Dating to the mid 1960s, this silent home movie appears to show a trip by Czech President Antonín Novotný to Austria to take part in a Communist Party rally.

Film begins with POV shots from a moving Mercedes Benz, on a mountain road near the Wörthersee. At :47 are shots of the stone Dragon of Klagenfurt, Austria. At 1:29, a child plays with pigeons in the park at Klagenfurt. At 1:38, an anti-fascist protest with people carrying signs that say “SS” and then have the last name of a person on them. At 1:42, protestors carry a banner in support of Castro’s Socialist Cuba. At 1:47, a banner reads “Parteiorganisation Polizei”. This may reference the WWII era Nazi-era infiltration and control of the police, or it may refer to the Communist Party’s internal police force. At 1:52, Czech President Antonín Novotný is seen speaking at the rally. At 1:58, the Berghotel Moosekreuz is shown in St. Anton am Arlberg, Austria. At 2:24, a sign for Vorarlberg, and driving footage of a Mercedes going over the Flexen Pass.

Motion picture films don’t last forever; many have already been lost or destroyed. For almost two decades, we’ve worked to collect, scan and preserve the world as it was captured on 35mm, 16mm and 8mm movies — including home movies, industrial films, and other non-fiction. If you have endangered films you’d like to have scanned, or wish to donate celluloid to Periscope Film so that we can share them with the world, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us via the weblink below.

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com