Our project aims to illustrate the impact that high level European proceedings had (and continue to have) on the general population through the Vennbahn. In brief, this film talks about the Vennbahn in the period of 1900 to 1945, with links to now. It begins by displaying the current state of affairs surrounding the Vennbahn through its borders to Germany the trackbed being entirely Belgian, going on to visualise this on a map to give context. It then starts talking about the Vennbahn’s history, why it was built, showing the effects it had on the region, towns being built and/or growing to accommodate the many more people who could now easily reach them. Then it tells the grimmer side of the Vennbahn’s story, being used by Germany in WW1 to transport soldiers and goods to the front. The film then cuts to a meeting with a specialist of the field to attempt to explain why the borders between Belgium and Germany are still not straight, which then leads to the explanation being the treaty of Versailles that made the Vennbahn trackbed between Lammersdorf and Roetgen in Germany Belgian territory. After that, the film talks about the decline of importance of the Vennbahn in the interwar years and how it was used and destroyed by the German army in WW2. It then ends by concluding that the Vennbahn is still important and influential to Belgian - German relations today and really several people’s everyday lives. The film aims to be educational and fun at the same time by using a mix of actuality footage, archived footage, interviews, images and maps as well as figures. Due to our many diverse sources, ranging from websites to experts over archived newspapers etc, we believe we have created a trustworthy, if brief account of the history of the Vennbahn.

Bibliography

Research: Online: - http://www.vennbahn.de/  Information about the Vennbahn, with a short history from German perspective. - http://www.wallorail.be/europe/belgique/vennbahn/indexpic.htm  Description of the Vennbahn’s history in French, Belgian perspective. - https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vennbahn  Wikipedia article on the Vennbahn, geographic details. - http://www.eisenbahn-stolberg.de/?s=vennbahn  People’s memories of the Vennbahn - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEjVhD_RxqI

Video about the Vennbahn’s history. Practical: -Tourismus Buro Eupen (maps of the Vennbahn) -Grenz Echo (regional newspaper, archived newspaper articles on the Vennbahn) -Elmar Scheurer, Eisenbahnfreunde Grenzland e.V. (Specialist on the Vennbahn) Film: Footage: -Actuality footage and interviews filmed personally -archived footage: -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWWDP8FhBEg  (footage of Vennbahn tracks) -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPaH8mb2lRQ  (WW2 footage) -DVD by Elmar Scheurer on Vennbahn. Images: -Material on Vennbahn, archived. -Google images