Today, I want to show you one of Germany's westernmost regions: The Eifel.
It's impressive landscapes are the result of a fascinating past
and this is where you get the best view. The top of the Eifel's highest mountain.
In the past, the Eifel was a rather poor region.
Today, the low mountain range with its forests,
lakes and extinct volcanic craters has become an attractive tourist region.
The small city of Monschau, near the Belgian border is nicknamed "The pearl of the Eifel".
Its historic old town attracts tourists from all over the world.
In July of 2021 horrendous flooding devastated large parts of the Eifel.
Monschau was left pretty much unscathed, but still had trouble dealing with the fallout of the catastrophe.
The tourism sector was severely affected by the flood.
Barbara Frohnoff is the city's tourism manager.
How did the catastrophe impact tourism here?
Very drastically, unfortunately.
From the reports in the media, people assumed that the entire Eifel region
was affected by the flooding crisis and that everywhere had been devastated.
Just think: the extreme rain event happened on Thursday and then, by Friday and Saturday,
some businesses were receiving up to 40 cancellations a day.
If you remember that these businesses were just emerging from a seven-month lockdown,
then that was particularly hard.
The hopes for a good season were particularly high.
It seems to me is that Monschau is bustling with activity. But Barbara Frohnhoff tells me
that now, despite the high season, tourist numbers are far below average.
According to scientists, the flooding of 2021 can be largely attributed
to human-made climate change.
But already 700,000 years ago, enormous natural events shaped the Eifel.
This unusual landscape is the result of powerful volcanic eruptions.
I'd like to find out more about the exciting volcanic history of the Eifel,
so I'm meeting up with an expert.
People around here call the Maars "the eyes of the Eifel". How many of them are there?
Of the 350 volcanoes that we have in the region, 77 have been shown to be maar volcanoes.
Nowadays, not all of them are filled with water. Most are dried out or are bog or moorland.
But the most recent ones, in particular, the ones that formed over the last 80,000 years
— including Germany's most recent volcano, the Ulmener Maar,
12 of those 77 maars are crater lakes.
And, by the way, the scientists agree that the volcanic are of the West Eifel
cannot be described as extinct.
That was my next question: Is it still seething under our feet?
It is still bubbling away under our feet. There aren't any eruptions any more,
but you can tell that it is bubbling away because of the rising carbon dioxide.
Let's take a look!
A closer look!
At the heart of the Eifel lies the small town of Wallenborn — home to a real geyser.
It's nicknamed "Brubbel" and shoots cold water into the air every thirty minutes.
Here, the activity under the surface is very clear. How does the geyser work?
Brubbel is a cold water geyser. That means that it is not triggered by temperature, but by CO2.
Carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is being given off by the magma deep in the earth's crust.
The CO2 rises and comes into contact with water. The CO2 percolates into the water, the water absorbs
a certain amount of CO2 until it reaches saturation point.
And then the first gas bubbles are formed,
they collide with one another and continue to grow in size.
They rise upwards — and the result of this self-amplifying effect is that Brubbel,
the cold water geyser shoots up into the air.
Water, Wind, Fire and Earth — few regions in Germany have been as significantly shaped
by the elements as the Eifel.
The resulting diversity of flora and fauna can be admired at Eifel National Park.
The motto here is: let nature be nature.
Without human interference, endangered species of animals and plants can spread freely.
If you want to really dive into nature, I highly recommend a guided tour with a ranger.
This is where the primeval forest of the future is set to develop.
What exactly does that mean?
Well, we will never get the primeval forest per se back. There is hardly a square meter left in central Europe.
But the primeval forest of the future will be something similar if we, people, stop interfering
and the whole thing can develop over centuries. We have to think in tree generations here.
We will have to wait for a bit, unfortunately, but a lot is already happening.
The forest is already changing. When trees fall over, break in two,
when there are storms, or bark beetles attack trees.
Elsewhere, conifers killed by vermin are instantly removed.
But here in the National Park, they're left to rot.
Seeds dropped on the dead wood by birds and other creatures create new life.
My next stop was once a prominent place in the darkest chapter of German history.
Smack in the middle of the national park lies the former Nazi estate and castle Ordensburg Vogelsang.
It was a training center for future party leaders
and where Vogelsang once stood for the propagation of dehumanizing values,
today it's a space dedicated to remembrances and the celebration of diversity.
You can learn about the history of Vogelsang in a permanent exhibition.
Back in the day, young men were indoctinated with Nazi ideology and received military and sports training here.
The self-titled "Ordensjunker" were supposed to come close to their ideal of a superior German man.
Today, Vogelsang is an international meeting place and research institution.
From Germany's more recent history back to the distant past.
Quite remarkable that, 13,000 years ago, this peaceful lake was the site
of the biggest volcanic eruption in Central Europe to date.
A thick layer of volcanic ash and pumice buried meadows, valleys and forests.
Ansgar Hehenkamp is a fisher on Lake Lacher See.
14 years ago, he leased the Maria Laach Abbey and decided to continue the monks' centuries-old fishing tradition.
While you're at it, do you mind explaining to me how it works? It looks very peculiar.
In principle, it's a classic pelagic method. The nets aren't attached to the lake bottom
and the top line doesn't weigh anything.
Below there is a line with a lead weight that spans the whole thing.
It's a bit like a curtain. The fish swim inside and the mesh determines the size of fish we catch.
This fish is at the smaller end of the spectrum, it weighs about 200g.
We catch up to 300, 350g. Smaller fish simply swim through,
bigger ones can also get caught, but not as well. It's selective fishing.
The volcano under the lake here is not yet extinct.
There are still visible discharges of carbon dioxide. They're called "mofetta".
So volcanism is still very visible here, isn't it?
Yes, here. That's why all the tourists come. You can even see them from the shore.
There are a lot of places where you can't.
If the mofettas are 40 meters down, I can see them on my echo sounding device
when I look for fish
— something resembling a Christmas tree rising from the bottom. But you can't see that with the naked eye.
Not far from the lake lies Maria Laach Abbey. The medieval monastery was founded
a thousand years ago and is arguably the most famous building of the Eifel.
The basilica, with its six towers, is the centerpiece of the abbey.
It's one of the most beautiful and intact Romanesque monuments in Germany.
Following the tradition of the big cathedrals in the cities of Speyer, Mainz and Worms.
With its craters, volcanic lakes and historic sites, the Eifel really is an exceptional region.
The sheer variety one can find here is truly hard to match.
So thank you for discovering it with me today and I'll see you next time somewhere in Germany.