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To mark the start of the "Unser Land" series, WDR and BROADVIEW TV take a look at NRW in the 1950s.
Fresh from its baptism after the Second World War, the federal state soon became the center of West Germany with the Bonn Republic.
The 1950s are like a modern fairy tale: In less than ten years, North Rhine-Westphalia, the newly-created artificial hyphen state on the Rhine and Ruhr, becomes the largest and economically strongest state - not only in the young Federal Republic but in the whole of Western Europe.
From the worst possible starting conditions, North Rhine-Westphalia succeeds in taking off from nowhere.
The Hohenzollern Bridge in Cologne, for example, which has crossed the Rhine since the imperial era, became a post-war symbol in the early 1950s, telling a story of reconstruction and connection.
While the first carnival in ruins was still being celebrated around the destroyed bridge a few years earlier, Westphalia and the Rhineland had now come together in their first joint federal state.
The rebuilt Hohenzollern Bridge leads to the country's largest railroad station and connects Cologne with the rest of the country.
From Bonn, Konrad Adenauer initiates a liberal economic policy.
Meanwhile, in the state capital of Düsseldorf, the first NRW Minister President Karl Arnold is elected to office, a man who follows Adenauer's credo: "The economy should serve the people and not the other way around."
Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach and Berthold Beitz are also responsible for the upswing in "our state" of NRW.
Under their leadership, Krupp AG becomes the leading steel producer and NRW one of the richest German states.
At Villa Hügel, the company bosses received political and business leaders from all over Europe.
The prestigious building makes Essen the representative center of the state's economic development.
The rapidly blossoming prosperity also boosts consumption.
People stroll along Düsseldorf's Königsallee, spend money or marvel at the rich displays.
Furs and pearl necklaces provide glamor and beauty - the West Germans present themselves with self-confidence.
Even the first Miss World came from NRW in 1956: Petra Schürmann from Mönchengladbach was crowned the most beautiful woman in the world in London.
Between the ruins of war, steel construction and new wealth, great stories and small anecdotes unfold - an exciting journey through time that is just one part of the diverse history of North Rhine-Westphalia that the "Our State" series brings to life.
First broadcast: Friday, August 19, 2016, 8:15 p.m. on WDR
