Lindenstraße

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Lindenstraße is a program on Das Erste (ARD) and was the first German soap opera.

The first episode was aired on December 8, 1985, and since then has been broadcast weekly. Its current timeslot on Das Erste (ARD), one of Germany's two publicly administered TV channels, is Sundays at 6:50 p.m.. The events of the Sunday episode usually take place on the Thursday before the show. Exceptions are the so-called holiday episodes, for example ones that are set on Christmas or Easter.

Setting the pace for other soap operas in Germany, the first episodes were met with mostly bad reviews. However, the audience was to decide and Lindenstraße soon became one of the most successful programs on German television and has gained enormous cultural significance. For a couple of years, it was deemed almost anti-social behavior to call someone or show up unannounced between 6:40 p.m. and 7:10 p.m. on a Sunday, which until 2005 was its broadcast time.

Today, Lindenstraße has lost some of its core audience to "younger" shows, like Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten and Verbotene Liebe, but it still has a strong following.

The creator of Lindenstraße is Hans W. Geißendörfer, whose company Geißendörfer Film- und Fernsehproduktion GmbH (GFF - "Geißendörfer film and TV productions") still produces the series today. In the beginning Geißendörfer also directed the series. It is set in Munich, but filmed in the WDR studios in Cologne-Bocklemünd.

The show is based on the long-running British soap Coronation Street, from which it borrows its main premise (the everyday life of a number of neighbours). It has been controversial at times, especially during its initial years. It tackled subjects such as racism, cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer's disease, disabilities (both physical and mental), and homosexuality like no other show before. It gained notoriety in 1990 for showing the first primetime gay kiss on German television.

Another shock moment came when a character on the show claimed that certain real-life politicians were nothing "but a bunch of old fascists." Most of the show's characters routinely express left-wing, often anti-American opinions (presumably Geißendörfer's), typically while shown watching television news. The only characters to espouse conservative views, the Kling family, are portrayed as racist, nationalistic, and closed-minded; Olaf Kling raped his ex-wife and attempted to murder four people. The Klings are also the only main characters who speak in the Bavarian dialect.

The show has also attracted criticism for racial stereotypes. A long-running Vietnamese character, played by a Thai actor, constantly quotes from Confucius. Its treatment of foreign characters sometimes appears to result from poor research. For example, a female Polish character is named Winicki, despite the fact that a Polish woman would have the feminine form of the name, which ends in -a (Winicka). (See Polish name)

Even though most episodes are filmed three months prior to broadcasting, the producers of the show often film scenes at the last minute to include current events. For example, references to September 11, 2001 were made on the episode airing September 16, 2001.

Dallas star Larry Hagman, possibly the best-known soap opera star in the world, made a much-publicized cameo appearance on Lindenstraße on February 19, 2006.

[edit] Cast

Past and present actors on the show include:

Marie-Luise Marjan as Helga Beimer ("Mother Beimer"), since 1985
Joachim Hermann Luger as Hans Beimer ("Hansemann"), since 1985
Annemarie Wendl as Else Kling, 1985-2006
Ute Mora as Berta Griese ("Rehlein"), 1985-2003
Herbert Steinmetz as Joschi Bennarsch, 1985-1986
Tilly Breidenbach as Lydia Nolte, 1985-1993
Georg Uecker as Dr. Carsten Flöter, since 1985
Ludwig Haas as Dr. Ludwig Dressler, since 1985
Andrea Spatzek as Gabriele (Gabi) Zenker verw. Zimmermann geb. Skabowski, since 1985
Moritz A. Sachs as Klaus Beimer, since 1985
Hermes Hodolides as Vasily Sarikakis, since 1985
Marianne Rogée as Isolde Pavarotti, since 1985
Sybille Waury as Tanja Schildknecht, since 1985
Amorn Surangkanjanajai as Gung Pham Kien, since 1985
Domna Adamopoulou as Elena Sarikakis, since 1985
Irene Fischer as Anna Ziegler, since 1987
Inga Abel as Dr. Eva-Maria Sperling 1992-2000
Til Schweiger as Jo Zenker, 1989-1992
Daniel Anih Nikos Sarikakis, since 2000
Brigitte Annessy as Dominique Mourrait 1988-1994, 2003
Alice Franz as Hildegard Scholz
Karolin Dubberstein as Irina Winicki #2, since 2000
Fritz Egger as Stephan Kettner 2003-2004
Susanne Evers as Suzanne Richter, since 200
Serena Fiorello as Giovanna Varese, since 1998
Anna Sophie Claus as Lea Starck, since 1999
Heinrich Cuipers as Lothar Boedefeild
Wolfgang Grönebaum as Egon Kling 1985-1998
Erkan Gündüz as Murat Dagdelen, since 1999
Daniel Hajdu as Frank Dressler #1 1985-1986
Moritz Hein as Max Zimmermann
Gérard Hérold as Jean-Luc Mourrait 1989-1990
Willi Herren as Oliver Klatt, since 1990
Monika Herwig as Karin Atter
Dagmar Hessenland as Elisabeth Dressler
Knut Hinz as Hans-Joachim Scholz
Maria Wachowiak Holonbeck as Wanda Winicki
Thomas Frey (actor) as Wolf-Dieter Dabelstein
Guido Gagliardi as Enrico 1985-1996
Susanne Gannott as Beate Sarikakis, geb. Flöter 1985-2002
Martin Armknecht as Robert Engel, 1987-1992
Markus Anton as Mikis Houeris, since 2003
Philipp Brammer as Jan Günzel, since 2004
Gunnar Solka as Peter "Lotti" Lottmann, since 2004
Anja Antonowicz as Nastya Pashenko, since 2005
Urs Villiger as Julian Hagen, since 2005
Franz Braunshausen as Sigi Kronmayr 1985-1986
Victor Power as John Brisibie 1998
Franz Rampelmann as Olaf Kling, since 1993
Verena Reichertz as Sophie Ziegler
Martin Rickelt as Franz Wittich 1987-2004
Monika Woytowicz as Henny Schildknecht 1985-1987
Silke Wülfing as Chris Barnsteg #1 1985-1987
Moritz Zielke as Momo Sperling
Robert Zimmerling as Hubert Koch 1988-1996
Fred Delmare as Guenter Rantzow
Michael Dillschnitter as Christoph Bogner 1990-1993
Nora Marie Horstkotte as Maria Däuble
Thomas Huber as Boris Ecker
Julia Stark as Sarah Ziegler, since 1987
Margret van Munster as Rosi Koch, since 1989