Discover 11,128,835 listings and 279,803 playable programmes from the BBC
15 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW
Available for over a year
Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, begins his series examining 600 years of German history through with a reflection on Germany's floating frontiers. Show more
15 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW
Available for over a year
Neil MacGregor examines the story of the two Germanys, East and West, created in 1949, through objects including a wetsuit used in an escape attempt from the East in 1987. Show more
15 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW
Available for over a year
Neil MacGregor visits Kaliningrad, now in Russia but formerly the German city Konigsberg, home of the philosopher Kant. He also visits Prague, birthplace of writer Franz Kafka. Show more
15 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW
Available for over a year
Neil MacGregor visits Strasbourg, now in France but also a key city in German history, culture and precision engineering, as revealed by model of the astonishing cathedral clock. Show more
15 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW
Available for over a year
Neil MacGregor discovers how coins reveal the range and diversity of the Holy Roman Empire, with around 200 different currencies struck in the different territories of Germany. Show more
15 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW
Available for over a year
Neil MacGregor focuses on the things that bind Germans together, beginning with the story of how Luther created the modern German language by translating the Bible. Show more
15 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW
Available for over a year
Neil MacGregor examines how the tales of the Grimms and the art of Caspar David Friedrich re-established an identity for the German-speaking people after their defeat by Napoleon. Show more
15 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW
Available for over a year
Neil MacGregor focuses on Goethe, arguing that he is the greatest of all German poets and such a unifying force that the Germans are 'one nation under Goethe'. Show more
15 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW
Available for over a year
Neil MacGregor visits the Walhalla, one of the most idiosyncratic expressions of national identity in 19th-century Europe, a temple to German-ness, modelled on the Parthenon. Show more
15 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW
Available for over a year
Neil MacGregor visits Aachen cathedral to examine the legacy of Charlemagne (c747-814). Was he a great French ruler, or was he Charles the Great, a German? Show more
15 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW
Available for over a year
Neil MacGregor focuses on the supreme religious sculptures of Riemenschneider (c1460-1531), whose Four Evangelists were carved from the peculiarly German medium of limewood. Show more
15 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW
Available for over a year
Neil MacGregor charts the rise and fall of the Hansa, or Hanseatic League, a great trading alliance of 90 cities, and the role of the painter Hans Holbein the Younger. Show more
15 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW
Available for over a year
Neil MacGregor charts the role of iron in 19th-century Prussia, an everyday metal used for patriotic jewellery and the Iron Cross, a military decoration to honour all ranks. Show more
15 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW
Available for over a year
Neil MacGregor reflects on the events of 1848, when black, red and gold became the colours of the flag for a united Germany, and Marx and Engels published The Communist Manifesto. Show more
15 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW
Available for over a year
Neil MacGregor focuses on the work of Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), arguing that he is the defining artist of Germany, his image - and his self-image - known to all Germans. Show more
15 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW
Available for over a year
Neil MacGregor focuses on how 18th-century German chemists discovered the secrets of Chinese porcelain, known then as 'white gold' - translucent, fine-glazed and much-coveted. Show more
15 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW
Available for over a year
Neil MacGregor focuses on the long tradition of German metalwork, from finely engineered clocks and scientific instruments to the Volkswagen Beetle. Show more
15 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW
Available for over a year
Neil MacGregor focuses on the Bauhaus school of art and design, founded in 1919. Its emphasis on functional elegance is visible in our houses, furniture and typography today. Show more
15 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW
Available for over a year
Neil MacGregor charts the career of Otto von Bismarck (1815-98), known as the Iron Chancellor, who argued that the great questions of the day should be decided by 'iron and blood'. Show more
15 minutes
First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW
Available for over a year
Neil MacGregor examines how Johannes Gutenberg's inventions led to the birth of the book as we know it. For many, it is the moment at which the modern world began. Show more
