The Germans, famous for "coming to terms with the past", have recently taken their Vergangenheitsbewältigung to a whole new level (or just medium), doggedly working their way through the 20th century in new high-quality TV productions. "Today, remembering the past is ever more important," as a producer says below. Here's a timeline of series, with settings from 1888 to the present, between history and fiction, between romantic drama and mystery thriller, unravelling German TV's obsession with (real) things past:
1888
CHARITÉ by Sönke Wortmann & Dorothee Schön (ARD public broadcster 2017-)
The medical drama stars Justus von Dohnányi (THE SUNLIT NIGHT at Sundance 2019), Emilia Schüle (BERLIN STATION) and others, set in Berlin's famous CHARITÉ hospital, founded in 1710 as a poor hospital (anticipating the plague hitting the city, which didn't happen).
Continue reading "A timeline of TV's obsession with history (1/2)" »
