Germany's Most Beautiful Railways

Die Schönsten Bahnstrecken Deutschlands (Germany's Most Beautiful Railways) was a regular night-time feature on Germany's ARD television channel which ran from 3 September 1995 to 28 October 2013.[1]

Germany's Most Beautiful Railways
GermanDie Schönsten Bahnstrecken Deutschlands
GenreDocumentary
Presented byNo-one
Country of originGermany
Release
Original networkARD
Original releaseSeptember 3, 1995 (1995-09-03) –
October 28, 2013 (2013-10-28)
Chronology
Related showsEurope's Most Beautiful Railways
The World's Most Beautiful Railways

The programme was a real-time, mostly uninterrupted, recording of railway journeys as viewed from the driver's cab. There was no commentary or music, but the sounds of the recording were retained for broadcast. Small interruptions did occur if the train was traversing a tunnel or sat at a station, usually cutting away to view some of the cab's controls. The camera did not pan to take in scenery, being fixed in the forward position for the duration of the journey.

External shots of the train and the station building, and occasionally the wider town, were included at the route termini. A simple map of the route was displayed on screen at the beginning of the programme, and whilst the train was stationary in a station, the name of that station was also displayed. No supplementary information was provided.

The programme was used to fill the time between other programmes and as such was often cut short without explanation, so the following programme could start as scheduled.

Broadly considered a successful programme,[2] there were two spin-offs: Die Schönsten Bahnstrecken Europas (Europe's Most Beautiful Railways) and Die Schönsten Bahnstrecken der Welt (The World's Most Beautiful Railways). These followed the same format and went to picturesque routes such as Glasgow to Mallaig, which was recorded on 8 September 1997.[3]

Many of the journeys were released on VHS and DVD.[4]

Europe's Most Beautiful Railways

The following are journeys included in the European version of the series, which included some German railways.

CountryLineTerminiDate of journey
 United KingdomWest Highland LineGlasgow - Mallaig8 September 1997
 GermanyBlack Forest RailwayOffenburg - Konstanz7 November 1997
 ItalyRiviera of PonenteSanremo - Genoa12 November 1997
 ItalyTrain of WondersCuneo - Sanremo15 November 1997
  SwitzerlandGornergrat RailwayZermatt - Gornergrat17 July 1999
  SwitzerlandLötschberg lineBrig - Bern23 July 2001
 AustriaTauern RailwaySalzburg - Villach6 October 2001
  SwitzerlandGoldenPass LineMontreux - Interlaken13 May 2002
 AustriaMariazell RailwaySt. Pölten - Mariazell24 July 2002

See also

References
  1. Jutta Zniva: Die schönsten Bahnstrecken Deutschlands Eintrag im Webkatalog deutschsprachiger Fernsehserien
  2. Sonja Álvarez und Marc Röhlig (2014-01-02). "Zuschauer, die auf Züge starren" (in German). Der Tagesspiegel. Retrieved 2017-10-20.
  3. "Die schönsten Bahnstrecken Europas. The West Highland Line Schottland. Glasgow - Mallaig" (in German). Missing or empty |url= (help)
  4. "Führerstandsmitfahrten (DVD)" (in German). Missing or empty |url= (help).
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