Synopses

In Germany's upper Erzgebirge ("Ore Mountains,") in the legendary Silver Land on the Saxon-Czech border, many relics of bygone times have survived. One finds here people who have held on to old, long abandoned crafts and traditions - men such as Hans Jürgen Wenzel from Friedebach. With his firm "Schindel-Wenzel" ( - "Wenzel's Shingles") he is a builder of half-timbered houses. But his true passion is an art which he learned at the hand of his grandfather: Wenzel builds water piplines from tree trunks - similar to the Roman viaducts. The documentary observes as one of the last active European Röhrmeisters ( i.e., "Masters of Tree Trunk Pipe-fitting") attempts for the first time to reconstruct an historic water distributor with the use of a single tree trunk.