Rentier Kulicke's Flug zur Front (1918)

1. Intertitle: The regulars' table at the „White Swan“. Men at a table discussion; a waitress brings the men a daily newspaper. 2. Intertitle: Regulars' table strategies. The group in lively discussion over a map showing progress on the Western Front; Kulicke enters; he is very cranky, complains about his beer and then shows his fellow regulars his „Conscription order to the Fatherland's assistance service at the air force maintenance depot at Adlershof, Berlin, service to begin on 23rd October 1918“; Kulicke's fellows at the table make fun of him. 3. Intertitle: Kulicke, will you be able to take flying with your fatty heart? Have you already got a crash helmet? 4. Intertitle: Kulicke, with how many thousands are you going to underwrite it this time? Kulicke replies incensed: 5. Intertitle: Not even a fiver!! Kulicke leaves the pub furiously, takes himself home and lies down in his bed; before falling asleep he studies his conscription order once more. 6. Intertitle: … and Kulicke dreams. Two pilots drag Kulicke out of bed and force him into flying gear; he is then dragged to a biplane with the inscription „13 BFA“. 7. Intertitle: Please, after you! Kulicke refuses to get into the plane; he is heaved into it; the plane takes off; flying above the countryside; close-up of the nervous Kulicke. 8. Intertitle: Help, help! Mr. Air-Coachman, where are you flying me? 9. Intertitle: To the front! Close-up of the alarmed Kulicke; flying over the clouds; the pilot to Kulicke: 10. Intertitle: If it doesn't suit you, kindly get out! 11. Intertitle: Over the front. Flight over the front line area; soldiers carrying out forward assaults; shell craters; shell impacts on the ground. 12. Intertitle: Over France's destroyed cities: Peronne. Flight over the city of Péronne. 13. Intertitle: St. Quentin, once a blossoming city with nearly 100,000 inhabitants. The famous cathedral. Flight over the ruined cathedral of St. Quentin; various scenes of the partially destroyed city. 14. Intertitle: Comines destroyed. Comines, severely marked by the effects of war. 15. Intertitle: Please, Mr. Air-Coachman, fly me back home, if possible, directly to the „White Swan“. I have to tell the people how grateful the homeland must be to the army, that the war is being conducted on enemy territory. Flight over open country; flight over the clouds. 16. Intertitle: Over Berlin. Flight over Berlin; city scenes; the palace and the Berlin cathedral; flight over Gendarmenmarkt and Potsdamer Platz; traffic in the city's streets; Kulicke calls. 17. Intertitle: Man, there's Aschinger! The aeroplane over Kurfürstendamm, then over the Reichstag building; the plane lands; Kulicke is helped out of the biplane; then he wakes up; he hurriedly gets up, gets dressed and leaves his house at a run; Kulicke runs into the war loan subscription office; on the office door is a poster with the inscription „This is where one signs for the war loan. Closing on the 23rd of October at 1 o'clock“; 18. Intertitle:Well, Kulicke?! Kulicke explains to the official, who is also one of his fellow regulars at the table in the pub, about his dream and then signs for 50,000 marks; the friend is quite astonished, to which Kulicke says: 19. Intertitle: Yes, dear friend, as of tonight I know that victory and peace is ours if we trust the homeland.