Fireworks

Feuerwerk I had to get me a pyrotechnics manufacturers license to be able to legally import, transport, store and handle foreign (mainly US) rocket motors for my other hobby: rocketry

Now that I have this license, I occasionally help a friend who runs a pyro firm (Gödeke Pyrotechnik) in Berlin, Germany. He is doing every type of pyrotechnics including special effects for films. He is also teaching special effects for theaters at the Technische Fachhochschule (TFH) Berlin as well as chemistry of pyrotechnics at the Sprengschule (blasting school) at Dresden.

In the summer season there are 2-3 firework shows to be done every week and he can make well use of some trained hands. Several times a year we're doing the fireworks part of big laser shows performed by Laser & Vision.

Here are pictures of some of the firework displays where I was engaged as a helping hand.

Feuernachtstraum on Aug. 17, 1996 in Hagen
Feuernachtstraum on June 28, 1997 in Herne

The Feuernachtstraum shows are a composition of laser, music, light, fog and fireworks.
This combination is ideally suited to sweep people up in the show. They usually take place in stadiums or other big open spaces that have room for the 5-12000 people usually watching the show. As you can imagine, these shows need a big setup and aren't really cheap. That's why they are performed only 1-3 times a year.

The show leads the spectators through the history of the universe:
In the beginning there is the "big bang" (guess how this is realized :)
Later life is forming and evolution finally leads to mankind. A quick pass through different cultures (egyptian, inka etc.), landscapes (plains, woods etc.) and finally war and peace completes the fantasy journey.

Here you can take a look at the setup (260K) of a small firework show that was shot from two barges in the baltic sea in summer 1997.

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