Germany (TV series)

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Television series
Original title Germany 83 (Season 1)
Germany 86 (Season 2)
Germany 89 (Season 3)
Country of production Germany
original language German
Year (s) 2015, since 2018
Production
company		 UFA fiction
length 45 minutes
Episodes 18 in 2+ seasons ( list )
genre Spy series
idea Anna Winger
production Nico Hofmann ,
Henriette Lippold ,
Jörg Winger
music Reinhold Heil
camera Philipp Haberlandt (Ep. 1–5),
Frank Küpper (Ep. 6–8)
cut Sven Budelmann (Ep. 1–5),
Boris Gromatzki (Ep. 6–8)
First broadcast June 17, 2015 (USA) on SundanceTV
German-language
first broadcast		 November 26, 2015 on RTL Television

Germany is a German television series . While the first season was published with the title Deutschland 83 (also stylized as Deutschland83 ), the series received the title Deutschland 86 with the second season . The third season will be Germany 89 .

The series tells of a GDR border soldier (played by Jonas Nay ) who is smuggled into the Bundeswehr as a spy (“ scout of peace ”) . The series depicts the tension between East and West during the Cold War and the increased risk of a third world war that existed at the time . It was produced by UFA Fiction with showrunners Jörg Winger and Anna Winger , and directed by Edward Berger and Samira Radsi .

The series premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2015 (Berlinale 2015) . The cable broadcaster SundanceTV acquired the broadcasting rights of the series for the USA, a rarity on American television, and showed it there with subtitles. In the UK, the series was broadcast on Channel 4 TV from January 2016. In Germany, the series was broadcast by RTL from November 26 to December 17, 2015 .

Due to the poor ratings for the free TV exploitation of the first season, there was a change in the exploitation of rights for the second season, which has been running under the title Deutschland 86 since October 19, 2018 . The first broadcast rights for Germany and Austria are owned by Amazon Video , which has recently joined the group of users . RTL owns the subordinate first broadcast rights for linear television.

Even before the second season was released, it was announced that there will be a third season entitled Deutschland 89 , in which the fall of the Berlin Wall will be discussed. This should include eight episodes and will run on Amazon's streaming service Prime Video from September 25, 2020 .

action

season 1

The Cold War is raging in Europe . In 1983, when the NATO - Herbstmanöver Able Archer is announced, the guide comes squads in Moscow and East Berlin , the suspicion, the maneuver could as a cover for a first strike against the Warsaw Pact act. The Central Enlightenment Administration (HVA) of the Ministry for State Security of the GDR therefore sends a spy to the West who is supposed to spy on the Bundeswehr and NATO plans. The chief sergeant of the border troops of the GDR, Martin Rauch, is chosen, who only reluctantly accepts his espionage assignment. In the Federal Republic of Germany he infiltrated the Bundeswehr under a false identity as First Lieutenant Stamm and Ordonnanzoffizier ( Adjutant ) of General Edel. The aim of his mission is to uncover the positions of the American Pershing II missiles and other NATO plans.

season 2

Martin Rauch ekes out a lonely existence in a GDR children's home in Angola until his aunt Lenora wins him over to an adventurous and mafia-like plan. However, his identification with the GDR regime is fading. After starting an affair on the tennis court with a West German entrepreneur who turns out to be an agent of the West German BND, he increasingly works as a double agent for the FRG . In addition, the GDR is on the verge of national bankruptcy in 1986, and socialist ideals are thrown overboard for hard currencies. In the end, however, Martin and Lenora find themselves in Kleinmachnow , their East German homeland.

Figures and cast

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  • Alexander Beyer as Tobias Tischbier, officially he is a professor at the University of Bonn , in fact he is a spy for the HVA and serves as a liaison for Martin. Tischbier is gay and has a brief relationship with Alexander Edel.
  • Carina Wiese as Ingrid Rauch, Martin's mother. She is seriously ill and lives in Kleinmachnow , GDR. Ingrid urgently needs a kidney transplant . Thanks to Martin's commitment, she should get on the transplant list quickly.
  • Nikola Kastner as Linda Seiler, secretary to NATO chief analyst Henrik Mayer and short-term lover of Martin. She dies in episode 4 of a car accident deliberately caused by Tischbier.
  • Anna von Berg as Ursula Edel, wife of Major General Edel, mother of Alex and Yvonne.
  • Vladimir Burlakov as Thomas Posimski, colleague and short-term friend of Annett Schneider.

Episode list

season 1

No.
( total ) 		No.
( St. ) 		title First broadcast in the USA German language first broadcast (D) Director script Spectator
(D)
1 1 Quantum Jump 17th June 2015 Nov 26, 2015 Edward Berger Anna Winger 3.19 million
2 2 Brave guy June 24, 2015 Nov 26, 2015 Edward Berger Steve Bailie, Anna Winger 2.86 million
3 3 Atlantic Lion July 1, 2015 3 Dec 2015 Edward Berger Anna Winger 2.05 million
4th 4th Northern Wedding July 8, 2015 3 Dec 2015 Edward Berger Andrea Willson, Anna Winger 1.96 million
5 5 Cold fire 15th July 2015 Dec 10, 2015 Edward Berger Anna Winger 1.69 million
6th 6th Brandy Station July 22, 2015 Dec 10, 2015 Samira Radsi Ralph Martin, Anna Winger 1.67 million
7th 7th Bold Guard July 29, 2015 Dec 17, 2015 Samira Radsi Georg Hartmann, Anna Winger 1.72 million
8th 8th Able Archer Aug 5, 2015 Dec 17, 2015 Samira Radsi Anna Winger 1.63 million

season 2

No.
( total ) 		No.
( St. ) 		Original title First broadcast on Amazon
9 1 Tar baby 19th October 2018
10 2 Ommegang 19th October 2018
11 3 Dragon Rouge 19th October 2018
12 4th Le Cafard 19th October 2018
13 5 Green Book 19th October 2018
14th 6th Tjello 19th October 2018
15th 7th El Dorado Canyon 19th October 2018
16 8th Vula 19th October 2018
17th 9 Chickenfeed 19th October 2018
18th 10 Total onslaught 19th October 2018

production

Contact was made with SundanceTV via the co-production company Fremantle Media International , which bought its second non-English-language series from Europe with Germany83 after the French series Les Revenants . The success of the series there is seen as another door opener for further series purchases from Europe. At the 2015 Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale 2015), which this year opened up to the TV business with the addition of the television market, a preview version was shown, which was received with great interest by the specialist audience.

The two showrunners Jörg Winger and Anna Winger are married. He is executive producer for UFA Fiction and Anna Winger, who came up with the idea for the series, is the lead writer. According to Jörg Winger experience in the series production of was SOKO Leipzig a good preparation for the comprehensive work of Show Runners in Germany 83. Also at work on the script in terms figure centered plot development and horizontal dramaturgy influenced alongside the inspiring Danish series Borgen work on the long-running ZDF Crime series.

The shooting took place mainly in and around Berlin .

marketing

In addition to the US license for SundanceTV and Hulu, the series was also sold to broadcasters in Canada, Russia and Australia. In Europe, several countries bought the broadcasting rights, including a. Channel 4 for the UK . In October 2016, Fremantle Media announced that the series had been sold to 38 TV stations and video platforms around the world to date.

Historical background

  • The figure of the spy "Kolibri" is based on the GDR agent Rainer Rupp (code name "Topas") at NATO. Rupp was not smuggled in from the GDR, but recruited as a student from the 1968 movement in the West.
  • Rupp claims to have convinced his commanding officers in the GDR in connection with the NATO exercise " Able Archer 83 " that the USA was not planning an attack on the Soviet Union (see RJaN ).
  • The President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB) came to the conclusion in 1990 that the United States inadvertently nearly provoked a war during "Able Archer 83" in the fall of 1983.
  • The peace movement in Western Europe, the USA, but also in the GDR, for example, there, however, repressively suppressed even in the most peaceful form by the state, has protested since 1979 against the NATO double decision ; The international mood between East and West was extremely heated, there was the Cold War , over four million people signed the Krefeld appeal against the stationing of American medium-range nuclear weapons in Europe in 1980–1983 .
  • Martin Rauch begins a relationship with a NATO secretary as a so-called "Romeo" . The GDR foreign espionage often used this method.
  • The episode titles are based on names of large-scale exercises or maneuvers.
  • In the 1980s, producer Jörg Winger did his military service with a West German telecommunications company; At Christmas he was radioed from the east with the message "Merry Christmas Jörg", which justified his suspicion that there was an Eastern spy in his unit. This memory was the inspiration for the script.
  • There are several errors or anachronisms in the series. A spokesman on the radio says that the population should contact the federal police with information . Before 2005, however , this was called the Federal Border Police , but the Federal Criminal Police Office was and still is responsible . Schweppenstette also speaks of the “building of the wall”, which would have been inconceivable in the GDR - there one spoke exclusively of the “ (anti-fascist) protective wall ”.

reception

Audience ratings

The series started in Germany with moderate ratings. After a comprehensive marketing campaign by RTL and a lot of critical acclaim, the start of the series was sobering. The first episode had a market share of 9.9% with 3.19 million viewers, the episode shown immediately afterwards to 9.0% with 2.86 million viewers. In the age group of 14 to 49 year olds relevant for RTL , the first two episodes performed better with a market share of 15.7% (1.74 million viewers) and 14.1% (1.60 million). However, audience ratings and market shares fell over the course of the first season. The penultimate episode saw only 1.72 million viewers (5.6% market share), the last watched 1.63 million (5.3%). In the advertising-relevant target group, Germany 83 was also unable to convince in the last two episodes with 9.0 and 8.1% respectively.

Continuation of the series

The US broadcaster SundanceTV expressed interest in a sequel. RTL commissioned work on scripts for a second season under the title Deutschland 86 . Ufa boss Wolf Bauer pointed to the international successes and license sales, which, in addition to the audience rating in Germany, speak for a second season.

In 2016, Amazon announced that it would continue the series. In the summer of 2017, filming began in South Africa under director Florian Cossen for scenes to be set in Angola and Libya. Director Arne Feldhusen started filming in Berlin in October 2017. On October 19, 2018, the second season Deutschland 86 was published on Amazon Prime.

reception

The television series Deutschland 83 had its premiere with the first two episodes at the Berlinale 2015 , after which the critics, including from the New York Times , received a lot of praise for the series.

The industry portal Serienjunkies.de gave the opening episode a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. Germany 83 is told in a clever, modern and exciting way. The series has a strong continuous arc and lots of balls around it to juggle with. As an example, Christian Junklewitz cited the question "how will Martin and his girlfriend keep up with their loyalty". The series is "complex, but without being darkly dark".

Claudia Voigt wrote in Spiegel that the series takes a lot of time “to integrate products, music and phenomena from the early eighties into the plot with ease and irony” - from the Bhagwan movement to the floppy disk . One could find this trite, but “for everyone who was young at the time, the baby boomer generation , the series is a journey through time into their own memories”.

Meike Laaff described the production at taz online as a “great new series”, but criticized the broadcasting station for garnishing it with a documentary. It turns into embarrassment "when Inka Bause interviews Jonas Nay, who was not even born in 1983, about his love for 80s music, Nena lets Nena warm up the 99-balloon story again and asks an aerobics teacher about the trend at the time".

Matthias Dell said on Friday that the series was cleverly designed in terms of sales . However, she misses the epic storytelling, doesn't take the rules of the genre seriously, "or worse, she doesn't even know these rules".

The great strength of Germany83 is the "ease with which Anna Winger painted her fictitious story on the foil of German-German history," wrote Katharina Riehl in the online edition of the Süddeutsche Zeitung . The historical slide is not entirely straightforward, but the story is "always oriented towards its target audience on RTL".

Jochen Hieber wrote about the burden of advance praise in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung . The series offers a lot of acting sweat, a lot of bad conscience and is sometimes entertaining. But they take over "permanently in matters of internal evidence, in the psychological plausibility check of the acting staff and in the certification of the plot".

In the United States, where the series first aired, the series was very well received by critics. The site Metacritic determined an average rating of 79/100 from 11 reviews. Also Rotten Tomatoes confirmed this positive image. After that, all 30 reviews described the series positively, with an average rating of 8.1 / 10. As a consensus of the reviews it is stated there that the series is a captivating drama with a funny 80s soundtrack, Germany 83 tells a strong spy story that brings the viewer uncomfortably close to the iron curtain .

Awards

year Award category Award winners and nominees Result
2015 Festival Séries Mania Blogger Jury Prize Germany 83 Won
German Director Award Metropolis Best Director TV Series / Series Episode Edward Berger Won
C21 International Drama Awards Best cast in a drama series Germany 83 Won
Best Non-English Drama Series Germany 83 Won
International Eyes & Ears Awards Best opening credits: Fiction Germany 83 3rd prize
2016 German television award Best series Germany 83 Nominated
Best actor Jonas Nay Won
Best camera Philipp Haberlandt and Frank Küpper Nominated
Best script Anna Winger Nominated
Golden camera Best German multi-part / mini-series Germany 83 Won
Best German actor Jonas Nay Nominated
Grimme Prize Fiction / special Deutschland 83 (RTL) or
Anna Winger (idea), Jörg Winger (production),
Edward Berger (direction), Samira Radsi (direction),
Lars Lange (production design),
Reinhold Heil (composition and music arrangement)
and Jonas Nay (representation) 		Won
Peabody Awards entertainment Germany 83 Won
Golden nymph Drama series Germany 83 Won
International Emmy Award Drama series Germany 83 Won
International Eyes & Ears Awards Best design print or poster Germany 83 - press booklet 1st Prize
Best special marketing 3rd prize
Best cross-media program campaign Germany 83 2nd prize

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jens Richter - the man who sells Germany , DWDL from April 10, 2015, accessed on April 11, 2015.
  2. ↑ Praise for a German series, and nobody laughs their way to death . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung online, February 13, 2015.
  3. ^ Nuclear archery , faz.net
  4. ↑ The Show must go on: RTL plans for 2015/2016 . In: DWDL.de . September 24, 2015. Accessed September 25, 2015.
  5. ↑ Command back - RTL leaves Amazon "Deutschland 83" . In: Süddeutsche . October 13, 2016. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  6. ↑ Now officially: "Deutschland 86" first on Amazon . In: DWDL.de . October 13, 2016. Retrieved October 13, 2016.
  7. ^ A b Spy series: Amazon secures "Germany 86" rights. Der Standard , October 16, 2016, accessed October 17, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Germany 83: Amazon orders 3rd season including the fall of the Berlin Wall . In: Serienjunkies.de . October 2, 2018. Retrieved October 3, 2018.
  9. ↑ Markus Gärtner: New on Prime Video: Last season of "Germany 89". In: Amazon Watchblog. August 10, 2020, accessed August 10, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Germany 83 is fighting against a weak quota , heise online from November 8, 2015, accessed on January 12, 2018.
  11. ↑ a b Sidney Schering: Primetime check: Thursday, November 26, 2015 . In : quotemeter.de . November 27, 2015. Accessed December 10, 2015.
  12. ↑ a b Fabian Riedner: Primetime check: Thursday, December 3, 2015 . In : quotemeter.de . December 4, 2015. Accessed December 10, 2015.
  13. ↑ a b Fabian Riedner: Primetime check: Thursday, December 10, 2015 . In : quotemeter.de . December 11, 2015. Accessed December 11, 2015.
  14. ↑ a b c Kevin Kyburz: Primetime check: Thursday, December 18, 2015 . In : quotemeter.de . December 18, 2015. Retrieved December 18, 2015.
  15. ↑ a b c Thomas Lückerath: DWDL.de interview with Anna and Jörg Winger "We wanted to create something that stands out" . In: DWDL . November 26, 2015. Accessed December 22, 2015.
  16. ^ Scott Roxborough: FremantleMedia International's 'Germany 83' Comes to Sundance TV in US . In: The Hollywood Reporter . September 2, 2015. Accessed December 22, 2015.
  17. ↑ USA crazy about GERMANY 83: Interview with Jörg Winger . In: UFA Fiction News . June 16, 2015. Accessed December 22, 2015.
  18. ↑ a b c Alan Posener: From now on, television entertainment is different . In: Die Welt online, accessed on November 25, 2015.
  19. ^ Karl-Wilhelm Gellissen: The Krefeld Appell ( Memento from November 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). In: The home. Volume 77, 2006, p. 161. Comprehensive illustrated documentation (PDF file; 235 kB), accessed on December 28, 2016.
  20. ↑ Sobering start for "Deutschland 83" on RTL . In: DWDL . November 27, 2015. Retrieved November 27, 2015.
  21. ↑ "Deutschland 83" is extended . In: Blickpunkt: Film . November 27, 2015. Retrieved November 27, 2015.
  22. ^ Christian Junklewitz: Germany 83: First impression of the Berlinale . In: Serienjunkies.de . February 10, 2015. Accessed June 18, 2015.
  23. ↑ Claudia Voigt: Completely detached . In: Der Spiegel from November 19, 2015, p. 152.
  24. ↑ Meike Laaff: In der Arschritze der Geschichte , taz.de from September 26, 2015, accessed on November 23, 2015.
  25. ^ Matthias Dell: SOKO Bonn . In: Friday of November 19, 2015, p. 13.
  26. ↑ Katharina Riehl: To the devil with the historical correctness . In: Süddeutsche.de of November 25, 2015, accessed on November 26, 2015.
  27. ↑ Jochen Hieber: This young spy prevents the world war? . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung from November 26, 2015, p. 13
  28. ↑ Festival Séries Mania 2015 (édition n ° 6) In: allocine.fr; Retrieved October 6, 2016. (French)