Germany's Wild North: Life in the Wendland | Full Documentary

Salderatzen. Witzeetze. Pudripp. Waddeweitz. The village names alone hint at something extraordinary — and the Wendland in northern Germany delivers on every promise. This remote corner of Lower Saxony is one of Europe's last great rural wildernesses, where the Elbe floodplains, ancient riparian forests, and open heathland form a mosaic unlike anywhere else on the continent. Beavers and otters work the waterways. Wolves roam the forests. Cranes and white storks patrol the meadows. In the hollows of centuries-old oaks, hoopoes and pygmy owls raise their young — while stag beetles feed on the sap of veteran trees that have stood for hundreds of years. And now, new arrivals from southern Europe are making the Wendland their home: the Italian locust and the locust sand wasp, filmed here for the very first time. Scattered across the landscape are more than 80 round villages, their origins reaching back to the Slavic Wends. Farmsteads arranged in a circle around a shared village green — a form of settlement found nowhere else in Germany — give the region a living connection to medieval history. But this idyll is under pressure. Summer heat and drought are cracking the soil and emptying the ponds. Frogs and fish are losing their habitats as the climate reshapes what was once a reliable rhythm of seasons. Filmmakers Klaus Weißmann and Wilma Kock spent two years in this landscape, documenting the wildlife, the old livestock breeds, and the traditional ways of life that still hold on here. Their film is a portrait of a Germany that most people never get to see. ➡ Fascinated by nature? Hit *subscribe* and join our wild adventure! 🦁🌵 ➡ New nature discoveries *every week* @FreeHighQualityDocumentaries 📌 Wild Germany | Nature Documentary | European Wildlife | Wendland | Elbe #WildGermany #NatureDocumentary #Wendland