Northrhein Westfalia at 75: Unser Bundesland - A History

In the fifth part of the series "Our Country", WDR and BROADVIEW TV take a look at NRW in the 1990s. The state is changing: Bonn loses its status as the capital city and the Revier region is transformed into a recreational area. An El Dorado for media, services, energy and creative industries emerges. NRW is fully in tune with the times - not nostalgic, but progressive. As symbols of the new age, imposing buildings are rising skyward. Internationally renowned architects are designing unusual buildings and redefining entire cityscapes. At the same time, existing structures are being redesigned: Mighty witnesses of the past become landmarks of the present. Fewer and fewer people in NRW are getting dirty at work. Media, services and culture are the new employers. The profound change is altering needs, self-image and also the landscape. NRW is shedding its skin, sprucing itself up, getting ready for the 21st century. In Cologne, the Mediapark is being built, where music broadcasters such as EinsLive and Viva have their headquarters and Europe's largest music trade show, Popkomm, is based. At the same time, large film studios are springing up on the outskirts of the city: TV faces like Stefan Raab and Anke Engelke are the stars of tomorrow. But hardly anyone shaped the tone of the '90s like Harald Schmidt, who reinvented himself as a late-night talker along American lines. His irony and sarcasm fit the times in which everything seems to be new and many things are questioned. The Oberhausen Gasometer also stands for change. A museum is being built in the old industrial building, and a landscape park is growing around it, where Germany's largest shopping center to date is being opened. Nowhere else can you see more clearly how an industrial landscape is being transformed into a cultural landscape. But upheaval also means that the old has not yet been completely overcome: NRW remains an energy state, and entire villages have to be resettled in the Rhenish lignite mining region when the controversial Garzweiler II project is approved. SPD Minister President Wolfgang Clement gets caught between the fronts. His policies are controversial: on the one hand, he pushes cultural change and is seen as a modernizer and engine of NRW; on the other, he presents himself as a combative lobbyist for the traditional energy industry, the former heart of the state. He faces the challenge of building a bridge from the old to the new. Between lignite dramas and media revolutions, great stories and small anecdotes unfold - an exciting journey through time that is only a small part of the diverse history of North Rhine-Westphalia brought to life by the "Our State" series.