with its own gate.
26:24So this made it a very strong position to defend.
26:28But without doubt, its best-kept secret for its enemies
26:32was something called Zwinger.
26:35What was the Zwinger?
26:38So the idea of a Zwinger is to control
26:42where your enemy can go when they attack the castle.
26:46Zwinger comes from the German word zwingen, to force.
26:50So you're trying to force the enemy into a small confined space that you control.
26:56And then there it is a lot easier for you to fight them,
27:00especially if you have the high ground,
27:02especially if you have the high ground,
27:04you can throw things at them, or you can shoot them,
27:07or your defenders can easily ward them off and kill them
27:11when they are confined in this small space.
27:15The defenders of the castle waited for the Zwinger to fill with enemies,
27:19and then bombarded them.
27:24All those unaware of Berghausen's secret
27:27would die like flies in the fortress's intricate labyrinth.
27:32And what about the tower in the west, on the other side of the river?
27:37What is its secret?
27:41Its name, Powder Tower, leaves no doubt about this.
27:44This is where the arms and the gunpowder were stored.
27:49To ensure the supply of munitions was not threatened during attacks,
27:53a fortified walkway was built across the river to the castle.
27:57There was also a secret passage hidden from the enemy's sight.
28:08What was Berghausen guarding so jealously in its interior
28:12that it needed such a system of defence?
28:17An absolute treasure of gold and silver coins.
28:27Which the Duke of Bavaria, known as Georg the Rich, kept within its walls.
28:36He had lots of very expensive fabrics,
28:40lots of expensive items made of precious metals,
28:44like silver goblets, gold plates.
28:51His wedding with Hedwig, heir to the throne of Poland,
28:54was so spectacular that it is still celebrated in the city today.
29:01A lot of these things had been acquired in the context of his wedding,
29:05which was one of the biggest celebrations of the time.
29:08People came from all over Germany to attend the tournaments there.
29:18Berghausen continued to expand until it became the longest castle in the world.
29:24Just over a kilometre of fortifications
29:26that still send shivers down the spine today.
29:38This medieval tower standing on a small island in the Rhine
29:42conceals one of the most macabre stories in the area.
29:45MUSIC
29:50The Maus Tower is an example of tragedy and blood,
29:54based in the reality of a dark and almost inhuman period of history.
30:02The tale has been told since the 10th century
30:05and has, as its protagonist, Archbishop Hatto II.
30:09MUSIC
30:12A cruel and tyrannical ruler, he oppressed the local peasants
30:16and demanded tributes from ships sailing down the river,
30:20threatening them with archers and crossbowmen from the top of the tower.
30:28But the archbishop's wickedness, it is said, could be diabolical.
30:34LAUGHTER
30:37The year is 974.
30:40The inhabitants of the surrounding villages were dying of famine.
30:44The most desperate resorted to eating cats and dogs.
30:52Meanwhile, Hatto's grain store was full.
30:57In the 10th century, to be precise,
31:00bishops wielded an incredible amount of power.
31:03Bishops wielded an incredible amount of power.
31:06They were basically feudal lords.
31:09Hatto had a reputation for being incredibly cruel,
31:12nasty and greedy to his peasants.
31:17The peasants attempted a rebellion to gain access to the food,
31:21but Hatto devised a cruel and macabre plan.
31:27He told them to go to an empty barn under the pretext
31:30of distributing cereals to all the families.
31:33Once the barn was full,
31:35the archbishop ordered the doors to be locked and set fire to it.
31:46The screams were heart-rending.
31:52In a corn store and had it set on fire,
31:55and as they were screaming, as they were burning to death,
31:58he allegedly said to one of his entourage,
32:02look how the mice are shrieking.
32:07After the massacre, he returned to his castle.
32:10But he was besieged by an army.
32:13And not just any army.
32:16These were mice.
32:18Thousands of mice.
32:22The legend has it that the souls of the murdered peasants
32:26turned into rodents in search of revenge.
32:31The incredulous criminal took refuge in the tower.
32:38He thought the rodents would not be able to follow him across the river.
32:45Then at night, they came out of the woodwork again,
32:49and he heard the little feet tapping,
32:52and he felt the little teeth nipping at him.
32:55He couldn't run anymore. He was trapped in the tower,
32:57and there the mice ate him while he was still alive.
33:01THE ARCHBISHOP OF MAINZ
33:21Documentary sources confirm the existence of the Archbishop of Mainz,
33:25a man named Hatto.
33:28It is said that his cruelty was remembered for decades in Saxony.
33:33Did he really die devoured by the rodents?
33:36Were they the souls of the murdered peasants?
33:43Only this pretty little tower,
33:45still standing in the middle of the river, knows the truth.
33:50Reichenstein Castle, on the banks of the Rhine.
33:58Built in the 11th century,
34:00Reichenstein was inhabited by a family line of knights,
34:03apparently not the most honourable,
34:06who devoted their time to robbing the possessions of passing travellers
34:10and imposing the payment of tributes.
34:14The head of the last family generation was Dietrich von Hohenfels.
34:20They were what in German we call a Raubritter, marauding knights,
34:25people who had certain rights and privileges, but who abused them.
34:32These guys had castles on the river.
34:34What they would do is they would have something, a chain across the river,
34:38or they'd have a tower on the river, or they'd have something
34:41that meant that boats going down the river had to stop,
34:44had to basically pull over and pay a fee,
34:47whether that be money or a part of its cargo,
34:50before they were allowed to go on.
34:52Tired of the pillaging, King Rudolf I of Habsburg
34:55besieged Reichenstein for four long years,
34:58after various unsuccessful attacks.
35:04According to the legend, Dietrich decided to surrender,
35:08in the knowledge that they would cut off his head.
35:14But he imposed a prior condition,
35:17that his name should not be mentioned.
35:20A prior condition, that his nine sons be pardoned.
35:25And thus begins the best-known and most bloody legend
35:28of the headless ghost of Reichenstein.
35:35The king agreed to his request, but imposed an impossible condition.
35:40He would only show mercy if, once decapitated,
35:44Dietrich was able to move his nine sons from one point to another,
35:50with the line traced on the ground.
35:55The executioner's axe came down on the robber's neck.
36:02And then, Dietrich's decapitated body stood up.
36:10And taking his nine sons one by one,
36:13managed to move them to the other side of the line.
36:20The legend then has it that Rudolf was furious,
36:23and ordered that Dietrich's nine sons be hanged
36:26near St Clement's Chapel, where their souls lie at rest.
36:32Dietrich von Hohenfels, the robber knight,
36:35found no peace, and remains a tortured soul.
36:42Eight centuries later, a museum and a hotel
36:45now stand within the walls of Reichenstein.
36:50But the headless ghost of the robber knight,
36:53who tried to save his sons,
36:55can still apparently be seen wandering the battlements,
36:59staring at the chapel.
37:07Imposing.
37:10And shrouded in the most epic legend from Germanic mythology.
37:14We are in Drachenberg Castle.
37:18Whose stones are steeped in the story of Siegfried,
37:21the great Nordic hero.
37:24A legend bathed in blood and death.
37:33The mountain is called Drachenfels,
37:35which means dragon's rock.
37:37This is the starting point for the story of Siegfried.
37:40The legendary hero who managed to slay the dragon
37:43and bathe in its blood.
37:51The well-known legend has it
37:53that this blood made Siegfried invincible.
37:56But was this really the case?
37:58What he does not realise, though,
38:00is that Siegfried's blood was not his blood.
38:03What he does not realise, though,
38:05is that a leaf from a linden tree
38:07falls right between his shoulders.
38:13So there's one spot that the dragon blood does not touch.
38:17So there's one spot on his body that is vulnerable.
38:22And that weakness led to his death.
38:26When he was run through with a lance just at that point.
38:31At the foot of the mountain,
38:33the Nibelungenhalle pays homage to this legend,
38:36which inspired Wagner's great musical work,
38:39The Ring of the Nibelung.
38:47It is said that it was here,
38:49in this exact spot, where the dragon died,
38:52where everything happened.
38:55It is said that it was here,
38:57in this exact spot, where the dragon died,
39:00where everything happened, Drachenfels.
39:04Can a medieval story impregnate the walls
39:07of a 19th-century castle?
39:13Many centuries after Siegfried and the dragon,
39:16someone decided to lay the castle's first stones.
39:19It was in 1882,
39:21and it was given the name of Drachenberg,
39:23the dragon's castle,
39:25to keep the legend alive and well.
39:30Drachenberg is one of these castles
39:32that was built in the 19th century.
39:34It's not a medieval construction,
39:36but it's built to sort of reflect a German history
39:40that really didn't exist.
39:42It's kind of a very, very colourful,
39:45very stylised, very chivalrous view of the past.
39:54This imposing construction was built in just two years.
39:58Who would want to build a monument like this,
40:01heavily influenced by the legend?
40:05That man was Stefan von Sarter,
40:07a baron, banker and millionaire.
40:11Son of an innkeeper,
40:13he made his fortune exchanging and lending money,
40:16but primarily by financing the Suez Canal.
40:21But that wasn't enough for him.
40:23He also wanted to establish his own castle,
40:25like any true knight.
40:28And so he devised a plan to build Drachenberg.
40:34Von Sarter never lived there.
40:36He devoted time and money to it,
40:38but he only used it to receive visits.
40:44What made him take this decision?
40:49Baron von Sarter appeared to be a great success.
40:52He had been made a baron,
40:54he had built his own castle,
40:56but then tragedy struck.
40:58He had intended to move into his castle
41:00with his childhood sweetheart,
41:02but during the building process she had died,
41:04and the broken-hearted baron
41:06did not move into the castle.
41:11Three deaths,
41:14a legend,
41:17and a number of curious secrets
41:19enclosed within the walls of Drachenberg.
41:22One of the most beautiful constructions
41:24of this type we can find.
41:27A peculiar castle, without a doubt.
41:34The state of Saxony is home
41:36to the imposing Krebstein Castle.
41:46Its craggy outline overlooking the river
41:48and its strong walls
41:50conceal stories of war
41:52and interminable sieges.
41:58Krebstein projects a powerful image
42:00that clashes with the female protagonist
42:02of its main legend.
42:06A legend that relates
42:08how a woman's intelligence
42:10defeated a powerful army
42:12and made its king a laughingstock.
42:15Krebstein Castle was built
42:17before 1400,
42:21and just a few years later
42:23the knight Dietrich von Staupitz
42:25and his men conquered the castle.
42:29The surprise assault
42:31offended the sovereign prince,
42:33Frederick the Belligerent.
42:36Several months of siege
42:38left the fortress's inhabitants
42:40without food.
42:42And some of them could resist no longer.
42:46Krebstein is a very strong castle,
42:48but nobody could withstand a siege forever.
42:50And so the ladies of the castle
42:52pleaded with him to allow them to escape,
42:54carrying only their most precious possessions.
42:56Frederick, although belligerent,
42:58was not entirely heartless,
43:00and so he allowed them to leave,
43:02expecting them to come out
43:04carrying boxes of jewellery
43:06and other such items.
43:08He could not believe his eyes.
43:14The women were not carrying their jewels.
43:18They were carrying on their backs
43:20what they considered to be
43:22their most precious belongings.
43:28None other than their husbands.
43:31None other than their husbands.
43:38The prince was so impressed
43:40with the ladies' deception
43:42that he spared von Staupitz's life.
43:54Krebstein, however,
43:56has revealed a much more recent secret.
43:581986 saw the discovery
44:00of a hidden chamber
44:02containing treasure.
44:07Various precious possessions
44:09hidden there by Heinrich Graf von Lendorf,
44:11a German army officer.
44:17In the closing years of World War II,
44:19in 1944,
44:21the Graf von Lendorf,
44:23who had ownership of the castle,
44:25moved a lot of his valuable objects
44:27– we're talking paintings,
44:29statues, very, very valuable books
44:31that tell us a lot about the past –
44:33and brought them to the castle.
44:36With the German army now in full retreat,
44:38von Lendorf formed part of the group
44:40that made an unsuccessful attempt
44:42on Hitler's life
44:44in July 1944.
44:47He was arrested the following day
44:49and although he escaped twice,
44:51he was hanged six weeks later.
44:57Very few places
44:59have as many secrets
45:01as Kolditz Castle in Saxony,
45:03very close to Leipzig.
45:11This medieval fortress,
45:13dating from the 11th century,
45:15has witnessed many moments
45:17of human desperation.
45:21Its enormous walls,
45:23some of them seven metres thick,
45:25have stifled the cries
45:27of psychiatric patients
45:29for 100 years
45:33and struck fear
45:35into anyone held prisoner
45:37in its cells.
45:41At that time,
45:43legends began to develop.
45:46In this case, legends
45:48that were completely true.
45:50In the 19th century,
45:52Kolditz was an insane asylum
45:55for Jewish people and nobles.
45:59In the 1930s,
46:01the Nazis used the castle,
46:03which had been converted
46:05into a prison in the First World War,
46:07to imprison communists,
46:09homosexuals and Jews.
46:12People were basically imprisoned
46:14in asylums,
46:16as they were called.
46:18And Kolditz is no exception.
46:20It was a castle,
46:22it was a fortified structure
46:24and it was repurposed
46:26because it had thick walls,
46:28it had defences,
46:30it was difficult to get in,
46:32but it was also very easy
46:34to make it difficult to get out.
46:39With that experience in mind,
46:41in the Second World War,
46:43Hitler's command decided
46:45to send the most escape-prone
46:47Allied officers there.
46:50From 1940 onwards,
46:52French, English and Dutch officers,
46:54most of whom had already
46:56made escape attempts,
46:58began to arrive.
47:05It is said that,
47:07to control so many potential escapees,
47:09there were more German soldiers
47:11than prisoners.
47:19What they didn't take into account
47:22was that these men
47:24were determined to fight
47:26with their finest weapon,
47:28their intelligence.
47:30It really was where you sent
47:32the worst of the worst
47:34of POWs,
47:36the prisoners of war
47:38who just couldn't sit still,
47:40who really couldn't bear
47:42to be anywhere.
47:44It didn't matter whether
47:46you threatened them
47:48with executing them
47:50or whether you were
47:52desperate to try to escape.
47:58The first man to escape
48:00from Kolditz was the British
48:02officer Peter Allen.
48:06He hid in a mattress
48:08that the Germans were taking
48:10out to be replaced.
48:12Obviously, if you've got a castle
48:14that's made out of stone,
48:16it's a lot harder to tunnel
48:18out of a normal prisoner of war camp.
48:20So people had to come up with other ideas
48:22as to how to escape.
48:27The first successful escape
48:29was perpetrated by the French lieutenant
48:31Alain Leray,
48:33who hid in a garden shed,
48:35taking advantage of the fact
48:37that the Germans were distracted
48:39by a football match.
48:41He managed to reach Switzerland.
48:43However,
48:45the most impressive feat,
48:47without doubt,
48:49was the work of engineering
48:51performed by the prisoners
48:53who dug several tunnels
48:55underneath Kolditz.
48:57The most extraordinary
48:59of them was the one dug
49:01by French officers
49:03over a period of months.
49:05The tunnel was 44 metres long
49:07and 8 metres deep,
49:09passing underneath
49:12the columns in the castle.
49:22It had electric light,
49:24which was also used
49:26for sending signals
49:28if any Nazi officer approached.
49:42The Germans discovered it
49:44when it was just 9 metres short
49:46of freedom.
49:58Although ingenious,
50:00this was not the most spectacular
50:02escape attempt.
50:04Jack Best and Bill Goldfinch,
50:06RAF pilots,
50:08managed to build a glider.
50:10Over time,
50:12they were able to put together
50:14a glider that would be able to fit
50:16two or three men.
50:18The plan was
50:20that they were going to use it
50:22during an air raid.
50:24They were going to run off
50:26the top of one of the roofs
50:28and glide across the valley.
50:30However,
50:32the war ended
50:34before they had a chance
50:36to try it out.
50:38In five years,
50:40the prisoners had managed
50:4230 successful escapes.
50:48Many years after the end
50:50of the war,
50:52hidden galleries
50:54and secret compartments
50:56are still appearing
50:58from this time
51:00in Kolditz.
51:02A castle-cum-prison,
51:04which was defeated
51:06from inside
51:08by the yearning for freedom.
51:18Coming up,
51:20who will emerge triumphant
51:22in a new episode of Celebrity Mastermind?
51:24Or over on SBS World Movies,
51:26four high school teachers
51:28make a pact to be intoxicated
51:30every day,
51:32in the hilarious Danish comedy
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