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00:03This is really quite extraordinary. There are so few places in the world where you can really still do this.
00:11The Harz, central Germany.
00:14The picturesque and rugged scenery of this mountain range has long been closely associated with European folklore and ancient pagan
00:23rituals.
00:24The Harz is at the epicentre of that dark, magical aspect of German storytelling.
00:31It's very much a land where, you know, myth and folklore can flourish.
00:38But if you look behind the myths and legends of the mountain, you'll discover a very special steam railway cutting
00:45through its landscape.
00:47A trip along the Harz is actually a trip through Germany's story and its history.
00:53In this episode, we'll see how the history of this little-known train line charts the incredible story of Germany
01:01itself.
01:02Because it tells eloquently the story of modern Germany from unification when it was first built in the late 1800s
01:09through World War II and on into the Cold War.
01:19This is the Harz Mountain Railway. And here is its hidden story.
01:28In this series, we explore some of the greatest railways in the world and the secrets surrounding them.
01:37From the ancient hills of Europe to the wastes of the Yukon Valley in North America, their dark and forgotten
01:45pasts have left their mark on history.
02:07Every day, deep in the heart of modern Germany, ordinary people make an extraordinary journey.
02:15On a steam railway that runs a daily schedule serving a network of towns and villages in a central highlands
02:22area of the country known as the Harz.
02:26The Harz Railway is utterly unique because it's the largest steam network in Europe. And also, it's not a heritage
02:34railway. It's a working, functioning railway that the local people use.
02:41It is basically a mecca for steam railway enthusiasts the world over. It's probably on many rail enthusiasts' bucket lists.
02:51If you're taking that train ride on the Harz Mountain Railway, don't just look at it as a picturesque train
02:58journey.
02:58In fact, you're on a journey through history and time.
03:10The Harz's narrow gauge railway network comprises of three lines.
03:15The Transharz, running from Nordhausen to Wernigrode.
03:20The Selke Valley, running from Quedlinburg to Hasselfeld.
03:25And the Brocken, starting at Drehen and Hohne Station and making its way to the summit of the Brocken Mountain,
03:32the region's highest peak.
03:36All of which are serviced by the network's incredible fleet of vintage trains.
03:43The railway today runs almost entirely original rolling stock and locomotives.
03:49You've got stock from the 1950s, even the 1930s, and they're used day in, day out, because they're so perfect
03:55for the line.
03:55They were built specifically for it, and they are suited so well.
04:02With up to 15 vintage locomotives still in daily use, the Harz is one of the busiest steam railways on
04:09earth.
04:11A remarkable fact, considering Germany is home to some of the most state-of-the-art train networks in the
04:17world.
04:19The real question is, in the modern world, how is it that this steam railway is still here?
04:28The answer lies within the history of Germany itself.
04:32From its rebirth as an international superpower through to its dark and turbulent years that ultimately resulted in the divide
04:40of a country and its people.
04:45You can go all the way back to 1841 and look at the words of an economist like Friedrich List,
04:51who was saying at that very time that railways needed to be built if all these states that would comprise
04:58Germany would literally be linked together.
05:01And that's what the railways would do.
05:06The newly formed Germany required a vast train network that would enable the country to both unite and expand.
05:14It needed to be able to transport its people and goods across the nation.
05:20In many ways it was the railways that helped weld Germany together as a new country.
05:28The Harz in central Germany was an area rich with minerals and natural resources ready to be exploited.
05:37The whole network was built between 1880 and 1905.
05:42It was built because of the raising tourism in this time and because of the raising industry in the Harz
05:49Mountains.
05:51And it played a critical role in bringing the country together, in connecting raw materials, consumers, industry and people.
06:03But the terrain was steep and unforgiving.
06:07Standard trains would have proved ineffective.
06:10So the engineers decided to employ a different track system specifically for this area.
06:18If you've got bottomless pockets, engineering can make it happen.
06:22We could have put broad gauge through that mounting system.
06:27But part of the dream of this railway was that fairy tale up in the Harz Mountains.
06:33And to remove too much of that environment would have spoiled why the railway was being built in the first
06:39place.
06:41The clue as to why the engineers of Harz Mountain Railway chose a narrow gauge actually is in its name,
06:47Mountain Railway.
06:48Now, a narrow gauge is so much better for negotiating treacherous mountain terrain as a narrow gauge rather than a
06:55standard gauge.
06:56Because if you've got a narrow gauge, it can go in much tighter corners.
06:59You can occupy a far smaller space.
07:02If you're blasting dynamite through hills and mountains and building tunnels, your trains are smaller.
07:07If there are narrower curves and corners, it's a much more economical railway to build.
07:13Because of these tight turns along the track, the train's wagons and carriages needed to be able to maintain stability
07:20on both the straight and curved sections of the line.
07:27When you're looking at railways, everybody gets very excited about the locos.
07:30But on this railway system, you also have to think about the carriages.
07:34They're all on individual bogeys.
07:37So that means that when you're going up on these very, very tight turns in this mountainous environment,
07:41the front and the back end of the carriage can move slightly independently.
07:47And they can take those tight corners on these torturous curves.
07:56The towns and villages served by this railway also hold a particularly special place in Germany's national identity.
08:07Quedlinburg is often referred to as the Cradle of Germany.
08:11Its majestic abbey was once the seat of Henry the Fowler,
08:15a nobleman who was considered by many to be the first king of Germany,
08:20after uniting the warring Germanic tribes in the 10th century.
08:26To this day, the surrounding areas remain steeped in the country's myths, legends and traditional folklore,
08:34making it a place of interest for those wishing to explore the darker side of the Harts Mountains.
08:43The Harts region has a deep connection into the subconscious and imagination of German people.
08:51All those famous fairy tales, you know, by the Brothers Grimm,
08:55you think of Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood,
08:57all told throughout Europe and indeed throughout the world.
09:00But a lot of these stories originate in Germany,
09:03and they originate from mountains, from deep, dark forests.
09:08The Harts is at the epicentre of that dark, magical aspect of German storytelling.
09:16It's very much a land where, you know, myth and folklore can flourish.
09:21The Germans today still love this, and actually a lot of us like Germany for that reason.
09:31The main reason for the Harts being a central point for folklore, paganism and witchcraft,
09:36is due to the region's highest peak, the Brocken.
09:42Its mystical landscape has inspired some of Germany's most culturally influential people,
09:47such as Wagner, the Brothers Grimm, and the celebrated German writer, Goethe.
09:55Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who of course holds a place in German literature and German culture
10:02very similar to Shakespeare, his central work is the Faust legend.
10:08In Goethe's play, the central character, Faust, unhappy and disillusioned with his life,
10:14makes a pact with the devil in order to receive unlimited knowledge and earthly pleasures.
10:23Essentially, this seemed to find some sort of echo in Germany, this idea of the conflict between good and evil,
10:30and of essentially a good man selling his soul to the devil.
10:34Sabine Huben is a local guide from the Harts area.
10:38She has come to a place called Walpurgis Hall, in an area known locally as the Witches' Dance Floor.
10:47So, here we are in Walpurgis Hall.
10:50It's a place that is decorated with paintings of scenes from Goethe's book Faust, Dr. Faustus.
11:01This shadowy figure, that is obviously, this is the devil, this is Satan, this is Mephisto,
11:07whatever you might call him, dancing with one of the witches.
11:10You have the big shadow coming up through the fire.
11:12You've got, of course, a black cat always coming along with witches,
11:17and they're probably cooking some potion.
11:25The painting takes inspiration from Faust,
11:28illustrating a scene that takes place on the Brocken Mountain,
11:31known as Hexenacht, or simply, Witches' Night.
11:38And in this Faust story, he made these tales of the witches part of the literature.
11:45And from that point on, everybody said, we have to go to the Brocken,
11:49because Goethe wrote so much on the witches, we have to go to the witches' mountain, the Brocken.
11:57The Brocken Mountain itself is steeped in mysteries.
12:01For centuries, it's been one of the epicenters of devil worship, Satanism, and the darker sides of paganism.
12:07But all of that is encapsulated and coalesces on the Brocken, which is the centre of it.
12:18Visiting the Brocken became a cultural pilgrimage for many Germans,
12:22and the new steam railway now made it accessible to everyone.
12:29Train enthusiast Tim Dunn has come to the Harz Railway to take the same historic journey
12:35that has been made by countless German citizens for over 100 years.
12:43This is one of the largest narrow-gauge locomotives in the world.
12:47And it can take six carats up a hill.
12:51And there are 17 of these things.
12:58I mean, this is really quite extraordinary.
13:00There are so few places in the world where you can really still do this.
13:04Hang on to the end of a balcony or the end of a train and sit there going along by
13:09a mountain.
13:10I mean, this engine, which is one of the original engines built for this line,
13:14it's taking us along now, and you can just feel the power of this thing in front of us.
13:19You know, this is magnificent. You never get a chance to do this.
13:23It's such an unusual day to do it as well.
13:31It's not just notable because it's so high, but also because it's the centre of all the kind of pagan
13:37associations,
13:38the magic, the supernatural phenomena.
13:41So it's a really special place in the middle of an even bigger, equally special place.
14:06Absolutely full of pelts. That is chuffing lovely.
14:15They built the Haas railway system as a fairy tale.
14:19It was part of the folklore of Germany at the time,
14:23a way of bringing nation together with its dreams and its aspirations.
14:27But we all know that fairy stories quite often have a really dark, nasty undertone.
14:34And I'm afraid that part of this railway story isn't so pleasant.
14:43The Hartz Mountains, and in particular the Brocken, came to represent all that was great and good about Germany.
14:51Freedom, national pride, and above all, unity.
14:57But all of that was soon to change.
15:03The rise of the Nazi party in the 1930s would transform the region from a peaceful symbol of hope to
15:11a place of suffering and despair.
15:20Nordhausen has the honour of being the very first station on the Hartz Railway.
15:24From this depot, you can connect to all other lines on the narrow gauge steam network.
15:31But less than 100 metres from this station is another train line that tells of a much darker time in
15:37the region's history.
15:42We are at the remains of a bridge.
15:45This bridge belonged to the so-called Helmetallbahn.
15:56This forgotten train line, which was never completed, was rediscovered during the 90s after the reunification.
16:08Construction of the Helmetallbahn line started in 1944,
16:13with the use of forced labour from the nearby concentration camp at Nordhausen, Mittelbau Dora.
16:20The Nazis had ordered the prisoners to lay the standard gauge track at high speed,
16:25in order to relieve the build-up of rail traffic on the main line.
16:32The Helmetallbahn...
16:34Construction on the Helmetallbahn started in early summer 1944,
16:40and it was meant to relieve the railway line between Nordhausen and Nordheim.
16:53There was a regular Reichsbahn line, which was seriously overburdened by the arms industry.
17:04The route to Nordhausen on the southern Hartz railway line had become the most densely travelled connection in the whole
17:11of Germany.
17:15This was because Nordhausen had been chosen as the site of a top secret Nazi weapons programme.
17:26The V2 rocket, in Hitler's mind, was going to be a game-changer.
17:30This was a rocket that was going to fly at six to seven times the speed of sound.
17:35It was going to land on enemy cities and obliterate them.
17:38It was going to be the weapon that was going to win the war for Hitler.
17:44The ultimate purpose of the V rockets was a war-winning secret weapon.
17:50It could do damage which conventional bombers could not do at much less cost.
17:56The V1s were pilotless aircraft, rather like today's drones, and the V2s were rockets.
18:02They could be launched from a great distance away from bases hundreds of miles from their targets,
18:07hitting, as it were, from out of a blue sky a city,
18:13and inflicting huge damage, much, much more than a conventional bomber fleet could do.
18:23These devastating rocket-launched missiles were originally being manufactured at a site in Pinamunda on the Baltic coast.
18:31But heavy Allied bombing raids in 1943 forced the Nazis to look for a new location to produce the V2s.
18:40Where better than the Harts Mountains?
18:42It was the perfect place to assemble this deadly new weapon.
18:49Being rich in natural minerals,
18:51the Harts was littered with mines that stretched deep into the landscape.
18:56An ideal place to build a factory safe from Allied bombs.
19:04Konstein Hill in Nordhausen was chosen as the location for the new V2 rocket facility.
19:10Its previous use as a gypsum mine had created an underground network of secure tunnels and chambers.
19:17But it was still, nevertheless, a mine.
19:20And turning it into a factory was going to require a great deal of labour.
19:27To meet this need, the Nazi High Command decided to establish a labour camp,
19:33where inmates were forced to work in the most inhumane conditions imaginable.
19:39Middle Baldora was one of the most atrocious places in the whole of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.
19:45It was a place where inmates from all over Europe were literally worked to death.
19:50And in fact, 20,000 people died in Middle Baldora during the making of the V2 rocket.
20:00Even by World War II German labour camp standards, the conditions were notoriously horrific.
20:08Punishments, hangings, brutality, starvation. It was a world of nightmares.
20:15Many of the prisoners who were forced to enter these tunnels never saw daylight again.
20:22What you see behind is one of the places where the prisoners had their housing.
20:27About 2,000 prisoners were housed.
20:31They shared everything.
20:32So medical conditions were horrible.
20:36You had lights everywhere, no toilets, no shower, nothing.
20:39So the mortality rate was very high.
20:49Stefan Hordler is a historian and the curator of what is now a memorial site
20:54to the thousands of prisoners forced to work within this vast, top secret facility.
21:01This model represents the full construction site that was underground.
21:08In total, this complex had a length of about 20 kilometers.
21:15The part you see here from the south until there is connected to the Dora concentration camp.
21:22The concentration camp prisoners had to go in into every area, lower the level,
21:30widen it, go deep into the mountain, and prepare it for the machines that were brought in to produce the
21:37V2,
21:37and at the very end also the V1.
21:42The slave laborers might have been safe from Allied bombings and Allied observation.
21:47They certainly were not safe from other fatal perils.
21:51They suffered from lung diseases.
21:53They were working like moles in conditions of damp and blackness and extreme cold and heat.
22:01And so they were literally worked to death, many of them.
22:07And of course the awful irony is that more people died making the V2 than were actually killed by the
22:14V2.
22:14So you get a sense there of quite how murderous this place was.
22:22An estimated 60,000 prisoners were used in the construction and maintenance of Mittelbau.
22:29But production came to a halt in 1945, as the Allies began to close in on the Harts area.
22:41The construction of this railway line was never completed because the war was lost for Germany.
22:48The end of the war came quicker than the completion of the construction.
22:55Dora was eventually liberated by the Allied troops,
22:59and the remaining prisoners were given care and medical treatment.
23:04Very few of the scientists who managed, ran and were responsible for the V2 facility in the Harts were ever
23:11put on trial.
23:12If they were willing to work for the West, they were spirited away into Allied programs,
23:19developing rocketry, hopefully faster than the Soviets could.
23:25And by the end of May 1945, people across Europe were celebrating VE Day.
23:33But the end of the World War was also the beginning of the Cold War.
23:39And a difficult road lay ahead for the narrow gauge railway.
23:43When the Second World War ended, half of Europe disappeared behind the Iron Curtain,
23:49which divided Europe between the Free West and the Soviet East.
23:53And Germany was right in the middle of that division.
23:55Germany was a divided country.
24:00The Harts Mountains, this beautiful area of countryside, this legendary place, was itself divided.
24:08So this dividing line ran through the very soul of Germany.
24:22The iconic Harts landscape, along with the towns and villages within, was split in two.
24:29But surprisingly, it was this act that helped to preserve both the network and its rolling stock.
24:41The company operating the railway was based in eastern Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic.
24:49During a time when money, resources and spare parts were hard to come by.
24:54Both German states had a very different economical system.
24:59And the people in the East urgently need trains, because they hadn't enough cars.
25:04The people needed railways, buses and public services to get from one place to another.
25:12Without the ability to purchase the latest locomotive technology, they had to be resourceful.
25:20When it was possible, the trains would be repaired.
25:24And when it was not, they would be remade, using the original designs from the 1930s.
25:31One of the things that makes this railway system so unique is that it's not actually had much of a
25:38break-in service.
25:39So it's not about conserving or doing up something you found in a scrapyard.
25:45It's been about maintaining what was already there.
25:48And that the current rolling stock is still going strong.
25:52It's been there since the 1950s.
25:54And it's still there moving people around, just as it was a hundred years ago.
26:05Tim Dunn has been invited to the Vernegrode Depot, where the majority of the maintenance takes place.
26:10The oldest machine was built in 1897.
26:15Wow.
26:16And that's still here?
26:17It's still here in operation.
26:18There's another old machine built in 1931.
26:22It's a very powerful machine, and it's called the Mama.
26:26Big Mama, because this machine is a prototype of our new machine, built in the 50s.
26:33We have about 17 machines from that kind of type.
26:39And they are operating up to the broken, because they are the most powerful machines we have.
26:53Keeping the locomotives maintained and operational was of the utmost importance.
26:57And it was for this reason that the drivers operating the trains on the Hart's narrow gauge railway were also
27:04skilled engineers.
27:06A practice that is continued to this day by people like Dirk Gunther, a driver and also chairman of the
27:14network's preservation society.
27:20What's this? What's going on here?
27:24It's an unscheduled repair, due to damage to the ash pan.
27:29The rear axles have come off, and then you can see everything.
27:34The three axles, for example, you can see cracks in the frame, the axles and things like that.
27:41It's a pity, of course, because it's an unplanned outage and she won't be available for work for a fortnight.
27:47And that's naturally the downside to it.
27:55The majority of the steam locomotives in use here are 2-10-2s, a term used to represent the unique
28:01wheel arrangement employed on the line.
28:04That means it has two wheels at the front, ten driving wheels, and two on the tender at the back.
28:09And that gives it a massive traction to get it up these very, very steep gradients.
28:19Operating these powerful machines safely and effectively means that the driver must be perfectly in tune with their locomotive.
28:33All of the drivers here started as apprentices, learning from the ground up and honing their skills.
28:40Such as Horst Dittmann, one of the network's former drivers.
28:48I came to the railway more by chance, and I developed a real passion, especially for the steam engine.
28:56It was a lot of fun, even as a stoker, watching the driver over his shoulder to get to know
29:01the trade.
29:04So my ambition was, of course, to become an engine driver.
29:10To me, this engine I operate is alive.
29:14I feel what I operate, the power of the machine.
29:21Horst was an East German, working on the line from Wernigrod to Nordhausen.
29:26A vital service for those living on the eastern side.
29:31But due to its proximity to the border, the East German police kept a close eye on what happened both
29:37in and around the train network.
29:43I once had an experience during the GDR times, when arriving at a station in my train, on the track
29:50next to me, there was an engine from the West.
29:57Both the locomotive and its driver were from West Germany.
30:00And under GDR law, Horst was forbidden from having any form of contact with citizens from across the border.
30:08Despite this, when the West German driver said hello, Horst responded in kind.
30:19I greeted him back, of course.
30:23Then, when I got out on the platform, there was a station commander of the border troops.
30:27He said to me, you know that any contact with federal German citizens is prohibited.
30:39I replied, I don't know what upbringing you had, but my parents told me that when someone greets you, you
30:45do the same.
30:46And that's what I did.
30:57In a time when punishments for breaking the rules could be very severe, Horst was lucky not to have had
31:03any further action taken against him.
31:06The Stasi was notorious for the thoroughness and the viciousness of its punishments.
31:11In addition to the usual prison, torture, disappearing murder, they had a particular punishment called Zersetzung, which translates as something
31:20like biodegrading or decomposition.
31:22And that was the complete erosion of someone's life.
31:25They would work specifically to destroy your job, your family, your relationships until there was nothing left of you.
31:35In East Germany, with typical German thoroughness, the police state, the secret police state was bought, if you like, to
31:45its most perfect form.
31:47In that the Stasi, the secret police of the German Democratic Republic of East Germany, had a watching brief over
31:56every single citizen.
32:08Horst continued with his work on the trains and was even tasked with delivering coal to the Brocken.
32:15It was destined for the Russian troops and members of the Stasi stationed in the barracks at the peak of
32:20the mountain.
32:23But what were they doing there, in the remote surroundings of the Harts?
32:35Jürgen Steinmeck was one of only a handful of drivers given permission to operate the trains at the summit of
32:41the Brocken.
32:42Such was the secrecy surrounding the Stasi activities there.
32:47Jürgen had to be carefully vetted to ensure he was not a security risk.
32:55They didn't ask or tell you you could drive up here.
33:01You just had to do it.
33:06Because I met all the criteria, I was married, had children and had taken the oath to the state.
33:13I had to do it.
33:21It wasn't possible to contact the Russian soldiers.
33:24I wouldn't say they were locked in, but they were inside the buildings.
33:30And they watched to see.
33:32They didn't come out of the building and make official contact with us.
33:42The Stasi had good reason for wanting to keep what they were doing quiet.
33:47Because they had turned the Brocken into a top secret listening station.
33:52With the capability of spying across not just East Germany, but also the whole of the West.
33:59And even further.
34:01The whole area of the Brocken became a military restricted area in August 1961 when the Berlin Wall has been
34:09built.
34:09And nobody of the common people was allowed to come here.
34:18Christoph Lampert is the director here at Brockenhaus Museum.
34:24Right now we are in the middle of the dome that belongs to the old headquarter of the secret service
34:31of the former GDR.
34:32The Stasi, they were able to listen to every radio, news, telephone calls broadcasted from Western Germany to West Berlin
34:42and back.
34:43The secret service of the GDR had a very, very big range.
34:47They were able to listen over the English Channel right to Britain and right to Scotland.
34:52And in southwestern direction they were able to listen right to the border of Spain.
34:57So that was a very, very big range considering the 80s.
35:06It was said that working in the remote bleakness of the mountain, unable to communicate with anyone from the outside
35:12for months on end, tested even the most loyal soldiers and Stasi agents.
35:21Even at the bottom of the Brocken, along the railway lines and security blockades, many employees of the GDR, such
35:28as Dietmar Schultke, were dreaming of a life elsewhere.
35:34We stay here at the borderline between East and West Germany and that is the last place in former East
35:44Germany and behind this territory starts West Germany.
35:50Dietmar joined the GDR Army in 1987.
35:53He was specially selected for the position of border guard due to the fact he had no relatives living in
35:59the West.
36:02So here I stay at the first fence and that was my job as a soldier with my partner to
36:09control the fence.
36:11I have statistics, 100 refugees in the 80s, maybe three can cross the border, 97 go into the prison.
36:24As a dog handler, he was tasked with keeping the West Germans out and the East Germans in, even if
36:32necessary, by use of deadly force.
36:35It's not a good feeling because you have Kalashnikov with 60 shots, must stay with my captain at this watchtower
36:46maybe eight hours every day and look for the refugees.
36:53In the GDR times, there were no official maps of the Harts or the Brocken region.
36:59So anyone attempting to illegally cross the border would have to use landmarks for directions.
37:05Here we are at the railway line nearby the first fence and people trying to escape need a way to
37:15come to the border and they use the railway line.
37:21Many citizens of the GDR were desperate to flee the harsh and restrictive conditions of the East.
37:29Some for economic or political reasons, others simply to be reunited with family, friends and loved ones.
37:38Even Dietmar was hiding a secret.
37:41When I was offered the position, I had a dream to go from East to West Germany to escape.
37:51Because I was thinking to my girlfriend in New York City and I want to meet her and I want
37:56to live in freedom.
37:57That was the reason.
38:01For Dietmar to escape to the West, he would have needed help.
38:06But life in the GDR was such that no one really knew who they could trust.
38:14The Stasi was also a part of the border system.
38:18In my company, we are maybe more than 100 soldiers and every tenth soldier was a spy for the Stasi.
38:31It's estimated that the Stasi had one agent for every 166 people in East Germany.
38:37But if you count all the informants who were made to work with the Stasi, the number is more like
38:42one in twelve.
38:45For those like Dietmar, longing for a free and unified Germany, they would soon get their wish.
38:54If you seek liberalization, come here to this gate.
38:59Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate.
39:07Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.
39:15As the East German government started to falter, the fall of the Berlin Wall signaled the beginning of the reunification
39:22of Germany.
39:24By 1990, the country and its people were once again united.
39:30On November 9th, 1989, the day the Berlin Wall came tumbling down and the beginning of the end of the
39:37Soviet Empire.
39:38Within two years, East and West Germany were reunited, in many ways coming full circle and ending what World War
39:45II had produced.
39:50But the fall of the government in the East had its consequences.
39:56Economic turmoil meant an uncertain future for the previously state-owned narrow gauge steam railway.
40:03After the reunification, they had a lot of problems. The German National Railway and the GDR didn't want to have
40:12the narrow gauge any longer.
40:14They want to sell it or close it or anything.
40:20So the main problem was how to preserve the whole network.
40:29But in 1991, the people united once again, this time forming a society to repair and maintain the railway that
40:38had come to represent the heart and soul of Germany.
40:44Communities and districts sit along our network to try to find a way to preserve the whole network.
40:51Not only the broken line, which was interesting for private investors to earn money.
40:56They had the aim to preserve the whole network and so they founded out a private community company.
41:08In 1993, they took over the running of the steam railway itself, making it the first ever non-state run
41:15railway in West Germany, operating a regular service for passengers and goods.
41:22It was the first company owned by communities, districts and cities.
41:28So nowadays, it's also unique because it's the only one who operates like that.
41:34The history has been different. The whole network of the Hudson narrow gauge was situated in the western part of
41:40Germany.
41:41I don't think that the whole network would exist today.
41:45The whole mountain system, due to politics and the Cold War, has a perfectly conserved, a conserved railway system, not
41:57a preserved one or a rebuilt one.
42:00It has the real deal.
42:08Every year, an estimated 1.1 million passengers continue to use the railway, either as a daily commute for the
42:16locals, or as a means for the huge number of tourists to take in the breathtaking views from the region's
42:23highest and most famous point.
42:27In what is already regarded as a special area at the Hartz Mountains, the Brocken is the centre of it
42:33all. It is the most special place. Every German knows the Brocken.
42:40So we have a saying that the Brocken Mountain is a German.
42:44These high mountains, they are always symbols of feelings for nation building. So you can say, the Brocken mountain is
42:55a German.
42:57So the idea that the German unity has something to do with this Brocken, that is correct.
43:04So I think that the Brocken railway is really part of this story.
43:18Against the odds, this railway has managed to survive through a century burdened by war, civil unrest and economic hardship.
43:29Continuously transporting people and goods across a region that has come to mean so much to the people of Germany.
43:36And it's for that very reason that the Hartz Narrow Gauge Steam Railway truly is one of the greatest railways
43:45in the world.
43:45We are truly in the world.
43:47We are truly in the world to die by war.
44:03I think that the part of this project is possibly the 200th yeargger camp.
44:03We are now to die by war.
44:05We are just by the next 12th yearführer.
44:09We are now to die by war.
44:15Let's get a little reading.
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