hidden europe 23

Of cabbages and kinder

by Bryn Frank

Summary

Golzow seems like an insignificant village on the plains not far from the German-Polish border. But it is much more, for Golzow has an important place in the history of documentary film. Bryn Frank introduces us to 'the children of Golzow'.

Frederick the Great would be proud of it, though on a damp and blustery day the Oderbruch really can feel like the edge of the world. This is about as far east in northern Germany as you can get without actually crossing the border into Poland. There are potatoes, cauliflowers and carrots, all looking rather bedraggled, and whole fields of sunflowers, though under dark clouds they simply don't measure up to Vincent van Gogh's.

A sudden shaft of sun works wonders, even on a field of cabbages. Here's a gathering of white storks, and there an unkempt cottage garden. Wooden house, wooden fence and a garden full of Michaelmas daisies. A ginger cat is picking his way past a baby blue Trabant, the car a long abandoned icon of the old German Democratic Republic.

‘Bruch' means ‘marsh'. Frederick the Great was obsessed with draining this one, a narrow strip of land on the west side of the Oder river. He did, beginning in 1743, and it became an important market garden serving nearby Berlin. A real life tale of cabbages and kings! Frederick was an agricultural improver and he counted the taming of the Oderbruch as among his greatest achievements. Not content with cabbages, he introduced potatoes and turnips too.

On the quiet run out of Berlin on the railway heading for Kostrzyn in Poland, the slow train pauses at a number of tiny wayside halts. The sort of stations that prompt you to wonder why on earth they were ever built. Golzow is one of them. Sixty-six minutes from Berlin. Miss the stop and you'll be whisked over the border into Poland. Golzow station is unassuming and serves a number of the blink-and-you-miss-them villages hereabouts.

It is Golzow itself that really warrants a look. For in this unassuming village history has been made. As 2008 comes to an end, so does a remarkable story.

This is just an excerpt. The full text of this article is not yet available to members with online access to hidden europe. Of course you can read the full article in the print edition of hidden europe 23.
Related article

Off-track

Route 45 in our Europe by Rail book links Sofia with Zagreb via Belgrade and Brod. That's just the route once followed by the Orient Express. It features in both the 1974 and 2017 versions of the film Murder on the Orient Express. But neither film was shot on location in the Balkans.
Related blog post

Tales from the East

With mention of fairy tales and film, thoughts often turn to Disney. The cinematic adaptation of fairy tales is often judged in the west to be a peculiarly American prerogative. But central and eastern Europe have a very fine tradition of progressive cinema and a vast store of fairy tales upon which to draw.

Related blog post

The ghost of Christmas past

Okay, so the Mayans are getting the blame for their miscalculations. But the upside is that we can all enjoy another Christmas here on planet earth - and thus all that comes with the Feast of the Nativity. For a lot of homebound earthlings, tied to their televisions, that means a marathon of movie reruns.