colourFIELD | UNDERWORLDS<br>GERMANY FROM BELOW (2/2) - SHAFTS, SUBWAYS AND THE BLACK GOLD

UNDERWORLDS
GERMANY FROM BELOW (2/2)

SHAFTS, SUBWAYS AND THE BLACK GOLD

“Germany From Below“ uncovers hidden underworlds: the tunnels under the Elbe river in Hamburg, the complex subterranean world beneath Potsdamer Platz in Berlin; from the bunkers of WWII and the Cold War, to the eerie ossuaries and wonderful underwater caves, to the vast shaft system of the gigantic Prosper Haniel coal mine.

Modern cities would not exist without the exploitation of a parallel world under our feet. In the old tunnels under the Elbe River in Hamburg, traffic flows just a few metres underwater. Beneath Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz a whole world exists of metro stations, and tunnels carrying sewage and fresh air, gas pipes, electricity and telephone cables.

Munich is protected from flooding during heavy rain thanks to a huge underground cistern system. In Cologne layers of sediment layers reveal the history of ancient civilisations.

In the last 150 years huge pit systems have been built under whole Ruhr area, Germany’s largest urban region with 5.2 million inhabitants. The coal mines there have fuelled industrialisation and wealth for the region. In Prosper Haniel, one of the last functioning mines, miners take the lift that leads them one kilometre underground to their workplace - a pit system stretching over 150 kilometres long.

“Germany From Below“ takes the audience into the hidden labyrinth of tunnels where solitary moles dwell, it also shows how air streams moves beneath the earth, whether in the Berlin subway, or the largest German bunker of WWII in Dortmund, or the glittering, frozen world of the Schellenberg ice cave at 1,600 metres in the fairytale-like Berchtesgaden Alps.

Munich is protected from flooding during heavy rain thanks to a huge underground cistern system. In Cologne layers of sediment layers reveal the history of ancient civilisations.

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Nominated for the Adolf-Grimme Prize
Nominated for the German Camera Prize

First aired on ZDF:
1. Episode: First aired on 18th May 2014 , 7:30pm., ZDF
2. Episode: First aired on 25th May 2014 , 7:30 pm, ZDF

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The Dortmund filmmakers achieved great public success with “Germany from Above.” Now they have shifted their perspective, demonstrating the exceptional talent of this documentary duo. Röckenhaus and Höfer use the general title to tell small, cleverly interwoven stories, not only about cave explorers, but also about an oil rig in the North Sea, marmots, and the network of fungi. The audience is by no means overwhelmed with text. The fantastic images and animations are effective. Only one question remains: Why haven't Röckenhaus and Höfer won a Grimme Prize yet?

WAZ / Jürgen Overkott

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There is something amazing to see on ZDF: huge caves created by nature, humans, or animals; miles of corridors, vaults as high as cathedrals, shafts whose ends no one has yet reached. They are explored by the makers of the extraordinary series “Germany from Above,” who this time have gone underground. What they uncover is just as breathtaking as their bird's-eye view of our country with their camera. Whether it's the salt mine in Bernburg in Saxony-Anhalt with its monumental caverns that look like a city beneath the city, the medieval ossuaries, some of which have only been discovered in recent years, or the “Riesending.” This is a cave on the Untersberg in the Berchtesgadener Land, which was only discovered in 2002 and whose entrance the explorers still keep secret today. It has everything: lakes, waterfalls, cliffs, canyons. According to legend, King Barbarossa lives here with a tribe of dwarves – they certainly have enough space. No less impressive, however, is what the marmots at Funtensee dig away on a smaller scale. The film tracks them with mini cameras and all the tricks of computer technology that the filmmakers have mastered. But what they show us is already an adventure in its original state. A journey into a wonderland.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung / Michael Hanfeld

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Be it the salt mine in Bernburg in Saxony-Anhalt with its monumental caverns, which look like a city beneath the city, or the medieval ossuaries, some of which have only been discovered in recent years, or the “Riesending.” This is a cave on the Untersberg in the Berchtesgadener Land, which was only discovered in 2002 and whose entrance the explorers still keep secret today. It has everything to offer: lakes, waterfalls, cliffs, canyons. According to legend, King Barbarossa lives here with a tribe of dwarves – they certainly have enough space. No less impressive, however, is what the marmots at Funtensee dig away on a smaller scale. The film tracks them with mini cameras and all the tricks of computer technology that the filmmakers have mastered. But what they show us is already an adventure in its original state. A journey into a wonderland.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung / Michael Hanfeld

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Flying high, Petra Höfer and Freddie Röckenhaus showed the country from a new perspective in their award-winning documentary “Germany from Above” (see FK 23/10). The reversal of perspective was obvious, so the two are now venturing into a fascinating world beneath people's feet and bringing us closer to “Germany from Below.” In their entertaining two-part science documentary, the two authors combine a wide variety of aspects of this topic. When they accompany researchers with their camera on an expedition into the “Riesending Cave” 1,200 meters below the Berchtesgadener Land, the images they capture are breathtaking—a documentary version of Jules Verne's film “Journey to the Center of the Earth.”