1956KU'DAMM 56 by Anette Hess (ZDF 2016)
Thursday, January 24. 2019
A timeline of TV's obsession with history (2/2)
What the 19th century is to British TV (Austens 1, 2, 3... & Dickens adaptations) or the 21st century is to American TV (HOUSE OF CARDS; MADAME SECRETARY), 20th European history is to German TV -- a cornucopia of stories of huge migratory movements & discrimination, social strife & warfare, extremism & political change, division & unification, innovation, liberation & emancipation. In other words the perfect foil for our present. Here is part 2 of a timeline of series, with settings from 1956 to the 90s (1888 to 1942 here), and their historical context, unravelling German TV's obsession with (real) things past:
1956
KU'DAMM 56 by Anette Hess (ZDF 2016)
1956KU'DAMM 56 by Anette Hess (ZDF 2016)
The captivating Zeitgeist romance-drama stars a nearly exclusively female cast of Sonja Gerhardt, Claudia Michelsen, Maria Ehrich, Emilia Schüle, with support by Sabin Tambrea, Heino Ferch, and Uwe Ochsenknecht (WELCOME TO GERMANY).
It's a history of mentalities of the 50s, between the end of the war and the "economic miracle" more so than hooked on any special events. Society is rigid albeit business still often driven by women, as many men have not returned from the war. Berliners in their newly reconstructed city move on, avoiding guilt and trauma as best they can. Nazis continue to occupy central roles in public life, homosexuality is illegal, but there's also a glimmer of women's emancipation and resilience, especially in the younger generation who are looking to the USA for Rock 'n' Roll and sexual liberation.
1959
KU'DAMM 59 by Anette Hess (ZDF 2018)
Three years later in fictional time, two years later in production time, we're back in West Berlin with conservative Frau Schöllack and her three rebellious daughters. Loveless arranged marriages, general sexism and re-patriarchilisation, the rejection of iIlegitimate children and the flat out ignoring of the plight of Jewish survivors --the famous Fritz Bauer trials are four years away-- illustrate the suffocating corset of the time. The breaking point might come in ..
1962
KU'DAMM 62, in pre-production
Production company UFA Fiction has announced a third season of the KU'DAMM series called KU'DAMM 62. No timeline yet.
1980
WEISSENSEE 1 by Anette Hess (ARD 2010)
One of the earliest examples of German TV series that plow the fields of time, this one set in East Berlin, setting the tone for the (political) dramas/family sagas/romances to come.
Current affairs: The USSR invades Afghanistan and brings the East-West conflict to a boil (after a general detente in the 70s). The world is in the midst of the second oil crisis, triggered by the First Gulf War that year, which also has a negative impact on the GDR economy.
So-called "German-German relations" are at an all-time low, the world is rearming after the infamous NATO Double-Track Decision of 1979.
In WEISSENSEE, the two families Kupfer and Hausmann run the gamut from Stasi to dissident hippies, which leads to a Romeo-and-Juliet scenario. Starring Anna Loos, Karin Sass (GOODBYE, LENIN!), Hannah Herzsprung, Sven Lehmann
1983
DEUTSCHLAND 83 by Anna & Jörg Winger, directed by Edward Berger (now PATRICK MELROSE) & Samira Radsi (RTL 2015; Sundance TV 2015; Channel 4 2016)
Jonas Nay, Maria Schrader, and Ulrich Noethen star in the (mostly UK and US) hit spy thriller.
As in WEISSENSEE, we are in the midst of the Cold War and global sabre rattling (including US nuclear bombs on German soil). A WWIII is not unthinkable. A planned NATO exercise creates panic on the streets of East Berlin and Moscow, who fear it might be a cover for a real attack.
In the fictional version, a young GDR soldier/spy finds himself torn between two systems and two loves.
Buy the soundtrack! Panic bells, it's red alert. The war machine springs to life. 99 ministers meet to worry, worry, super scurry. Call the troops out in a hurry, this is what we've waited for. This is it, boys, this is war. The president is on the line as ninety-nine red balloons go by.
1986
DEUTSCHLAND 86 by Anna Winger (Amazon Prime and Sundance TV 2018, RTL 2019?)
Ideological chaos in the GDR as the country faces bankruptcy. To get foreign currency, socialist ideals are compromised, as in supporting the Apartheid regime in oppressing the liberation movement -- by smuggling (West German!) weapons to South Africa against the UN embargo.
In February, famous Glienicker Bridge is the venue of a German-German spy exchange. Meanwhile in the West, the RAF terrorists kill Siemens manager Karl Heinz Beckurts and diplomat Gerold von Braunmühl. And Chernobyl threatens Europe's survival and I spent my teen years drinking Belgian UHT milk for health safety reasons.
1987
WEISSENSEE 2 by Hess & Fromm (ARD 2013)
There's growing protest in the GDR, the peace movement is going strong on both sides of the wall, culminating in the Olof Palme Peace March that year. Gorbachev promises glasnost ("openness") and perestroika ("restructuring"). East German leader Erich Honecker visits West Germany in 1987. His reception, with military honours, as an official guest amounts to a de facto recognition of two German states.
1989
WEISSENSEE 3 by Hess & Fromm (ARD 2015)
Hungary's border fence with Austria comes down. The rest is history: "Peaceful Revolution" in the GDR. "Monday Demonstrations" in Leipzig. The round table of "Democracy Now!". The fall of the wall.
1990
WEISSENSEE 4 by Hess & Fromm (ARD 2018)
The (hi)story continues from late 1989 to March 1990: The Stasi is dismantled. A Unification Treaty is in the works. Allied troops are leaving. The planned economy becomes a market economy. The D-Mark arrives in the East. And an "Eastalgia" begins to set in within those transition times.
DEUTSCHLAND 89, in pre-production
Amazon Prime is currently working on the third installment of the DEUTSCHLAND series, said to depict the fall of the Berlin wall and its consequences for global politics as experienced by those who worked for the GDR government and are now confronted with a second “Zero Hour”. No dates announced.
To date, that is where (German TV) history ends, but there is ample room in the middle -- I should sit down to pitch some 1968 student revolt and 1970s oil crisis and left-wing terror blockbusters (although I better hurry because on the film side of things, Berlinale 2019 just announced that the crime novel "Die Tote im Wannsee“ ("Dead Women in Wannsee) by Lutz Wilhelm Kellerhoff will be part of their book adaptation pitch market: a Berlin crime story set in 1968 and deeply intertwined with the political turmoil of the time). ZDF TV took a stab at the tumultuous decade in 2017 with the horrifically named ZARAH - WILD YEARS (written by Eva & Volker A. Zahn), a female-centric comedy-drama that unfortunately did not live up to expectations. It tackled abortion, sexual assault, and the power of feminism, especially in the German media landscape (feminist Alice Schwarzer did found EMMA magazine in 1973).
Let's see who will next go further back in time, or into the 1990s or 2000s.
by @JuttaBrendemuhl with Stella Noack
promo images: Kudamm 59 courtesy UFA Fiction; Deutschland 83 courtesy UFA Fiction
It's a history of mentalities of the 50s, between the end of the war and the "economic miracle" more so than hooked on any special events. Society is rigid albeit business still often driven by women, as many men have not returned from the war. Berliners in their newly reconstructed city move on, avoiding guilt and trauma as best they can. Nazis continue to occupy central roles in public life, homosexuality is illegal, but there's also a glimmer of women's emancipation and resilience, especially in the younger generation who are looking to the USA for Rock 'n' Roll and sexual liberation.
1959
KU'DAMM 59 by Anette Hess (ZDF 2018)
Three years later in fictional time, two years later in production time, we're back in West Berlin with conservative Frau Schöllack and her three rebellious daughters. Loveless arranged marriages, general sexism and re-patriarchilisation, the rejection of iIlegitimate children and the flat out ignoring of the plight of Jewish survivors --the famous Fritz Bauer trials are four years away-- illustrate the suffocating corset of the time. The breaking point might come in ..
1962
KU'DAMM 62, in pre-production
Production company UFA Fiction has announced a third season of the KU'DAMM series called KU'DAMM 62. No timeline yet.
1980
WEISSENSEE 1 by Anette Hess (ARD 2010)
One of the earliest examples of German TV series that plow the fields of time, this one set in East Berlin, setting the tone for the (political) dramas/family sagas/romances to come.
Current affairs: The USSR invades Afghanistan and brings the East-West conflict to a boil (after a general detente in the 70s). The world is in the midst of the second oil crisis, triggered by the First Gulf War that year, which also has a negative impact on the GDR economy.
So-called "German-German relations" are at an all-time low, the world is rearming after the infamous NATO Double-Track Decision of 1979.
In WEISSENSEE, the two families Kupfer and Hausmann run the gamut from Stasi to dissident hippies, which leads to a Romeo-and-Juliet scenario. Starring Anna Loos, Karin Sass (GOODBYE, LENIN!), Hannah Herzsprung, Sven Lehmann
1983DEUTSCHLAND 83 by Anna & Jörg Winger, directed by Edward Berger (now PATRICK MELROSE) & Samira Radsi (RTL 2015; Sundance TV 2015; Channel 4 2016)
Jonas Nay, Maria Schrader, and Ulrich Noethen star in the (mostly UK and US) hit spy thriller.
As in WEISSENSEE, we are in the midst of the Cold War and global sabre rattling (including US nuclear bombs on German soil). A WWIII is not unthinkable. A planned NATO exercise creates panic on the streets of East Berlin and Moscow, who fear it might be a cover for a real attack.
In the fictional version, a young GDR soldier/spy finds himself torn between two systems and two loves.
Buy the soundtrack! Panic bells, it's red alert. The war machine springs to life. 99 ministers meet to worry, worry, super scurry. Call the troops out in a hurry, this is what we've waited for. This is it, boys, this is war. The president is on the line as ninety-nine red balloons go by.
1986
DEUTSCHLAND 86 by Anna Winger (Amazon Prime and Sundance TV 2018, RTL 2019?)
Ideological chaos in the GDR as the country faces bankruptcy. To get foreign currency, socialist ideals are compromised, as in supporting the Apartheid regime in oppressing the liberation movement -- by smuggling (West German!) weapons to South Africa against the UN embargo.
In February, famous Glienicker Bridge is the venue of a German-German spy exchange. Meanwhile in the West, the RAF terrorists kill Siemens manager Karl Heinz Beckurts and diplomat Gerold von Braunmühl. And Chernobyl threatens Europe's survival and I spent my teen years drinking Belgian UHT milk for health safety reasons.
1987
WEISSENSEE 2 by Hess & Fromm (ARD 2013)
There's growing protest in the GDR, the peace movement is going strong on both sides of the wall, culminating in the Olof Palme Peace March that year. Gorbachev promises glasnost ("openness") and perestroika ("restructuring"). East German leader Erich Honecker visits West Germany in 1987. His reception, with military honours, as an official guest amounts to a de facto recognition of two German states.
1989
WEISSENSEE 3 by Hess & Fromm (ARD 2015)
Hungary's border fence with Austria comes down. The rest is history: "Peaceful Revolution" in the GDR. "Monday Demonstrations" in Leipzig. The round table of "Democracy Now!". The fall of the wall.
1990
WEISSENSEE 4 by Hess & Fromm (ARD 2018)
The (hi)story continues from late 1989 to March 1990: The Stasi is dismantled. A Unification Treaty is in the works. Allied troops are leaving. The planned economy becomes a market economy. The D-Mark arrives in the East. And an "Eastalgia" begins to set in within those transition times.
DEUTSCHLAND 89, in pre-production
Amazon Prime is currently working on the third installment of the DEUTSCHLAND series, said to depict the fall of the Berlin wall and its consequences for global politics as experienced by those who worked for the GDR government and are now confronted with a second “Zero Hour”. No dates announced.
To date, that is where (German TV) history ends, but there is ample room in the middle -- I should sit down to pitch some 1968 student revolt and 1970s oil crisis and left-wing terror blockbusters (although I better hurry because on the film side of things, Berlinale 2019 just announced that the crime novel "Die Tote im Wannsee“ ("Dead Women in Wannsee) by Lutz Wilhelm Kellerhoff will be part of their book adaptation pitch market: a Berlin crime story set in 1968 and deeply intertwined with the political turmoil of the time). ZDF TV took a stab at the tumultuous decade in 2017 with the horrifically named ZARAH - WILD YEARS (written by Eva & Volker A. Zahn), a female-centric comedy-drama that unfortunately did not live up to expectations. It tackled abortion, sexual assault, and the power of feminism, especially in the German media landscape (feminist Alice Schwarzer did found EMMA magazine in 1973).
Let's see who will next go further back in time, or into the 1990s or 2000s.
by @JuttaBrendemuhl with Stella Noack
promo images: Kudamm 59 courtesy UFA Fiction; Deutschland 83 courtesy UFA Fiction
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