[en] The experimental results from the Plastic Ball detector have contributed vastly to the understanding of the reaction mechanism of nuclear collisions at several hundred MeV per nucleon. The discovery of the collective flow phenomena (bounce-off of spectator fragments, side-splash in the reaction plane, and squeeze-out out of the reaction plane), as they were predicted by hydrodynamical models, has led to the experimental observation of compressed nuclear matter, which is a necessary condition before one can study the equation of state in detail and search for phase transitions at higher energies. 39 refs., 9 figs., 1 tab