The Elbe tunnel: pioneer work and traffic jam - ''Hubertus Meyer-Burckhardt on the bottleneck of the north

NDR | 1  ×  90 min | 20.07.2023

June 1968 – construction of the new Elbe tunnel begins in Hamburg. It is one of the most spectacular 10th-century buildings in Northern Europe.

Until then, traffic flowed along the north-south axis of Europe over the Elbe bridges. Stress for street and city. Then came the tunnel miracle. In the 70's it is the longest underwater road tunnel in the world. From the mid-1990s, what was then a state-of-the-art tunnel boring machine with a diameter of 14.2 meters was digging deep under the Elbe.

The docu-drama tells the exciting story of the XXL building. Forces of nature were overcome, opponents and supporters were at loggerheads, people and houses gave way to the construction project – and came back after completion, just like the traffic jams. The Elbe tunnel became a structure that never had the chance to fulfill all the expectations placed in it.

Hubertus Meyer-Burckhardt presents people and their stories whose lives the tunnel has changed. Historians comment on and evaluate the events from the early 1950s up to the inauguration of the fourth tunnel tube. The head of the tunnel control center provides insights into the underground world of the tunnel. And Mike Krüger...: He was working as a concrete worker and architecture student on the Elbe tunnel construction site and tells of his experiences... and how he surprisingly became a successful entertainer. Exclusively for the film, he rewrote his hit "Bodo mit dem Bagger" to the story of the Elbe tunnel and sings the new song right in front of the closed tunnel portal.

The docudrama shows partly unpublished photos and archive recordings. Game scenes lead to the world of the 50s and 60s. They tell of the arguments about the major project and of a family tragedy surrounding the construction of the Elbe Tunnel.

Peter Lohmeyer as Hamburg's chief building director Otto Sill and Nico König as mayor Max Brauer make the time come alive. Alexander Klaws plays the father of the family that had to make way for the tunnel.

Broadcast date: July 20, 2023, on NDR at 8:15 p.m

Team

• Ulf Thomas

  Author & Director

• Torsten Wacker

  Author & Director scene

• Anne Kötterheinrich

  Executive Producer

• Christian Struck

  Manufacturing Manager

• Björn Grzemba

  Production Assistant

• Alexander Müller-Elsner

  Head of Produktion

• Marvin Kreipe

  Cutter

• Jürgen Hermann

  Cutter

• Matthias Schuart

  Assistant director

• Jörn Steinhoff

  Camera scene

• Timo Schwarz

  Camera scene

• Hendrik Römer

  Gaffer

• Ingo Voelker

  Sound

• Kay Kulke

  Scene design

• Andrea Giesel

  Location scout

• Antje Gebauer

  Costume picture

• Kathi Kullack

  Hair & Makeup

• Jens Holstein

  Hair & Makeup

• Felix Weichbrodt

  Cooperation

• Marc Brasse

  Editor NDR

• Bettina Brade

  Editorial assistance

• Hubertus Meyer-Burckhardt

  Moderator & Speaker NDR