Schmidt, H. Abgeknipst

Die komischsten, seltssten und erstaunlichsten Erlebnisse eines Schaffners.
The author broke off his studies in the GDR in 1986 to pursue a profession that really filled him up. He "ended up" in the cadre department of Pirna station and began working for the Deutsche Reichsbahn as a "train conductor". Mainly working on the Elbe valley line Dresden - Schöna as well as on the Müglitz valley line Heidenau - Altenberg, there were a lot of bizarre incidents in his field of work. Special assignments, such as escorting a special train with "embassy refugees" from Prague in autumn 1989, were also part of his duties. Then, after a few years in the service of Deutsche Bahn AG, he was finally, like many other railwaymen, "socially dismantled". He writes in detail about the background to the massive job cuts at the railway.
His notes, including pictures, about the flood of the century in August 2002 in the Pirna/Dresden area are a historical document of the time. There are also reports from his partner, who was on duty on a customs boat in the area of the German-Czech border during the floods. For friends of the old "railway days", the travel reports in the area of the Czech state railway are also very amusing. Be it the descriptions of the stations or the not always entirely clean accommodation. All in all, written with a lot of heart and soul and completely truthful.