Artists from the town of Naumburg gathered in the local association Kulturzug e.V. had been working on reconstructing a railway carriage into a mobile theatre. This was to be placed on the Kulturbahnhof, the cultural train station, that was settled in the city of Kassel. Jim Avignon from Berlin painted the carriage very colourful. The people from association Kulturzug built a podium in it, a light installation, a sound system, mixing tables and a bar. They did a great job.
Unfortunately, they were short of money after they finished the whole lot. The bank claimed back a loan, the association got bankrupted. The mayor of Naumburg, Jürgen Matzath, said he was willing to pay back the debt and thus he got hold of the unique theatre carriage. In November 1999, europartrains creative director Hans Kalliwoda met Mister Matzath. De Blinde Schilders were interested in linking the Kulturzug to their train as a communications-carriage. The mayor had to get rid of the train, because it was standing at the station for a long time unused. People in Naumburg didn1t like the colourful carriage. De Blinde Schilders only had to pay the outstanding debt of 20.000 DMarks to get hold of the beautifully rebuilt carriage. While Blinde Schilders were trying to work out ways of getting funds together and maybe get europartrain to Kassel, the mayor ruined the possibility of ever using the Kulturzug. The town fire brigade wanted to have a new bar in their canteen. So the mayor gave them the key to the theatre carriage to take the nicely handmade bar from it. The fire brigade went in with great effort: they took out the bar, the lighting system, the mixing tables and the sound equipment. The fire brigade paid the mayor 3500 DMarks for it, but caused a damage of 72000 DMarks to the carriage. The Blind Painters was now offered the train at 17000 DMarks. But the very nice carriage was completely ruined. The opportunity of a German communication carriage was ruined with it.
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< view from the stage> |
This 40 m long, 1950's style former East German double-decker carriage was meant to be connected to the europartrain. It was completely transformed to function multi-disciplinary, including stage, bar and other facilities. Over a period of several years, hard work has been done by Kulturzug eV., a local organisation in Naumburg near Kassel, Germany. Local politics was finally breaking the neck of their initiative and the dream of connecting it to the europartrain.
< view into space for the internet-cafe>
< view of bar>
< view to the stage>
< view of passage ways >
