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Jeden Monat nähern sich unsere Kolumnisten, die Berliner Filmemacher Dominik und Benjamin Reding, dem jeweiligen Heftthema
auf ihre ganz eigene Art und Weise. Geboren wurden die Zwillinge am 3. Ja nuar 1969 in Dortmund. Während Dominik Architektur
in Aachen und Film in Hamburg studierte, absolvierte Benjamin ein Schauspielstudium in Stuttgart. 1997 begann die Arbeit an ihrem
ersten gemeinsamen Kinofilm „Oi! Warning“. Seitdem arbeiten sie für Fernseh- und Kinofilmprojekte zusammen.

Each month our columnists, Berlin-based filmmakers Dominik and Benjamin Reding, approach the respective issue-specific theme
in their very personal way. The twins were born on January 3, 1969 in Dortmund. Whilst Dominik studied architecture in Aachen
and film in Hamburg, Benjamin graduated in acting studies in Stuttgart. They started working on their first joint motion picture “Oi!
Warning“ in 1997. Since then they have tightly collaborated for TV and cinema film projects.

T he lake full of reflections. Hard sunlight. Warm calm. The shores, the little towns, Graf Zeppelin, even in a storm, never.” When the matter of flying was finally settled,
even the Alps in the distance: pin sharp. The pleasure boat tore up the smooth the next superhuman wish took shape almost simultaneously: to live in the ether,
surface, foaming, loud, almost flying above the lake. The old man at the helm pointed to live in the clouds! First with the help of skyscrapers, which quickly grew higher
here and there, shouted against the engine noise: “That’s where our shipyard stood and higher: Woolworth Building, Chrysler Building, Empire State Building, crowned
back there. At that time with the two largest steel-hall constructions in Europe. They by Frank Lloyd Wright’s idea of a One-Mile-High skyscraper in Chicago: with a dizzying
were 250 metres long, 60 metres high, 50 metres wide. At the beginning of the war, height of 1,609 metres ... But even in this futuristic ecstasy: all it really was in the
they were blown up. They were a likely target, they said.” People can swim, run, end was “scratching the clouds”, no more. Only the Russian architects of those years
jump, dive, climb, think analytically and cooperatively. They can’t fly, however. That dreamed even more radically. In 1928, architecture student Georgi Krutikov designed
is a shortcoming, a deficit. Humans feel it almost as a slight to their honour as homo a “flying city” for his diploma thesis – high-rise columns made of glass and steel,
sapiens. Every sparrow can do it, every mosquito, every common housefly, only for filled all around with hydrogen cells, drifting peacefully in the firmament. Symbol
humans, the “crowns of creation”: long jump 8.90 metres, that’s the limit. So, they of a new, better time, in which communism creates what even Christianity only ever
had to be able to do it, whatever the cost! The old man turned off the engine. “Much promised: to actually live in heaven. Nevertheless, the laws of nature and also those
too loud,” gently rocked the boat in the calming water. “I actually wanted to tell you of economics remained in force in Soviet Russia, as they did worldwide, the bold
something ... The trip from Friedsrichshafen to Rio de Janeiro took four days, helped by visions of dwelling in the ether existed merely on paper. Only once, but once all the
the trade winds, and five days back home again. same, did the vision become reality: “For us, the
A fast steamer needed two weeks for the outward crew, these were not voyages since we lived on
journey alone ... Back there, near Constance, we board during the Weltfahrten, the world tours,
always made a loop so that the passengers could for almost five weeks. Eating, washing oursel-
see something beautiful right away.” The spe- ves, sleeping, working, everything at an altitude
cies of homo sapiens, mortified by its inability of 300, sometimes 1,000 metres. Our space
to fly, tried it with muscle power and glued-on was modest, in the Graf we slept in hammocks
feathers, but the yearning overconfidence proved under the hydrogen tanks, the passengers in
fatal: Icarus crashed into the sea, and for his late the gondola; in the new Hindenburg, it became
successor Otto Lilienthal, a wooden frame with something completely different, a flying palace
a canvas cover and an embankment near Berlin with 35 sleeping cabins for 70 passengers, even
were enough for a fatal aeronautical failure. Then cabins for the crew, promenade decks, dining
the people decided: “And if you are not willing, rooms, writing room, canteen kitchen, bar, smo-
then I will resort to force!” The sea of air wanted king room and a lounge with a Blüthner grand
to be, no, it had to be conquered. The Montgolfier piano built of aluminium. Everything in the Bau-
brothers succeeded. With a small fire and some haus style. A Mr Breuhaus designed it, such a
hot air. Why hadn’t they thought of that long ago? modernist, he was world famous at the time.”
Almost too easy, the way to heaven, without any For a brief moment, facts and vision, desire and
show of strength or muscular tension. Too soft, reality merged. Now, in the airship, people real-
too ethereal, too harmless almost, and not even Foto: Benjamin Reding ly lived in the clouds. “On our return trip from
th
steerable. Not steerable? An aircraft has to be Brazil on 6 May 1937, we received the radio
steerable! Bye-bye balloon, bring on the engines, message from Lakehurst that our sister ship had
jets, rockets, all that warlike stuff to defeat gravity. And that’s how it has remained exploded, that there were many dead. We kept the news secret from the passengers
until today, with one exception: living in the clouds, every child dreams of that and until we had arrived in Germany. That was difficult for us as we knew many people
probably every adult too, at least everyone who hasn’t completely forgotten the child working on the other ship ...” The old gentleman was silent, looking at the horizon,
in him or her. To be able to walk on the endless foam of the clouds, to build a house the small towns on the lakefront, the hard blue of the sky. Then: “Oh, you should have
on it, to form it out of the cloud fluff, like igloos out of polar ice. Then sitting casual- left long ago!” We disembarked in Friedrichshafen, within sight of the port railway sta-
ly on the cloud terrace, dozing in the softest cloud armchairs and letting your legs tion. “They might want to build a ship again, here on Lake Constance, a rigid airship.
dangle over the sea of clouds, the sun at your back and one of the seven oceans That’s what I’m working on, voluntarily, as a consultant.” He moored the boat and was
below ... “Five Maybach engines, 12 cylinders, 570 hp each. That’s all we needed. That ashore with a single, casual leap. I climbed ashore after him, trying to be light-footed.
was enough for the 180 tonnes dead weight, 45 crew members, 25 passengers and 11 He looked at me closely as I did so. His look revealed his question: would I be suitable
tonnes of carrying capacity per flight. It was not flying against the elements, but with as an airship man? Then Mr Fischbach, first cabin boy, then steward, then navigator
them. Hydrogen is lighter than air, helium too, it floats on its own, with a cruising on the LZ127, Graf Zeppelin, shook hands with me, the then 15-year-old airship-loving
speed of 120 kilometres per hour. We only needed the engines for steering and when teenager, as a farewell, turned and disappeared into the crowd of tourists with the
flying against the wind. Actually, it was supremely sustainable, our way of travelling.” smooth movements of a practiced airship steward. Unrecognized for his privilege of
The old gentleman smiled, pleased to even know the catchword of the day at his 82 being probably the last of almost 50 people in the history of the world who could ever
years of age. “And a pleasant way too, many get seasick, airsick too, but with us in the say he had once really lived in the clouds!

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