The Hesselbach company

Television series
Original title	The Hesselbach company
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Year (s)	1960-1967
Episodes	51 in 3 seasons
genre	Family series
Theme music	Willy Czernik
First broadcast	January 22nd, 1960 on German television
occupation
	Wolf Schmidt : Karl "Babba" Hesselbach; Liesel Christ : Marie Mathilde Eleonore "Mamma" Hesselbach; Joost Siedhoff : Willi Hesselbach; Helga Neuner : Helga Schneider; Joachim Engel-Denis : Fred Lindner; Rose-Marie Kirstein : Heidi Hesselbach; Dieter Henkel : Peter Hesselbach; Kate Jaenicke : Hilde Sauerberg; Ursula Köllner : Else Sauerberg; Max Strecker : Arthur Munzenberger; Sophie Cossaeus : Miss Lohmeier; Gaby Reichardt : Emmi Puchel; Sofie Engelke : Frieda Lahmann; Lia Wöhr : Mrs. Siebenhals; Sibylle Schindler : Miss Pinella; Bogislav von Heyden : Hans-Ulrich Betzdorf; Josef Wageck : Caretaker Ballmann; Otto Stern : carpenter; Dieter Schwanda : Rudi Krausgrill, apprentice; Iska Geri : Dr. Meyer; Christina Monden : Inge Fröhlich; Edith Hancke : Trudi Plischke; Ernst Walter Mitulski : Department store owner Dengler; Fritz Strassner : Dr. Moosbauer; Georg Lehn : Dr. Tritschel; Gudrun Gewecke : Erna, Hesselbach's niece; Uwe Dallmeier : Detlef Petersen; Hertha Genzmer : Martha u. a.; Eva-Maria Werth : Uta Castell; Astrid Frank : Karin Schubert; Nora Bendig : Elke, apprentice; Wilhelm Schmidt : Setter Loy;

The Hesselbach company is a German family series from 1960. It is based on the figures of the Hesselbach family. The directors were Wolf Schmidt and Harald Schäfer . Lia Wöhr was the producer of the series .

content

The series is about the everyday trivialities of the Hesselbach family and thus traces the petty-bourgeois milieu of the still young Federal Republic. Karl "Babba" Hesselbach ( Wolf Schmidt ) is the owner of a small printing house, publisher of the weekly newspaper Weltschau am Sonntag and is married to Mamma Hesselbach ( Liesel Christ ). The scenery takes place somewhere in Hessian , only in the last season the location of the action is placed in the fictional town of Steintal.

In the first season, the focus is on daily work in the publishing house. Interpersonal events in the company mainly form the basis of actions. But also specific problems of the economic miracle are addressed (e.g. raw material scarcity and labor shortage). Towards the end of the first season, the children of the Hesselbach family, Heidi ( Rose-Marie Kirstein ) and Peter ( Dieter Henkel ), come back from boarding school and join the family business.

This lays the foundation for the second season: the family comes to the fore and the actions shift more towards family events (love, marriage and birth). This season also includes the only two episodes that are played abroad. A vacation trip takes the Hesselbachs to Cannes and later Mr. Hesselbach to a congress in Tokyo . The episode The Tokyo Congress is the only episode that was actually partially filmed abroad.

At the beginning of 1963, the series was first criticized, which after three years of Hesselbach episodes on television and before nine years on radio, were due to the viewer's fatigue. Wolf Schmidt reacted by bringing the series to a temporary end with episode 42, with Mr. Hesselbach retiring and handing over the management of the publishing house to his authorized signatory and son-in-law Fred Lindner ( Joachim Engel-Denis ).

At the end of 1966, the Hesselbachs returned to the screen with a more modern concept. The actions were based now more on the person Karl Hesselbach, which is also from the titles Mr. Hesselbach and ... be seen. The episodes of the third and final season mainly deal with local political episodes in which Mr. Hesselbach acts as a city councilor in Steintal. Here, too, current social issues were dealt with and an attempt was made to increasingly address young viewers. This was only partially successful. In the summer of 1967, the Hessischer Rundfunk stopped the series, although Wolf Schmidt had already written other episodes.

background

1960 to 1961 the television series was shown on ARD . It was here that the Frankfurt folk actress Liesel Christ had her first appearance as Mamma Hesselbach. The series made the New Hessian Regiolekt known throughout Germany. The lowest viewing participation for the first season was 63 percent and the highest was 94 percent, making the series one of the early street sweeps . However, at that time there was only one television program in the Federal Republic .

From the end of 1961, the second season went on air under the title Die Familie Hesselbach . The change from company to family was also discussed by Babba Hesselbach at the end of the episode Das Zimmer . Turning to the camera, he realizes that in the future it will have to be more about the family than the company and uses trick technology to change the series title with his own hand. In the credits, the Hesselbach employees tell the audience what that will mean for their roles. The viewing participation of the second season was between 70 and 84 percent this time. Even the start of ZDF broadcasting on April 1, 1963, could hardly lower the ratings .

The last season was broadcast from 1966 to 1967 (title: Mr. Hesselbach and ... ). This is where the competition from ZDF made itself felt: the viewing participation was between 29 and 67 percent. The final episode ran on June 7, 1967.

The signature melody, the so-called Hesselbach polka, was composed by Willy Czernik . There was an individual variant for each episode.

Episodes

First broadcast in brackets