At the Control Panel

Year Published: 1966

Country of Origin: Germany

Description: 16mm Film - At the Control Panel - BRD 1966 Script and Direction: Max von der Grün Camera: Unknown The film by Max von der Grün shows former miner Dannberg's current job in an automated power plant. For Josef Dannberg, 36 years old and father of a 10-year-old boy, the future has already begun. He works in the automated RWE power plant in Hamm-Uentrop. It is one of the most modern power plants in Europe, on the edge of the Ruhr area. Dannberg sits at a sterile control panel in the 'control room'. He sits, waits, reacts. His work consists of simply being there. It used to be different at the colliery, today his job is to be there, nothing else. Dannberg sits between gauges and dials, between light signals and microphones, fighting the tiredness that he can't explain to his wife at home. 'If only it wasn't for the tiredness, the damn tiredness...' In the past, people were important, here only the instruments are important... The plant, huge in scale, seems to be deserted. An atmosphere of loneliness, cleanliness and boredom surrounds Dannberg and his colleagues, who every hour enter the values displayed by the instruments into tables and pass on figures: A factory management measure against dozing off. Dannberg monitors a machine whose function remains hidden from him; the operation is inscrutable to him. After his shift, he washes himself thoroughly as he used to do in the colliery. In his free time, he looks for work to keep him physically busy; he is a member of the choral society. 'What will happen to me when machines monitor the machines,' he asks himself, 'because technology is more reliable than humans. During the break, Dannberg and his colleagues ride through the control room on their movable chairs like children, enjoying the movement. The camera remains mostly in close-up on Dannberg's tired and impassive face, whose thoughts are conveyed by the commentary (in the simple and direct language of Max von der Grün). Some shots show Dannberg on the way to his workplace, at home at breakfast or in his free time - otherwise just monotonously observing an already electronically controlled control panel. 'Automation is when they shoot you dead and you're still alive. The director said that automation is the realization of a dream that all workers have always had'. The film is an illustration of alienated labor. (First broadcast on ARD: January 29, 1967)

Online Copy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKotRwPEKOM

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