As of: February 19, 2024, 9:30 a.m
By: Josef Hornsteiner
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Spectacular scenes in authentic uniforms like here at the Untermarkt can be seen in the trailer for the 150th anniversary of the Mittenwald Volunteer Fire Department.
The effort was enormous for the short film.
© Private
Mittenwald fire department goes Hollywood: The volunteers announce the 150th anniversary festival week with a spectacular film - and depict the largest fire events since 1874 at original locations.
Mittenwald – Thick smoke billows at the foot of the Arnspitze.
Flames blaze.
Brave men in leather trousers or fabric trousers storm up the grassy slope, yellowed waterskins under their arms.
Horse teams pull pumps.
Orders are shouted.
The stakes cannot be surpassed in terms of drama.
Even at the summit cross of the Arnspitze (2196 meters) there are five brave fire fighters, surveying the chaos in front of them.
Can the countless embers nests be combated?
“Paaasst, homma in the box!” Everyone stops abruptly.
Breathe, sweat.
Andreas Reiser's loud exclamation is almost surreal given the ghostly scenario that is unfolding around him.
Cell phone and drone footage is being viewed.
“That’s good,” says Reiser.
Anyone who has carefully walked through the Isar Valley in the past few weeks has noticed here and there a large contingent of firefighters in historical costumes with ancient wooden ladders, horse-drawn carts and lots of smoke.
So no one needed to panic: there was no real fire to put out.
However, the comrades from the Mittenwald Volunteer Fire Department shot scenes for a short film that is intended to promote the festival week for the 150th anniversary of the fire fighters' founding from May 29th to June 2nd, 2024.
In the trailer, the comrades present the most spectacular fires in 150 years of history
Andreas Reiser filmed and edited the trailer.
Directed by Christian Sailer and Georg Brennauer.
The idea behind the semi-professional film came from Commander Karl Seitz (Damale): to recreate the largest operations in the history of the Mittenwald Wehrmacht.
The major fire at the Arnspitze and one of the countless fires in the town cannot be missed.
Brave fire fighters in front of the camera at the foot of the Arnspitze.
© Private
Seitz doesn't want to reveal too much about the film yet.
The first person to see him this Saturday evening is his comrades in the fire station.
There, the “Damale-Kare” not only wants to bring its volunteers up to date with the planning for the festival week, but also show the trailer for it.
After this evening it will be visible to the public on the fire fighters' homepage (www.feuerwehr-mit tenwald.de).
It is also shared on social media channels, where the Mittenwald fire department is now quite active.
“Then we hope that many guests will come to the anniversary celebration,” says Josef Witting Jr., chairman of the fire department association.
Enormous effort for four minutes of film
High up: brave firefighters are even on hand for filming on the Arnspitze.
© Private
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The enormous effort put into making the film, which is only a few minutes long, cannot be quantified.
Countless hours of filming, in which up to 60 active comrades took part as actors and extras, and even more hours that Reiser, Sailer, Brennauer and Seitz spent planning, viewing and editing the material.
Even Mittenwald's fire department veteran Hans Schober will be seen in front of the camera - which role he plays will be revealed on Saturday.
The trailer can be seen in full length here.
Even if not much is revealed about the trailer yet, one thing can be said: The volunteers successfully extinguished the fires shown back then.
The last embers on the east face of the Arnspitze officially went out on November 29th, 1947, after flames had been blazing there since August 28th of the same year.
The Untermarkt, which was destroyed by flames several times over the centuries, has also been rebuilt and is still standing - the volunteers of the Mittenwald fire department have been ensuring that it stays that way for 150 years.