Thorsten Kutschke, “Kyrgyzstan”

"You don't have to have been everywhere in the world, but where it's beautiful, you'll want to go more often!" says Thorsten Kutschke, an avid globetrotter for four decades and, for the past 23 years, host and director of the MDR mountaineering show BIWAK. The filmmaker takes us on a journey through the mountain worlds of Central Asia: along the Silk Road, we head to the Pamir and the “Heavenly Mountains,” the Tien Shan.

In Kyrgyzstan, Kutschke has not only shot films but has also traveled there dozens of times, both privately and as a tour guide: In this land of horsemen and nomads, he not only fell in love with the heavenly mountains of the Tien Shan (Heavenly Mountains) and the peaks of the Pamir, but he also found a new “second home” there with his family. The lecture takes listeners from Lake Issyk Kul (described by Chingiz Aitmatov in many books and praised as the “Sea of the Kyrgyz”) all the way up to the most remote mountain lakes in the Tien Shan, which can only be reached via multi-day trekking tours. Kutschke recounts many encounters in a country that was part of the Soviet Union until the 1990s. He meets Lenin and Gagarin. And he takes his audience along to the mighty mountain ranges of the Pamir Mountains, all the way to the legendary base camp at Lenin Peak.

A visual journey to a fascinating country in the Wild East: endless expanses, exotic encounters, spectacular landscapes bathed in mesmerizing light, magnificent views of the sky, and—around almost every corner—a new and exotic adventure.

The restaurant is open from 5:00 p.m.; we serve traditional local cuisine.