Skyscraper stories

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Television broadcast
German title Skyscraper stories
Country of production Germany Democratic Republic 1949GDR GDR
original language German
year 1981
length 60 minutes
Episodes 7 in 1 season
genre Drama , comedy
Theme music Rolf Zimmermann
Director Hans Knötzsch
occupation

Main actor:

Supporting cast:

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Hochhausgeschichten is a multi-part television series in seven episodes that was produced for GDR television . The plot is laid out as a family series and was produced by Hans Knötzsch . The scripts were written by Gert Billing with the help of Hans Knötzsch (as director) and the chief dramaturge of GDR television Manfred Seidowsky .

Social context

The production belongs to a type of GDR series that was introduced from around 1978 and essentially went back to Erich Honecker's criticism of a “certain boredom”. He replaced a strongly instructive "index finger dramaturgy" with superficially humorous and loving everyday stories, the ideological principles and models - such as B. in the second episode - treated in subplots. This realignment incorporates the reality of life of the younger generation into the plot, to which the series is primarily aimed.

The authenticity of the series includes the consumption of rock and beat music, which - similar to the GDR series Bühne frei! (from 1983) and in an open house - is also performed at dance events with live music and can be understood as a certain openness and tolerance towards western pop culture - also in the English language. The series thus prepares the basis for a further stage of development towards more authenticity and topicality, e.g. B. in the series Barefoot in Bed (1988 and 1990) with the presentation of electronic pop music in a discotheque.

As with other GDR television series, the solidarity between people is described and a feeling of home is conveyed. The series deals with the importance of marriage in GDR society.

action

The turning away from old rituals on GDR television also continues in the framework of the series. The new socialist society is represented by the 20-year-old mechanic Frank Blumhagen and his older superior Bodo Hanisch, who both court attractive blond-haired Anne as competitors, who already has a different relationship behind her and is between the two in terms of age.

The series begins with Frank returning to Berlin after his service in the National People's Army , where he works as a skilled worker on a large construction site. Much has changed in recent times, his parents gave him a fait accompli with their divorce. The young construction fitter moves into a prefabricated building with his father and has to settle in again. Frustrated by this development, he tries to start a happy family of his own. But that's not as easy as expected.

consequences

  1. Rivals - Already in the first episode, the full scope of action develops: the opponents Frank and Bodo propose marriage to the courted Anne almost simultaneously in the canteen of their company. Their competition makes Frank's love almost a secondary aspect, but leads to success for Bodo. The marriage of convenience offers Anne more security than the love marriage with Frank, even if it actually contradicts the family model of the GDR.
  2. Albert's farewell - An inexperienced reporter interviews Frank's construction brigade who believe that the construction site is perfect; but not because of political guidelines, but simply for fun. When the editor-in-chief finds out about this, he demands that she also document problems and their solutions. Later, Frank and the pensioner Albert, who are trying to make the uniformly designed houses a little more individual, find out that unauthorized fixed ideas are not honored in socialist society. Thanks to official submissions, it is still possible to beautify the new housing estate with individual house entrances and to set up a pub with a collective initiative, for which the bar and tap of a demolished corner pub are retained.
  3. The garden party - Frank's father buys a car that breaks on the first drive. Frank, who, unlike many of his colleagues, no longer likes to work after work, is supposed to take part in the repairs and therefore has to earn a little extra from construction manager Achim. He is supposed to lay Leonardo da Vinci's creation image as a mosaic. He doubts it will be successful, but when he meets Patricia, the client's pretty daughter, she motivates him to achieve top performance.
  4. The days with Charlie - During the holiday season, Frank meets a summer jobber whom he is supposed to sponsor. With a construction helmet and her work combination, she quickly fits into the brigade and knows how to assert herself well in the men's society. When she lets Frank invite her privately, however, rumors arise and Frank hopes that everything else will work out. But then everything turns out differently and Charlie loses the ground under his feet. Now the sense of sponsorship has to prove itself in a completely different way than hoped.
  5. A dance with the father - the divorced father, the dentist Dr. Tilman Blumhagen has recently seen that Frank's efforts to establish a stable relationship have unfortunately been unsuccessful. So he decides to get active again now, not for himself, but to get his son under the hood. But Frank is rather embarrassed. And the fifty-year-old Tilmann does not act with his research the way Frank would like.
  6. The new one, the new one - Tilman remarried and thus helped his son to have new step-siblings. He makes himself popular with them because he reads interesting stories to them before they go to bed. But then he is concerned with the problems of his former comrade from the time with the NVA. Jonas, a spontaneous and fun-loving, but also reckless person, almost throws his everyday life off course when he interferes in his professional life. The opposite is Maxi, his new acquaintance with women. She is down-to-earth and believes that everything in a relationship has to go exactly as planned. But even with that, Frank is overwhelmed, and so this relationship is on shaky feet.
  7. Seventh Heaven - Although Frank and Maxi believe they are meant to be together, their relationship is put to the test. Affection and temperament alone cannot keep it. Maxi insists on Frank's conscience that he should make more of his life than before. Frank is given the opportunity to study engineering, but he has to leave Berlin to do so. He accepts and goes to Cottbus. Now the question arises whether the relationship between Maxi and Frank can sustainably cope with this burden. The series ends with the question of whether the relationship will be strong enough to last for years.

Production and distribution

The series was produced by the television of the GDR in 4: 3 format in PAL. It was shown weekly from January 2, 1981 in the program of GDR 1 and then repeated again from August 27, 1982 in the same program.

After reunification, the rights will be exercised by the film archive of the Federal Archives . The series in addition to a DVD production also has been licensed streaming portal of dailyme , as well as Amazon Video and iTunes .

The series was released on three DVDs in 2009 by Studio Hamburg . The sound was processed in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono. The total playing time (including the interview with Manfred Seidowsky, 2009 and the documentary “Our House Community - Living in the Record”, 2006) is 520 minutes.

criticism

Under the heading “All-encompassing solidarity with a sense of home”, the Federal Agency for Civic Education compares several family series between 1965 and 1987 and highlights its objective, which differs from the struggle for audience ratings of western series. “A social microcosm was designed as a model, in which everyone found their place as in real life. ... An everyday amiability that was reflected in small, unpretentious stories turned out to be an effective method ”. The portal kino.de adds: “The strength of the stories is definitely their close proximity to reality, which author Gert Billing was able to establish thanks to intensive research on a major construction site in Berlin. For that reason alone, everyone who is interested in everyday life in the GDR in the early 80s will like the series. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ High-rise stories - entry at moviepilot.de, accessed on March 11, 2017
  2. ↑ Sascha Trüllezsch, Thomas Wilke: Heisser Sommer, coole Beats: on popular music and its media representation in the GDR. Peter Lang, Frankfurt / M., Berlin, Bern, Brussels, New York, Oxford, Vienna 2010. p. 79. ISBN 3-631-58609-4 , ISBN 978-3-631-58609-9 ( excerpt online at Google Books)
  3. ^ Klaus Behling : Television from Adlershof: The television of the GDR from the start to the end of the broadcast. Edition Berolina, Berlin 2016. ISBN 3-95841-529-6 , ISBN 978-3-95841-529-4 ( excerpt online at Google Books)
  4. ^ A b Kathrin Fahlenbrach, Ingrid Brück, Anne Bartsch: Media rituals: ritual performance in film, television and new media. Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2008, Springer-Verlag, 2009. ISBN 3-531-91078-7 , ISBN 978-3-531-91078-9 ( excerpt online at Google Books)
  5. ^ German television history in East and West - Popular genres: family, home, doctors, sitcom. (Dossier) bpb.de, August 30, 2012
  6. ↑ Critic reviews at kino.de, accessed on March 11, 2017