Der Eiserne Weg plot
1846, Hausberg in Bavaria. Farmer Kriele sees his goods being auctioned so that he and his family can emigrate to America. The money is not enough and so his servant Veit, who is in love with his daughter Anna, has to stay behind in Bavaria. Before their departure, the young man promises his beloved that he wants to earn enough money to follow her to America one day. This goal drives him away from his desperate, poor family, who struggle to survive these bitter times. Veit goes to work in the forest and, together with five other men, fells trees in the bitter cold winters of 1846 and 1847, which are urgently needed for railway construction. He follows his foreman Johannes, who becomes his friend, to Prussia in 1847. He hopes to earn three times as much from the ever-expanding railroads. This work, however, is anything but light.