Havelland. Fontane

Summary

Last part of Bernhard Sallmann's film quadrology on Theodor Fontane's travelogues "Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg". In contrast to the first three parts, which focus on the rural area, the merging of the river landscape with the rapidly growing urban area, Berlin-Potsdam, plays a central role here. The film fuses Fontane's words with actual images of places and landscapes. In this way, the film uses Fontane's words to explore the preconditions for the creation of the Mark and describes the conflicts between the natural-religious culture and the invading Christian one in the 12th century. The film also deals with how the Mark and the city, as places of industrial and landscape production, relate to each other. One learns how Slavs have shaped the region to this day, and gains insights into the fishing island of Werder and its population, which lives in such seclusion that, according to legend, it was even spared the plague.