ZWETTL – old fire brigade film rediscovered

–

The film was shot in 1961 – exactly 60 years ago – and at that time caused a great response from the Floriani and the population, the black and white strip was even shown on ORF. “The state of Lower Austria commissioned this film at that time. The aim was to put the extensive activities of the volunteer fire brigade members in the foreground and to dispel the cliché of the sociable community that is not averse to beer. Well-known, rather derogatory slogans should be a thing of the past, ”emphasizes Bretterbauer, who had previously not known about the existence of this film.

“A colleague from the fire department drew my attention to the fact that there is a link to this film on Facebook. I looked at it and researched it straight away, ”emphasizes Bretterbauer. He came across a report in the fire brigade newspaper “Brand-Aus”, which dealt with the creation of “The Good Man’s Song”.

At that time, the film was shot in the state fire brigade school and some fire brigades in the Wachau. The broad spectrum of the fire brigades’ areas of activity was shown, such as fire operations, vehicle recovery, water services or even an explosive operation.

The film was shown at film evenings in the fire stations, but it was also part of the course program for the training courses held at the time. Even the ORF broadcast the film. “The film should have been very well received, the state fire brigade association then commissioned further films about the work of the fire brigade,” says Bretterbauer.

It was clear to the dedicated homepage maintainer that he would put the old film on the homepage www.bfk.zwettl.at. The equipment of the fire brigades at that time alone is worth seeing. “The importance of the fire brigade, which we wanted to point out back then, is more relevant today than ever.”

– .