1888 has gone down in German history as the "Year of the Three Emperors": Wilhelm I dies on 9 March. His successor Frederick III dies after 99 days on the throne and is followed by Wilhelm II, who will notoriously lead Germany into WWI.
Behind the scenes, there's tension between relatively liberal and influential Chancellor Bismarck and the authoritarian (and erratic) Wilhelm II. The economy has slowed down since the 1873 financial crash, a welcome excuse for the discrimination of Jews.
At the (real) Charité, one of Europe's largest hospitals, scientist Robert Koch identifies the TB virus and works on what he hopes will be the cure. Between 1870 and 1918, the Charité was the centre of European medical Innovation, also hosting Emil Behring, who developed a vaccination for diphtheria and tetanus, and Paul Ehrlich, who invented chemotherapy. More than half of Germany's medical Nobel Price winners, including the above, worked at the Charité. It remains one of the world's most respected hospitals (Beyoncé and Jay-Z took their kid there last summer, so it must be true).
1899
1899 by Baran bo Odar & Jantje Friese (DARK), a new Netflix show for 2019. The original series is said to revolve around a migrant steamship heading west to leave the old continent from London to New York. The passengers, a mixed bag of European origin, are united by their hopes and dreams for the new century and their future abroad. When they discover another migrant ship adrift on open sea, their journey takes an unexpected turn. What they find on board will turn their passage to the promised land into a horrifying nightmare.
Friese and bo Odar commented: “What really made us connect to this idea was the concept of having a truly European show with a mixed cast from different countries. At its heart is the question of what unites us and what divides us. And how fear can be a trigger for the latter.”
1880 to1920 saw the height of European migration to the USA with more than 20m --many from Central, Eastern and Southern Europe-- arriving amid the pressures of rapid industrialization and urbanization. In the year 1899, the RMS Oceanic started operating and was until 1901 the world's largest ship and most important transatlantic connection, running between Liverpool and New York.
1904-1918
THE ADLON - A FAMILY SAGA 1 by Uli Edel (THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX) & Rodica Doehnert. Produced by Oliver Berben (PERFUME) for public broadcaster ZDF 2013.
Back to Berlin, just down the road from Charité, with the hotel family saga THE ADLON (you know, the luxury hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his child from a top balcony). Greta Garbo's 1932 film GRAND HOTEL is set in a Berlin hotel inspired by the Adlon and a fictional half-ruined pre-war luxury hotel in East Berlin appears in Billy Wilder's 1961 film ONE, TWO, THREE. The hotel has also featured prominently in numerous books about the Third Reich, including Joseph Kanon's novel The Good German and Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther novels.
The glamorous TV show --think UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS but in glitzy Berlin-- stars German TV A-listers Josefine Preuß, Heino Ferch, Marie Bäumer, Burghart Klaußner, Sunnyi Melles, Christiane Paul and is set against the Prussian Empire, WWI, and the loss of both. Continued in ...
1918-1933
THE ADLON - A FAMILY SAGA 2
... and adding some big names with actors Jürgen Vogel, Ken Duken, Tom Schilling, Nora von Waldstätten.
In the saga's second part, Germany is in the grip of dramatic hyperinflation, rampant unemployment, street fights between communists and Nazis, but meanwhile the Adlon is the international jewel of the "Golden Twenties" vibe, hosting a who's who of VIPs, from Jackie Koogan (THE KID) to writer Thomas Mann, and Liza Minnelli's character in CABARET, Sally Bowles.
My mother just told me that her cousin worked at the Adlon in the 1920s, I'll rewatch the show with new eyes.
1929-
BABYLON BERLIN by Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries & Henk Handloegten, based on Volker Kutscher’s eponymous novels. (Sky 1 & ARD 2017; Sky Atlantic 2018; Netflix 2018)
The same timeframe as for THE ADLON SAGA --the young Weimar Republic in crisis before the lights went out-- is the foil for this internationally praised show, starring Volker Bruch, Liv Lisa Fries, Peter Kurth, Matthias Brandt, Hannah Herzsprung, Lars Eidinger, Fritzi Haberlandt, Jördis Triebel, Mišel Matičević, and a special guest appearance by singer Bryan Ferry.
The crime thriller relates to the dark underbelly, set against an increasing left and right-wing radicalization, the Bloody May of 1929 with many dead civilians during a Communist rally, and the overall impact of WWI PTSD, which of course wasn't called that but was known as "war trembling."
1933-1997
THE ADLON - A FAMILY SAGA 3
With Germany under Nazi rule, the question is collaboration or resistance, from the world showcase that was the 1936 Olympic Games to the Adlon becoming a war hospital. At the end of WWII, the destroyed Adlon finds itself in the Soviet zone that is East Berlin and is occupied. In 1970, the GDR government closes the hotel, which only reopens, largely to its old splendour, in 1997. Russian-born Berlin-raised actor Emma Drogunova, who joined the cast here in her first TV role, was just named European Shooting Star 2019.
After the success of THE ADLON, UFA also has plans for a new series featuring yet another well-known Berlin institution: The department store KaDeWe (“Kaufhaus des Westens” -- The Department Store of the West). No details announced yet.
1938
MUNICH Germany's UFA and UK's Freemantle optioned Robert Harris's historic thriller Munich "to develop an allegedly star-studded international series. Peter Moffat is writing the screenplay, production is scheduled for late 2019/early 2020.
September 1938. In Munich, Hitler, Chamberlain, Mussolini, and Daladier meet at short notice to secure world peace, or not. British PM Chamberlain has brought his private secretary Hugh Legat from the Foreign Office. Paul von Hartmann from the German Foreign Office in Berlin is attending as well -- he is part of a resistance group trying to topple Hitler. Legat and von Hartmann, friends since their Oxford times, wonder how far they will have to go to stop the impending war.
1941
SS-GB by Len Deighton, Neal Purvis & Robert Wade, based on Deighton’s eponymous novel. Directed by Philipp Kadelbach (PERFUME) (BBC; RTL 2017)
Basically, what had happened if MUNICH had gone even worse. I found the scary alternative history thriller with Sam Riley, Kate Bosworth, and James Northcote so scary that I had to stop watching as Lars Eidinger appeared as menacing Nazi commander Dr. Oskar Huth. The plot: A British homicide detective investigates a murder in a German-occupied England in a parallel universe where the Nazis won World War II. "Operation Sealion“ --the actual1940 Wehrmacht plans for an invasion of Great Britain-- is "realized" and fictionalised in SS-GB.
1942
DAS BOOT by Andreas Prochaska, Tony Saint & Johannes W. Betz, based on Lothar-Günther Buchheim’s eponymous novel and Wolfgang Pertersen’s 1981 movie. (Sky 1 2018; Hulu TBA)
I saw the original TV production as a child and still have nightmares. The anti-war drama is back, with Rick Okon, Vicky Krieps (PHANTOM THREAD), Rainer Bock, and Robert Stadlober.
1942 saw the height of the U-boat war, with 210 German U-boats roaming the waters on ever more dangerous missions --increased when, the same year, Alan Turing decoded the Enigma system, which allowed the Allies to determine German positions. Producer Oliver Vogel on those high stakes: "Most 'enemy tours' took 30 days and your average chance of survival for the young men was just 90 days. Every third mission was sunk, with no survivors." I still remember my sailor uncle, 17 at the time, miraculously/not unintentionally "missing" as many missions as possible (due to train delays or feigned illness) -- three he missed where bombed. On land, the population's dissatisfaction grew, as did the resistance, for example in France.
Sky had its best series start with 1m and 2m TV and streaming viewers respectively, so the series is already renewed for season 2. "DAS BOOT demonstrates the senselessness of war. Our characters bring to life the horrors of war at sea and on land, especially for a new generation of viewers.
Today, remembering the past is ever more important," commented the producers.
Taking a break here, to be continued next week/after the war.
by
@JuttaBrendemuhl with Stella Noack
promo images: Lars Eidinger in SS GB courtesy BBC; Charité, von Rittberg courtesy ARD; Babylon Berlin 2017 courtesy ARD Degeto X-Filme Beta Film Sky photo Frederic Batier; Das Boot courtesy Bavaria Fiction Sky photo Nik Konietzny
