Romantic train rides? Rapid cuts and pans show the profane, hectic everyday life of a big city that has no time for romance. The “last mile” to the place of actual departure is covered at a quick pace – by taxi, streetcar or bus. Serious, tired or withdrawn faces hurry to leave the inhospitable station forecourt behind.
Pointedly sober and factual, the speaker explains the necessary preparations for the last departure of an express steam train headed for Berlin from Leipzig Central Station on 30 September 1978. Numerous amateur filmmakers and photographers accompany the steam engine as it departs on its final mission. Unlike the speaker, they were probably quite moved.
The filmmaker Herbert Kasinski portrays the Mitropa restaurant at Leipzig Central Station which seems a little out of time. The figures quoted at the beginning of the film and the number of hungry and thirsty people extrapolated from them are still impressive today: Every day, 800 trains carrying 250,000 passengers arrived at Europe’s biggest terminal with its then 32 platforms.
A lady, presumably from the FRG, takes an excursion on the narrow-gauge railway. Her astonishment at finding the line operated by Young Pioneers is evident. “It’s unbelievable” how she is asked for her ticket with childlike gravity. This film was produced at the active and extremely productive “Iskra” pioneer film studio at the 31st Secondary School in Leipzig-Probstheida.
At the turn of 1968/69, the decision was taken to introduce a Leipzig City Express to “relieve inner city traffic as an attractive local passenger transport system”. A forward-looking measure of traffic policy which – at a time when the car-friendly city was still the dominant concept in urban planning – represented an appealing mobility option for the citizens of Leipzig.
The railway from the point of view of people who travel by bicycle, on foot or by car: A Schlager music recording of GDR singer Chris Doerk is re-cut many times to accompany the endless-seeming wait at a railway crossing. Meanwhile, young people find each other, couples form. Even the birth of a child finds a place in this ironic short film.
Railway slewing cranes by TAKRAF in global use: salvaging derailed trains, assembling bridges, moving goods. The company, now operating again under the name “Kirow” and based in Leipzig-Lindenau, has been able to maintain its standing on the global market until the present day. Constantly improved operating comfort and increased maximum loads represent 100 years of the art of engineering.
Unusually elaborate in terms of cinematography and dramaturgy, the film illustrates the dangers of careless children playing on railway premises. It’s only logical that this leads to a recommendation to make do with the less dangerous model trains. Quite a number of film and television careers began at the “Iskra” pioneer film studio, headed for many years by the lower grade and handicrafts teacher Rolf Kießling.
