East Berlin's Chaussee St Neighbourhood, 1987 ("Feuerland")

Tierra del Fuego is not located in South America, but in the heart of Berlin. The documentary film, shot in May 1987, shows a piece of contemporary street and everyday life as well as life in public places in the area around Chaussee-, Invaliden-, Garten-, Acker-, Borsig-, Tieck- and Wilhelm-Pieck-Straße (since 1994 Torstraße) in Berlin-Mitte, Dorotheenstadt, in a very direct and authentic way. The iron foundries, large-scale forges, locomotive and (steam) engine factories - the best known of which was the later Borsig Works - located in the area around 1804 earned the area the name "Fireland" at the time and also shaped the working-class neighborhood with their pubs. A number of street names, such as Borsigstrasse, named after the founder of the Borsig Works, still recall this period. In the GDR, the area was also called "Romantikerviertel", because of the other street names, which were named after poets of the Romantic period. A real communication center is the corner pub Borsig-Eck on the corner of Tieckstraße and Borsigstraße. A colorful cross-section of the population meets there, as well as young and old. It is a communication center, because here people meet, talk, politicize, drink beer at 51 pfennigs, celebrate weddings, play chess, skat or a mushroom expert talks shop about morels. The 75-year-old regular guest Kutte, the old chess master, talks about his life during the Nazi era, which is closely connected to this neighborhood. A young bride and groom celebrate their wedding and dance to Udo Lindenberg's "Hinterm Horizont geht's weiter".