Story

The second half of the 19th century was marked by epochal changes, also for the great multi-ethnic empire in the centre of Europe, the Austrian Empire. Above all, the development of a gigantic railway network linking the most remote areas of the Austrian crown lands, between the steppes of Galicia and the coasts of the Adriatic, was to change the way people live together forever.

Suddenly, goods, people and ideas circulated at breathtaking speed in an empire that was home to more than a dozen peoples. And for the first time it was possible to drive from Vienna to Lemberg in the east or south to the old Austrian port city of Trieste in just a few hours. Distances which had taken days and weeks before the railway was built.

In the third part of the television documentary series “On the Rails of the Double Headed Eagle”, the two directors Björn Kölz and Gernot Stadler take the audience on a journey to the southwestern Crown Lands of the Habsburg Empire. The Kaiserin-Elisabeth-line, today’s West line, goes to Bad Ischl and the Mühlviertel in Upper Austria, from Innsbruck the journey continues on the Arlberg line to Vorarlberg and the Brenner line to South Tyrol. It highlights the engineering masterpieces that had to be accomplished in order to cross the Alps on the way to the west and south. The filmmakers also spend some time in the various regions along the route. In Ampflwang in Upper Austria’s Hausruckviertel, the locomotive park of the Austrian Society for Railway History invites you to visit, while in Carinthia there is an excursion with a historic steam locomotive of the Association Nostalgiebahnen. A visit to a cheesemaker and farmer in the Bregenzerwald or to a winegrower in South Tyrol are further stops on this cinematic railway journey.

Auch im dritten Teil von „Auf den Schienen des Doppeladlers“ wird deutlich: es waren die Eisenbahnen, die das weite Reich mit Leben erfüllten, die Menschen und Waren zirkulieren ließen und die Eroberung von Landschaften im touristischen Sinne ermöglichten. In einem Großraum, der heute von mehr als einem Dutzend souveräner Staaten belegt wird, konnte sich der Reisende vor hundert Jahren ohne jegliche Einschränkung frei bewegen. Durch ihre grenzüberschreitende und völkerverbindende Funktion wurde die Eisenbahn auch zu einem Symbol für Freiheit und Einheit innerhalb der Österreichisch-Ungarischen Monarchie.

Production data:

Format

Documentation, 52 min, 2015

Production

GS-Film, ORF/3sat

Idea & Concept

Björn Kölz

Written and directed by

Björn Kölz, Gernot Stadler

Camera

Gernot Stadler, Dieter Frank, Marco J. Rusch, Jonathan Rinn

Music

Manfred Plessl

Camera assistance & sound

Björn Kölz

Distribution

ORF Enterprise