set their sights on the champions league debut next week against liverpool. and you're watching video of the news live from berlin coming up next our documentary series doc film looks at the dangers of chemical weapons pose in germany many decades after they were produced and i spy sir thanks for watching. german. jewish i'm jewish if so what. does that mean in daily life and at school 11 teenagers who live in stories. i'm jewish and so. john berman and jewish starts february 22nd on d w. 7

machine you often any chemical weapon that's lying around poses a huge danger and should be run as does the soon as possible. it. is a flushed i don't just live in the thought that you could have been out walking just one meter above so many shells it was really terrifying. to. get our research on covered that there are about $200.00 such sites across germany in. believing i'm going there a concrete ruins in the forest this scary is that the solution.

the most toxic place in germany is located in a forest near mint stuck in a sexy me. this pavilion stands of a what was once decking a pond it covers rusting explosives and chemical warfare shells from 2 world wars the roshi has been closed for months. the only weapons experts in the emergency medical staff who always with them early help through. a pandora's box has been opened tia. and it is fighting very clean after the 2nd world war the british disposed of their shells and such there and fought for whatever couldn't be transported to and dumped in the north and baltic sea was sunk in the diddling our pond the thing i touched on fancy that. the state of lower

saxony continued using the 60 meter wide peat as a munitions dump after the war no records were kept on what was thrown in to a pond until the 1950 s. bomb diving was a popular weekend activity. coast world war 2 there was economic hardship so some people from one star would go dive for non-ferrous metals in the pond that's what the authorities decided to fill it in for food. that was in 1952 the weapons experts estimate around 20000 chemical weapons and bombs could still be buried here. for decades the area remained hidden in the forest and accessible to everyone. like number of a maybe we were just lucky that no one came here in the past few decades and started digging and there were times when we were shocked by how many shells there were and are very close to the surface. in september 29000 local

authorities began to excavate the field in peat tests showed the water quality readings had been wrong for decades during all that time arsenic and other toxins was seeping into the groundwater. no one knows how many chemical weapons were dumped in germany after the end of the 1st world war in 1918 today they remnants can still be found all over the country. like here in this forest just 50 kilometers east of hamburg. geologist in geography your highness process has been studying this toxic more time legacy for decades. this area was used as an incineration site for gas weapons after the 1st world war price 1st collected samples 20 years ago those on board from the no cannot get in condom and that's the bottom of a shell that was twisted off 'd you can see the marks here all this would have been

unscrewed from the shell would be laid in a groove like my arm for suit and then you'd lighted the explosive inside would melt and the glass bottle with the chemical agent would slip out. right remove that poor out the remaining explosive and burn it and. you can see the layers of burnt earth here this is where they threw them in. these are the bases of large caliber shells and those the smaller ones later been lying here for about 100 years here or. the 1st world war was a gas war around 800000 soldiers were killed and more than a 1000000 others were injured by the use of chemical weapons. the weaponized gases got more and more dangerous as the war progressed by $918.00 the final year every

3rd shell fired was filled with gas. after the armistice much of germany stockpiles of unused chemical weapons was dismantled and destroyed but many weapons disappeared without a trace and that is a different thing you're here these large things are from incineration zz which got pretty hot. to me and this is what was inside it. it's only food we sampled this back in 2000 and found it was dynamite trode benzene. is another one. ton i tried been seen is an explosive but it's also poisonous than much so frak when the people who work filling the shells had a lot of trouble with dye niter benzene. there were cases of young women fainting almost 40. and one case where a woman died immediately before. the chemical agents were filled into class bottles

that were inserted into shelves you know hannah's price found glass here as well as a glass flush we saw these glass bottles or at least the tops made of green glass doors for shorts 12 maybe 3. we left them here somewhere on a stone but it looks like someone's taken them now there are others who recognize those bottles. a mine clearing team from the german armed forces the border say they have been searching the homes to military training grounds for chemical weapons for years. this is a it's a very large area will be at work here for another 20 years for sure it's highly dangerous because hazardous materials can turn up at any time a lot of what we're trained and we have protective gear and good equipment in addition to dealing with chemical warfare agents there are explosives in the trees and it was a munitions haven't been decommissioned so detonations are possible and i didn't at all come. as

a law military history. since 893 training took place and remains the largest site at the german armed forces during world war one it was home to the biggest chemical weapons factory in the german empire a quarter of all chemical agents were tested produced and filled into shells here after the war months to played a central role in the disposal of those weapons. actually got so into units was over and the shells were coming back to germany mostly from the western front in france and. the order was that all warfare weapons were to be brought to moonstone no more it's what you wanted so it's a lot of returning troops however that's how to think of it they were pouring in they didn't do that. they just took the munitions to their stations and ordered as a result there were conventional weapons and chemical weapons and no one knew what

was where when its own human loss its will only so there are at least 35 sites where large amounts of warfare agents were brought in 1st of may and we don't know where the remnants are it's an unsolved problem and often is probably. an unsettling force unknown quantities of chemical weapons still rushing away undetected across germany in one step millions of chemical shells and bombs after the war from there they were loaded onto trains and sunk in the sea. in october 1 19191 explosion proved catastrophic. it set off a chain of that nations that lasted 3 days and fired off more than $1000000.00 shells in a radius of 3 kilometers and. many of those 1000000 shells still lying here today

before gnome the metal detector goes off. unplug it we've got a signal from this detector which detects iron did it to us all we know for now is that there is iron buried here. i'm on guns i don't know whether it's a fragment or a part of a tank or ammunition that's what we need to find out next tuesday and. ok here's this little ok so you can already see now it's a shell casing but it's empty why is it didn't go there used to be a chemical agent in there but now there isn't a unity of that this time we're also lucky enough to find places of the bottle and he's a flush this bottle was filled during the 1st world war with the chemical warfare vomiting agent known as clark clark during world war one clark was also known in germany as the mask can break mosque breakout. toxicologist.

explains the insidious power of the toxic gases. the gas henna trade to the protective monks and caused extreme irritation to the mucous membranes and the eyes so that the soldiers would rip off their masks that's when they'd be hit with a 2nd gas for example a choking agent which causes severe lung damage. clock and other hazardous chemical warfare agents have been lucky in the soil beneath a military training ground in months to for decades to would be easy to get by the demarcation but authorities rely on people using a common sense. of it was anyone here without permission is risking their own life with the explosives and chemical warfare agents here i strongly advise against it. it's likely to be several more decades before the small team has cleared the area of toxic residues germany also manufactured large amounts of chemical weapons for woold were to the population was prepared for

a gas war mustard gas sometimes called deadly last in germany had already been used in the 1st world war the dangerous agent played an important role in the 2nd as well. soon after the nazis came to power they began with a rearmament a spic one aspect of that was making warfare agents for germany or that they build factories to manufacture the toxins which then had to be. field into munitions in the minutes you'll find the food in total there were 7 munition filling centers built that worked with mustard gas last up the food for 2. german chemists were behind some of the most gruesome discoveries in modern warfare. a $958.00 propaganda film showcase the power of the nerve agents topple in and sovereign.

after just a few seconds the motor neural stem cells are paralyzed and breathing ceases severest fixation cramps follow. breathing is stopped while a heartbeat can still be detected. in the end even the nazis backed away from using these weapons of horror. when world war 2 ended the allies found hundreds of thousands of bombs and shells filled with chemical agents. they decided to dump most of them at sea ships were loaded and then blown up. leaving a legacy of toxic chemical waste line on the seabed to this day. some $50000.00 tons of mustard gas would dump of the coast of the danish island of bornholm alone. do you see this substance comes into direct contact with the skin

that causes burns and blistering but if you inhale it it can cause toxic pulmonary edema which is a really serious illness that can be fatal. many of those ships were loaded up on the keel canal in northern germany after the war. 2 she holds from embassies from her childhood. these are the tracks the trains arrived on carrying a deadly french of toxic gas bombs and shells. shifa come here on them kill and don't harm the boats would come here to the quay and then the bombs would be loaded out of the ships from the trains your clothing the gas bombs most of which were damaged and you could smell it and even see it kind of does i thought it wasn't a white fog it was a yellow green fog that covered everything that's when we had to put on our gas mask. off said. to this take crystal she holds has no

idea which gases she was exposed to she has difficulty walking the result of a nerve to see if she's had since she was young. you the concord had under fire i was 15 when i 1st began getting l. it added after the end of the war. for they'd finished loading the gas by. a lot and they would be times where i was almost paralyzed and initially a doctor thought it might be polio. in the mud for. d.d. agnostic wish they could to kill their limos and assist them in it it always went away again. and then 20 years ago i was diagnosed with neuropathy but he harbored. no one can say what caused her neuropathy but crystal she holds has found out the toxins can be a trigger. when she showed us

a photo album of peaches from her childhood she became sad the whole family died of cancer. she blames the chemical weapons and the politicians who ignore the existence of these wartime poisons for 75 years. she cannot leave because i don't understand it i just can't understand what the politicians are thinking might not flog the habit i know i'm old but i've been through it all. but these days i get the feeling that they know about it but they don't want to know and they don't want to spend money on it the costs are horrendous and for them money is more important than people. it's better to mention . the costs are not stickle germany's most toxic whole deadly in

a pond in lower saxony could easily become the world's most costly want to clean up comes with an insta mated $15000000.00 euro price tag. in only 2020 work began on 3 exploratory shafts the 1st chemical shells turned up just to meet a below the surface. is part of the team. recovering the deadly weapons in this job he's away anything can happen for days on the wonderful things you're pecan there are things where you can't gauge the risk is what uncovering munitions that leak and so forth you know if this is what is about it was the day my biggest concern is coming across an exposed chemical warfare agent down in the hole was you know that would mean getting out carefully evaluating the situation and taking further measures i don't know most of the know that. stefan bishop has been confronted with such situations down in the show often he risked his own life on the job to save others many jewish carpenter unishe and are

a problem especially when they're somewhere buried in the earth disintegrating and hazardous gases are leaking into the water will eventually that affects the whole population on the other heavy metals that get into the water like arsenic for example seep into the food chain and then into people that's why we have to do that with our funding. 84 minutes is the maximum time stephon the ship can stay in the shocked with his hazmat suit in months. he goes down a mine. next to him and beneath him on hundreds of poison gas shells from 2 world wars. today you'll recover 400 kilograms of toxic deadly munitions from the home. of the street a few days i get my i have a mix of feelings it's strange because you know i can't really express what it feels like the but it's certainly not good or even funny you have to stay sharp

whether you're excavating things or moving them. out of. this closely watched convoy has been moving around the newburgh heat for months. once a day it's poisonous hall is loaded onto a special truck and taken to the good stuff. the company is the only one in the country allowed to dispose of chemical weapons. any chemical weapon roof their agent found on german soil is brought here. gobs of food a lot on average we have one to 200 shells being brought here most of them come from the region north of monster so your blood for example 2 years ago we had some from boston but in birds ah good work the guts all the way were doing some building and brought us chemical shells that still contained the nerve agent tabone hardness of wood and they have come short of. just a drop of tabone is enough to kill

a person philip is responsible for destroying the gas before he sets to work he meticulously checks ischia then yes even that out if there is any dirt or contamination in this area or if any of these plastic pownce are damaged it could allow toxic agents all poisonous gases to get seen and that's why it's really important that everything fits here that everything is clean and that the membrane isn't compromised and is always to see them on and on and this. was present in november 29000 when the 1st shell from death an opponent who saw an open and emergency medical also on standby. it's unbind we get dressed here and then we get into our popemobile and driven over . india i mean before coming up next we enter the front chamber where we pick up

the shells which we take to be cart also an open. with any fees. and we take the shell out of the barrel fasten it at the right height and we leave the room because then it's the turn of the machine operator soros and the shell venting out of the faces because when it's open he'll give us the ok we go in and monitor the room for concentrations of warfare agent view if everything is ok we look to see what the contents are but just dismiss it out of when we've determined that we take a lab sample and then the agent is put into a barrel that can be secured and destroy it safely from the civilian car. when the shell from death in a pond was so nice and the chemical warfare agent inside was found to be false changed. just probably mistrustful skin to machine the problem is that change damages the lungs which means bodily fluids can get in the lungs

fill up and the person effectively drowns on their own bodily fluids onion i can cover 7 adding. chemical munitions recovered from data in a pond stored. if there really are $20000.00 shells to be recovered it will take years to destroy them all. the gay cat is already working to capacity. head of andres kruger says politicians could be doing more school seductively of course that costs taxpayers money in the end you have a safer environment but that's not immediately visible it's so maybe that's why it's an unloved child but there's no other option we should be doing something else too. not least because so few people are aware of the many places in germany contamination by wartime chemical weapons. hostile horse district for example.

the document that saw you go to war the end of the 2nd world war the trail of records on substances found here gets lost. during that shimon she was time you had the allied takeover without any documentation or no documents as the top some things here were also top secret so they were never supposed to be documented or the records are still sealed. for decades bolin authorities turned a blind eye unwilling to stir up trouble on the river hafele but things changed in 2018 when a real estate firm planning to build apartments had the area searched for unexploded bombs the company moved in its back and forth. during the search a metal container was found in one of these bomb craters whose origin could not be determined. so the company asked the berlin police bomb disposal team to check it

out. they determined that the container was filled with the chemical warfare agent clark one comfort of before not. after the unwelcome discovery the real estate company turned to an expert alfred crippen door as an engineer and former captain with the east german army. he's qualified to work with chemical agents such as mustard gas and. he says he's mobile laboratory right next to the building site for an on the spot soil analysis. is long gone you're expecting a very strong contamination of the soil here and also the recovery of large amounts of materials containing arsenic. such as clark one and clark 2 most human being. given that the site was once home to a world war 2 factories that make chemical warfare agents this is hardly a surprise. some of the old buildings are still there.

for decades no one paid much attention parties were held at a boat house here and the former owner of the berlin housing authority did nothing . now the authorities say it's up to the new owners to clear any old ordinance. but the investor doesn't want to pay for it because that would mean passing on the cost of this toxic legacy to buyers and tenants. of the new. era old glass containers from the lab area and here is a piece of the barrel. the ground is full of things like this doesn't hide other stuff on your board. tons of arsenic have already been recovered so far 1000 barrels have been filled to prevent dust from spreading through the air water is constantly being sprayed over

the area. and the poison has been detected in the groundwater. the barrels have to be transported to minister to be destroyed the cleanup operation has cost an $8.00 figure. but what about the neighboring properties large film studios around the adjacent lot and on the other side new apartments are being built could there be chemical weapons in the ground there too. we've got no idea what's behind that fence or in the neighboring lot. you can assume that the soil is contaminated there as well. so you can. only hope that the new owners or whoever moves there also plans to switch out the soil because we know how heavily contaminated by arsenic the ground was here it would be good if everyone did what we're doing throughout our lives all of it and. other studies have shown that public areas are also contaminated with us nic and uncomfortable

truth for the city of berlin after decades of turning a blind eye authorities have to face up to these toxic wartime legacy and it's likely to cost them a lot of. exposure to drilling a ditching a pond and no sex and he ended after tuning up $2552.00 gas shells in spring 2020 local district and regional state level officials agreed to excavate and completely clean up the area. known as sex abuse environmental mr leask says it was the only option. is also says he grew so it's much more the extent of the contamination is much greater than we initially thought it was i would say we will have to invest at least $50000000.00 euros to get rid of what is there fortunately that can be done in this fairly compact area to make it safe again.

but the minister doesn't want lower saxony to have to pay the costs on its own he wants the federal government to share the burden as well very much but it will not be so there will be a little friction with the federal government over who pays to understand my eyes the government is responsible to put it differently shyte residents here should know this won't not happen because of money it has to be done the government has to realise i'm not ready to carry their share it has to be fairly divided. the monster neighborhood of a roll is just a stone's throw away from diddling a pond if anything goes wrong at the excavation site this will be the 1st place affected to make christina fleckenstein spoke with residents. that's she had kind of a huge amount was going up and no one thought about how dangerous it was for the

environment and for the people here and even mentioning. talking flyers you know point being scared if they wouldn't try to stop a cleanup because it has to be done whatever noise me is that they took so long to act like. in the end the government agreed to help fund the cleanup painstaking operation has begun to reopen a field in. an engineering firm was brought in one experienced including chemical weapons it's boss a pill it's the lowest saxony government for showing integrity on the whole he says german politicians are far too reluctant when it comes to dealing with the almost 200 sex contamination by chemical weapons. and want to go. on in the early 1990 s.

the federal office for the environment pushed for research to get an overview of the situation on these sites in germany system because i'm stunned often is that led to some federal state setting up so-called ordinance decommissioning program it's a simple which resulted in targeted investigations being carried out at several sites with bones and but it was never completed and. in addition to the toxins present in the soil and groundwater the engineer has other concerns to some of. us there is the risk that. explosives and even warfare agents could end up in the wrong hands and the gun could and that would pose an even bigger risk to the population of solutes critical for the focal pushed it. one of those warfare agents is the nerve gas sarin one of the most horrific chemical weapons if a many from these are guns in fact it is a nerve agents of probably the worst often come because even just very little concentrations can damage a person's nervous systems and paralyze the wrist near

a tree center which is leading to death from or spirit or a failure to mention stand on an autumn façade. first sergeant thorsten's troops is surveying a sinister place the brooms at the center of plant in months. just before the ones here on mars i mean there this is where the sarin plant was futile . do order the end of the war they carried out trials here into the mass production of the warfare agents aren't here to do damage inside at that time they only produced half a ton when viewed on what they would have eventually been able to produce 50 tons of sarin a month here so in him or not at the hailstone can during the war the sound factory was disguised as a farm house from the ed there was no indication of the experiments being carried out underground. when the british took over the plant after the war they continued

to research briefly and then blew the plant up the buildings above ground were destroyed but what if the underground. kind of this place hasn't been checked properly it's toxic nobody knows what could still be in here on the board laboratory equipment production site materials or even munitions that we're going to as. no one knows for certain and there are no plans to search the old saturn. but the german army says it would cost too much. bottles and fragments of other lab equipment lie strewn around the forest none of it's being tested or cleared. to many other priorities means the army has little time to inspect the grounds. it isn't clear where the civilians have trespassed. it's

kind of wish for no one has been caught so far if they were there would be a stiff penalty and that's because of i strongly advise against coming to this part of the property because it's very dangerous and there are ruins from when the buildings were detonated and there's a huge chance of falling into an old shaft and never being found even though the fronts of india cements schools. france's war fields are awash with gas shells from both sides in the war. after the 1st world war they were incinerated by the median in french forests. has been researching the almost industrial scale destruction. on demeanor. of simone weil the tape in 2015 we were officially commissioned by the environment ministry to signpost the forgotten places where chemical weapons were industrially

destroyed. it so an inventory of at least 50 sites was conducted which is still ongoing. addition of just. these forests neutral and northern france is one site where chemical weapons were incinerated according to estimates several $100000.00 tons were destroyed. there are many spots where nothing has grown for a century the ground is full of toxic fragments of munni. it's in class containers and yet the forest is excessive to everyone. some of the seals in fire don't yell i'm not here we have to preach and. this is a state owned forest and so it's open to the public people often come here to pick mushrooms and it's not inconceivable that they could come into contact with toxic waste is going to see the city could stick their fingers in their mouths after they've been playing here for example that the city share of autumn one is off on

the 25th but just like in germany no one here wants to take responsibility and bear the costs. of some of the people shot off at a settlement effectively there are several reasons for the lack of willingness to deal with the problem 1st the contamination took place 100 years ago the responsible party has long since disappeared names and the war ministry that gave the orders also no longer exists so now the question is who can be held accountable who is responsible and who pays its ability. to offer it just to pay for. however several incidents have forced the french government into action. not when it's almost time for a quickie to their accidents every year the french government does what it can as soon as something is round the weapons are recovery so long that you the chemical

ones are put in storage until the plant to incinerate them is complete they will shoot and the explosives alone are useful if we're exposing them. in france ordinance disposal is financed and run centrally by the national government in germany accountability lies with each regional state and their budgets vary greatly that's why german experts would like the federal government to take more control and responsibility. the people of the regional states keep putting forward proposals for the federal government to take over the costs of ordinance removal till now they've been consistently rejected for up to the. it's a hot potato that keeps getting passed back and forth we received this quote from the finance ministry who are responsible for this matter. police during your

questions to the ministry responsible. the federal ministry for the environment nature conservation and nuclear safety. the environment ministry was quick to respond. the federal government contributes to the disposal of chemical weapons through the federal ministry of finance as to the clearance of contaminated ground here at the regional governments and not the federal government are responsible this is currently not on the federal agenda. many contaminated sites belong to the german government like the formal look mit's mediations plant in northeast germany where chemical weapons were manufactured up until 945. geologist johannes price for the 1st time he's interested in the site because it was laid out in a similar way to form a war munitions factory in very he studied. properties such as this one a managed by the institute for federal real estate beata hisor and lisa command are

in charge of administration in safety here. this is the only bunker not to be blown up by the soviet army after the war. for your last just come or so this was used for mustard gas which was transported here from the factory near hull or and stored in one of 7 bunkers. on isaac's bunkers were used to store mustard gas and one bunker or rather assistant was used to store clark. the main part of this plant was dedicated to producing munitions empty cartridges mines and shells were filled here or grown not only would you go for red means out of bounds weiss all clear the science show which parts of the 100 head to property can be accessed and which can't know maps or plans of the former munitions factory remain so you have destroyed uses the bavarian plants layout for orientation. of the

gas shells were transported around the factory via conveyor belts through a network of subterranean tunnels ruins of those tunnels still survive. after the collapse of east germany the grounds was fenced off these get checked once a month and 90 survey determined the contaminated areas which was sealed off the ground water was found to be severely pollution by residues of arsenic and mustard gas. is in the thing i'm fairly sad a very high concentrations of pollutants in the groundwater which are confined to certain areas so the toxins reach is also limited have been decreasing there's a clear decline that's why we asked whether we need to take further action to clean the soil here the ground water here also isn't used for drinking 3 houses here have water wells but there checked regularly twice a year and thankfully they haven't shown any sign of contamination us. we have

gotten kind of. what is the problem really solved just by putting a fence around it your highness price says an hour. he's concerned by the many off limit areas and the blind spot when it comes to war time poison he says they could still be chemical agents in the cisterns here and toxic gas shells buried in the ground for him the fence isn't a solution it's part of the problem. council forgive me here for you can do what they did here and say we don't see any immediate threats and in case there are any we'll put a fence around it but let's consider the long term picture i don't see that fence still standing in 75 he is still 150 years old and wounded from ft and the problem won't go away on its own and. we clearly have to do something to it's a further issue the next generation will be saddled with it you need to go look at

. the debt lean upon monster will hopefully be clean when it's passed on to the next generation even if it does cost $50000000.00 euros but that will only happen if local regional and national politicians stay in agreement and as long as taxpayer money flows reality even budgets on foot all of us who bear responsibility to day are not to blame for what happened years ago we don't know how we would have acted if we were allowed down but now it is our responsibility to make sure that this problem is resolved women even of the. world war one ended more than a 100 years ago world war 2 more than 75 germany is really associated with chemical weapons today but they remain in the country and to take to it and in unknown quantities even when i retire there will be plenty of munitions left to clear in germany was. a job of the man i think that if you don't

have 1st hand experience of something somehow somewhere can you don't know how to deal with it. and vice and if on top of that it costs my lead and benefits i'm not interested in that. this is true we don't include. the middle so we have to acknowledge that over the coming years many many billions more must be spent on a lemonade ng and cleaning up the weapons of the past difficult. if young guys you know it's at 6 am i began researching contaminated signs 34 years ago in 1906 by diminished and in my view it's an issue that's far from over and does that leads me to satisfy you i thought it would happen a lot quicker than that i thought once we tackled it and the resources were made available of the cleanup was made a priority that we could do it there is that phrase we can do it to us all to see

but no we haven't done it not under suspicion of. what's the secret to lead perfectly fried potatoes. but to have some national dishes there distinctive character. units favorite dishes with their small and big secrets you know serious food secrets you last. 13 t.w. . it's

about billions. it's about howard. it's about the foundation of a new world order the new silk road. china wants to expand its influence with this trade network. but in europe there's a short morning. well for exception money from the new superpower will become. the committal club of. the chinese state has a lot of money at its disposal. and that's how it's expanding and asserting its status and position in the world. china's gateway to europe. starts feb 19th on d w. this

is deja vu news live from berlin donald trump's lawyers wrap up their case and his impeachment trial. they say the former american president holds no responsibility for the violence during the january 6 riots at the capitol also coming up. the u.n. calls for the immediate release of men marsha ousted leader aung san suu cheat as hundreds of thousands take to the streets there to protest the military coup.