Changing tracks - 150 years of literature about trains, railway lines and stations in Eastern Europe | Reading

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The literary collage written by Roswitha Schieb with an introduction and historical embedding of the selected quotes reflects the development of the railway: from the 1830s, trains became a common means of transport and travel throughout Europe. The first connections not only revolutionised travel, but the rails also connected an entire continent - politically, culturally and literarily. Some contemporaries at the time hailed trains as technical guarantors of international understanding, progress and peace. Another part felt that the fast, smooth gliding along was a loss and mourned the now slowly disappearing carriages. Experiences of space and time were altered, even levelled, by the railway; the landscape and the perception of the landscape were transformed by tunnels, aisles, cuttings and viaducts. The railway station has become a symbol of the 20th century, especially in Eastern Europe.