Metadata
- TitleMining and the changing landscape
- SummaryThis colour documentary film reports on the consequences of underground mining and the resulting interventions in the landscape. The film devotes a lot of space to the possibilities of post-mining landscapes using the Senftenberg Lake District as an example. Landscape architect Otto Rindt reports on the immense task of recultivating the subsequent landscape and its benefits for the population, as well as the enormous enhancement of the region. Camera work, editing and commentary give this worth seeing film, which is also supported by good aerial photographs of the affected areas, a good overview of the problem area between energy demand and environment.
- Shotlist0:00:00 Title insertion in several languages: "BERGBAU changes the landscape". Aerial photograph of a lignite underground mining operation with its conveyor bridges and bucket wheel excavators (semi-total). View of a bucket chain excavator in the pit (half total). Mined lignite falls over the conveyor bridges into the slowly passing freight wagons (half total). View (from above) of the running bucket chains of the excavator (half total). View (from below on the conveyor bridges (half total). Swing over the conveyor bridge (half total). Zoom to the non-recoverable earth at the end of the assembly line (semi-total). View of the arm with the big paddle wheel (half total). Excavator driver climbs down from his high seat on the excavator (half total). Swinging from the bottom of the pit to the incoming and outgoing freight trains to the large excavators (half total). Comment: "...about 28% of the world production of lignite is mined in the GDR, the share should increase...the mining leads to a total change of the landscape...the land is partly mined up to 100 meters deep and destroyed, nothing remains in its place...even whole settlements have to give way to the excavators". 0:01:22 Aerial photograph over the pit with a view of the excavators on the different mining levels (half total). Sightseeing flight over the conveyor bridges (half total). Aerial photograph over the devastated land of the exploited mine (half total). View of the moving freight train on the way to the coal-fired power plant with its 7 large cooling towers (half total). View of seven smoking chimneys of a coal-fired power plant (half-total). Various settings of power stations and substations (semi-total). Swing over a transformer station to the power lines on the fields (half total). Insulators and high-voltage lines (semi-near). Overhead line masts run through the landscape (half total). Comment: "...can a geographically small country like the GDR afford to destroy so much land at all? The GDR has energy problems and a special energy program, lignite is the most important source of energy...and basis for 83% of the required electrical energy in the country...nature and its riches are an important basis for the development of the national economy, it is important to handle these riches carefully". 0:02:38 In the Office for Territorial Planning in Cottbus an expert committee discusses the post-mining landscape of a future lignite area (semi-total) (original sound). Faces of individual professionals (near). Backward zoom from the face of landscape architect Otto Rindt to the whole discussion group (half near) (original sound). Comment: "Long before the excavators arrive, the post-mining landscape is planned...the interests of socialist society and the technological possibilities of mining are coordinated...". Aerial photograph of the Senftenberg lignite area with lakes and trees, the result of a successful post-mining landscape (semi-total). Landscape architect Otto Rindt (Halbnah) (O-Ton) "What we have here is the creation of a following landscape at an open pit remnant hole with the aim of creating a near-natural lake with a...To create a local recreation area, and this goal must be regulated in such a way that on the one hand unnecessary maintenance costs do not arise for the future, otherwise this cannot be achieved at all, for the people, and that one lets develop close to nature, most of the time it can do itself, by directing its process in such a way that all conditions are created for a beautiful and fertile landscape...". 0:04:44 Aerial photograph over an exploited and devastated landscape of the opencast mine (half total). Comment: "They think of tomorrow, of future generations so that such images no longer exist, so that deep wounds have left behind capitalist overexploitation, wildly dumped dead ground with erosions, ghostly like lunar landscapes...". Aerial photograph over the devastated area (half total). Tractor with harvested turnips on the trailer on a village road (half total) (original sound). View of a destroyed detached house (half total). Experts speak with the inhabitants of the village (half total). Comment: "The first concern is to inform people who will be affected by the settlements long before the dredgers come. After discussions with each individual, an attempt is made to include the individual wishes in the territorial planning, most of the inhabitants stay in the neighbouring communities or receive a new "home" in the cities of the surroundings. Swing from the roses in the front garden to the open roof of a house (half total). Workers loosen the roof tiles on the house (half total). View of the owner and the advisor before the demolition ripe house (half total). Workers knock down the bearing walls of the house (half total). 0:06:03 Swing from the sand of the landscape onto the rotating bucket wheel of the excavator (half total). View (from above) of the bucket wheel excavator during the erosion of the upper earth layer with grass and sand (half total). Swing (from above) over the excavators and conveyor belts in the pit (half total). Comment: "In the GDR, the Landesnaturgesetz and especially the Berggesetze protect the resources in the soil, so the socialist mining companies are obliged to restore destroyed areas...". Zoom on the excavators in an open cast mine (half total). View (from above) of the running conveyor belts with lignite on the conveyor bridges (semi-near). View (from above) of the discharge of the unusable earth from the conveyor bridges (half total). Swing from the overburden soil of the conveyor belt to the exploited pit (semi-total) (original clay). Worker controls the conveyor belts (semi-total). View of the overburden conveyor bridges (half total). The overburden is ejected from the wagons of the freight train (half-total). View of the rotating shovels of the excavator (semi-total). Bulldozer pushes the overburden together (half total). View into the pit full of overburden (half total). Zoom on the bulldozer in the design of the future shore area of the lake (semi-total). Bulldozers and other earth-moving machines prepare the ground for the restoration (semi-total). Swivel (from below) over the conveyor system of the excavator (half total). 0:08:07 Aerial photograph over the overburden area and the excavators in the pits (half total). Comment: "But there are problems, excavation and dumping are becoming more intensive, the use of ever larger conveyor bridges leads to mixing of all soil layers and the creation of good agricultural land is becoming more and more difficult". Aerial photograph of the exploited mine and the sparse tree cover at the edge of the lignite area (semi-total). Tractor transports topsoil on the trailer to the overburden area (half total). Bulldozers mix the layers of earth together to gain usable soil (semi-total). Soil is loosened and ploughed by machines (semi-total). Comment: "One solution is to transform dead dump soils into fertile land through tillage...there is no scheme for reclamation, each open pit mine, each soil requires its own technology". Large-area soil irrigation of fertile land areas (semi-total). Tracker turns the remains of the cut cornfield (half-total). 0:09:28 Backward zoom of a woman's face on the members of a Commission for Restoration from Cottbus on a field (semi-total). Members consult each other in the field and take notes (semi-close). Faces of Commissioners (near). Commission goes over the field and checks the result of the test seed (half-total). Commissioner takes a young beet plant from the ground and tests it (semi-near). View into the greenhouse of the Institute for Land Research in Finsterwalde (half total). Comment: "...here we tried to grow plants on pure power plant ashes, this secondary raw material accumulates in large quantities and has not been used up to now...tests in the laboratory and on test areas yielded good yields". View of a test area next to a spoil heap (semi-total). Employees of the trial cut the grasses on the test area and weigh the yield obtained (semi-near). 0:11:20 Freight wagons with power station ash roll towards the camera (half total). Flaps on the wagons open and the ash slides over the tips of the opencast mine (half total). Farmer Heinz Mai reports about his experiences with the so treated soils (half near) (original sound) "That was not so that we were equal fire and flame, we were actually all very skeptical and did not think that we achieve these results here. After all, there have already been a few trials before, and after the trials we then went on to the large-scale trial, and we can further say that we have already gone on to the obligatory cultivation, with the corresponding fruit. Apart from root crops, we cultivate almost everything here, wheat, winter barley and sweet clover...and we can say that these areas produce just as much yield as the other areas on the "grown soil of our republic". May in front of a sunflower field (semi-near). Cornfield bends in the blowing wind (half total). Backward zoom of a field irrigation system (semi-total). Sheep herd on the newly created fields (half total). Swing over a tractor with plough (semi-near). Grain harvesting machines in series perform their work (semi-total). Woman at the wheel of a mower (semi-near). View (from behind) of the mower with parallel running wagon picking up the harvested grains (half total). 0:13:40 Aerial photograph of a reclaimed area in the district of Cottbus (half total). Comment: "...alone in the last 5 years with an immense expenditure of 150 million Marks about 7,500 ha of former mining area was reclaimed and recultivated...and like here nobody sees the fields, forests and lakes that once were open pit mines". Aerial photographs over lakes and forest areas (half total). Drive photo on a watercourse in the Senftenberg landscape with a view of the shore area with deciduous trees (half total). Drive over one of the side channels with lush bush and tree cover (semi-total). Comment: "In the last century the landscape around Senftenberg was rich in watercourses, woods, ditches and ponds...with the beginning mining the destruction of their ecological systems took place totally". Aerial photograph over a lake and an adjacent village (half total). Comment: "Today, the traditional Senftenberg brown coal district is a lake area and 1st example of a generously designed folk landscape...". Aerial photograph over the lake with the beach areas and recreation seekers (half total). Excursion boats on the lake (half total). Families in bathing clothes on the sandy beach of the lake (half total). Swimmers with their children in beach chairs (half total). View of the bathers and those seeking relaxation on the beach (half total). 0:15:27 Face of Otto Rindt at the lake (nah) (O-Ton) "The Senftenberger lake is about 1/5 of what will be here once, the whole is called then the Senftenberger lake district, which will be perfect about the year 2005. Then there is such an extensive recreation area here where you can make 50 kilometres of steamboat trips across the different lakes, because they are connected with each other...that is of course a great creative task". Plan by landscape architect Rindt of the planned lake district (near). Rindt continues (nah) (O-Ton) "Yes, I know Senftenberg from the time when people still had to live in dust and smoke, and for the Senftenbergers this is a very unusual development, and now the time begins where the Senftenbergers also find this new one and learn to love it and are also willing to fight for it and do something for it". 0:16:42 View of the pedestrians in the city centre of Senftleben (half total). View into the alleys of Senftleben (half total). Orb and stucco work on the facades of the older houses (semi-total). Lively traffic in Senftenberg (half total). Comment: "The city is reviving, the old miners' town has become a modern, socialist industrial centre. Through urban and housing construction, better living conditions were created for the people, without the high expenditures for the development of the landscape around the city, without the concern for future generations, Senftenberg would today be an island in the midst of coal-mined opencast mines, this fate was spared them". Cityscape of Senftenberg with ponds, canals, parks and modern houses in prefabricated construction (half total). View of an emerging prefabricated housing estate (semi-total). Workers on the construction site erecting a construction crane (semi-total). Face of a resettled resident (semi-near). Children at a bus stop (half near). View of the inhabited prefabricated housing estate (half total). 0:17:32 Comment: "Today the city is being expanded according to plan in the direction of the lake, the Senftenbergs, who are at home here in the post-mining landscape, have found a new home here, experience very intensively what it means, mining is something temporary, recultivation is forever". Fountain in the new development area south (half total). Children's playground between the prefabricated buildings (half total). Playground and monument next to the prefabricated buildings (half total). Aerial photograph over the historical and new Senftenberg up to the adjacent lake (half total). Credit in several languages: "Eine Produktion von camera DDR". Dimming. 0:18:34 END
- TagsGerman Democratic Republic (GDR); Landscape; Mining; Mining; Recultivation: Folgelandschaft; Senftleben; Brandenburg; Lower Lusatia; Underground mining; Lignite; Environment; Energy; Raw materials; Coal excavator; Overburden; Aerial photographs; Coal-fired power plant; Cooling tower; Transformer station; Economics; Cottbus; Territorial planning; Economy; Spatial planning; Local recreation; Resettlement; Mine; Berggesetzt; Landesnaturgesetz; Agriculture; Usable land; reclamation; Finsterwalde; Ashes; Housing construction; Mining; Land law; Agriculture; Usable land; Land reclamation; Land reclamation; Finsterwalde; Brandenburg; Housing construction; Waste; Lower Lusatia; Lower Lusatia; Brandenburg; Lower Lusatia
- Decade1980
- Production Year1981
- Release date
- Genre
- Country of Production
- Actors
- PersonalitiesHeinz Mai, Otto Rindt
- DirectorEllen Richardt
- Producer
- CameraHans Kracht
- Original Clip IdentifierQ6UJ9A003VPR