Live: Das alte Rheinland in Farbe

Cinema hit on the Rhine with a cheerful talk in the supporting program about the question: Rhineland, what is it?

Talk with Hermann Rheindorf and the following "Rhineland professionals":

Dr. Katharina Thielen, LVR Institute for Regional Studies & Regional History Bonn

Tobias Flessenkemper, Rhineland Association for Monument Preservation and Landscape Protection

Dr. Martin Stankowski, journalist, storyteller, Cologne

Music: JP Weber, guitarist and entertainer

Welcome to a fascinating journey through the history of the Rhine, going back over a hundred years. With the oldest film footage of the Rhine in existence, for the first time in an elaborately colorized version.

It is a seemingly fantastic film about the Rhine 100 years ago, which has unexpectedly captured the hearts of moviegoers between Cologne and Mainz this spring. The sensational new documentary by Cologne filmmaker Hermann Rheindorf combines over 800 historical film scenes from the history of the great river in a frenzy of images in color. Following the great successes of "Das alte Köln in Farbe" and "Köln nach dem Krieg in Farbe", this Rhineland epic is Hermann Rheindorf's third feature-length project with colorized film footage, once again impressively realized by his team of three colorists: Georg v. Kreisler, Rike Schmidt and Peter Dor. And Christian Brückner, one of the most renowned German-speaking narrators of our time and who himself grew up on the Rhine, is also back on board. His unmistakable voice enhances the historical footage once again to create a fascinating film experience.

The historical film journey takes us to the most spectacular section that Father Rhine has to offer: The Rhine metropolises of Cologne, Bonn, Koblenz, Wiesbaden and Mainz shine in the film in their former glory.

In between lies the romantic Rhine Valley, a landscape straight out of a fairy tale. The mighty river, dominated by the highest density of knights' castles in the world, with idyllic little towns and vineyards as far as the eye can see. And then there are the daughters of the Rhine, an advertising motif that creates the illusion of a sweet life on the Rhine. On the banks of the Rhine we meet fishermen with full nets, washerwomen with amazing washing power, the Rhine is a swimming paradise in summer and a winter dream when completely frozen over. The old and new kings of the river meet on the river: gigantic wooden rafts drift past huge paddle steamers with up to eight barges in tow. And with the more than 100 excursion steamers of the KD, millions of onlookers have been coming here since imperial times. But the knights' castles were by no means built as tourist attractions; they bear witness to the fate of the Rhineland as an unprecedented bone of contention in history. All of this - the beauty, the spectacular and the tragedy - is brought back to life in the moving images. The footage helps us to understand how the Rhineland became what it is today.