Verbotene Liebe

For other uses, see Forbidden Love

Verbotene Liebe (pronounced [fɛɐ̯ˈboːtənə ˈliːbə]; English: Forbidden Love), often abbreviated to VL, is a Rose d'Or Award-winning German television soap opera. The show was created by Reg Watson and first broadcast on Das Erste on 2 January 1995.^[2] Verbotene Liebe is an adaption of Australian soap opera Sons and Daughters, initially based on that serial's original story and character outlines, before diverging as the new series progressed. It is about the lives and loves of both young and older characters in Düsseldorf and the Spanish island Mallorca. In the beginning, Cologne also played a big role in the show's story. Currently the focus is on the aristocratic Lahnstein family and the middle-class Brandner family. Veteran actors Gabriele Metzger as Charlie Schneider and Konrad Krauss as Arno Brandner are the only remaining original cast members. Isa Jank rejoined the show as Clarissa von Anstetten in 2011 after ten years of abstinence. There is generally a turnover of younger cast members in their twenty/thirty-somethings. The show is also well known for its LGBT characters, presenting bisexuality and homosexuality as equal to the heterosexual relationships in the show. It has become popular with gay and lesbian audiences in Europe and in the United States .

The series tackles controversial issues such as drug addiction, murder, rape, suicide, adultery, homophobia, incest, alcoholism, drug abuse, HIV, schizophrenia, miscarriage, kidnapping and sexual confusion. The majority of the footage is taped in the studios of the Magic Media Company in Cologne-Ossendorf. Episodes regularly feature footage shot on location in and around Cologne and Düsseldorf. There are 23 fixed sets and 7 interchangeable sets on a floor span of 1270 square metres. The viewers of this soap are varied, ranging from small children to senior citizens. The soap celebrated its 15th anniversary in January 2010.

History

The Origin

Das Erste started Verbotene Liebe in January 1995 after months of planning. The project was initially planned for RTL. But they didn't trust whether the concept about a love story between brother and sister would have success. Das Erste took on the project and told the memorable love story about Jan Brandner and Julia von Anstetten. Two strangers, who get to know each other out of fascination for the other, without knowing that they were twins separated by their parents. The affecting story about the two siblings was told in the first 600 episodes and is remembered as of today as the identification with the series title. Next to Jan and Julia and their love story, it were the complex schemes that made the show popular. Clarissa von Anstetten became popular as Jan and Julia's scheming mother, while Tanja von Anstetten soon had risen to fame for being a murderous vixen. This classic formula brought Verbotene Liebe attention by the press and gave them a large fanbase, which resulted in three million viewers tuning in on a daily basis.

The series was undergoing a major change with the announcement that actress Valerie Niehaus had decided to leave the show after more than two years in her role as Julia. The writers refocused on Clarissa and tried to put the attention on her with the arrival of her family - the Prozeskis, a new middle-class family, which was used as the new counterpart to the wealthy Anstetten family, after much of the first generation of the Brandner family left the show. But the Brandners appeared to be too popular and the fans didn't seem interested in Clarissa's origin and how she made her way to become a countess. Clarissa's mother Erna and her brother Walter were written out in a car accident as an result, while Andreas Brucker decided to leave his role as Jan as well. Caught in a unsuccessful love story with Kerstin Richter, the writers decided to write Jan off with her anyway, which resulted in the legend by fans that Jan and Julia soon reunited off-screen.

Even without her family, the focus stayed on Clarissa and was put to her war against Christoph and Barbara von Anstetten. But eventually the writers once again tried to use Clarissa's past for a story line. Peter Kaufmann appeared as Clarissa's former husband, which made no sense to the timeline the writers told with the character for years. The viewers knew that Clarissa was very young when she met Arno Brandner and gave birth to her twins, before then meeting Christoph and eventually marrying him. So a marriage before she even met Arno seemed unreal and basically out of order. The writers also very well used Clarissa's hate for Tanja to tell a good rivalry, which ended after Tanja killed off two main characters and actress Miriam Lahnstein decided to leave the show. The end of the 90s included the return of Henning von Anstetten, many partly popular love stories with the young characters, the gay story between Ulli Prozeski and Tom Seifert, the exit of Barbara and the introduction of Elisabeth Ryan, who became an important part of the show in the next decade.

Gay stories & major changes

The new century began with the popularity of gay storylines. In 1999 the love story of Ulli and Tom began and applied groundbreaking as a coming out-story for a young gay man, Ulli, who'd formerly led a straight life. After actor Andreas Stenschke left the show in late 2000, Seifert's character Tom hooked up with Oliver Sabel, then new to the show and played by Jo Weil. Six months later in 2001, Ulli suddenly came back for a two week arc that created tensions between Tom and Oliver, who was very jealous to have Tom's old boyfriend around. This was borne out when he caught Tom and Ulli in a reunion fling, which, sadly for Ulli, didn't take hold. In the end, Tom and Ulli were finally reunited in the show's 10th anniversary in 2005 with a guest appearance. The story between Tom and Ulli can be watched as of today in several clips online.^[3]

The series had to suffer in 2001 with the announcement that Isa Jank will leave her iconic role as Clarissa. Her exit was written in with the short comeback of Miriam Lahnstein's Tanja. Jank's exit was created by a disagreement with the producers of the show. After she left it was rumored several times that Clarissa and her portrayer would return. Isa Jank debarred the possibility in 2008.

The brother-sister-storyline had changed and returned with the love story of Henning von Anstetten and Marie von Beyenbach in 2001 and later with Sarah Hofmann and Leonard von Lahnstein in 2006.^[4] While it's been clear from the beginning that Henning and Marie weren't related and it was all just a scheme by Tanja, Leonard and Sarah were supposedly half-siblings, sharing the same father. In the end their relation to each other ended on Leonard's wedding day with Jana Brandner, where Adrian Degenhardt admitted that he and not Johannes von Lahnstein is Leonard's father. Both attempts to fascinate viewers again failed. The writers used a different outcome in fall 2009 with the introduction of the twins, Helena and Tristan von Lahnstein. This time the forbidden love is used as a sickened illness of Tristan, where he admits to be in love with his sister and even schemed against Helena's boyfriend, Andi Fritzsche, by having him charged with rape.

In 2008 the show received international attention with the love story of the gay couple Christian Mann and Oliver Sabel. They featured a story on the British magazine 'reFRESH'^[5] and another article was featured in the September 23 issue of Soap Opera Weekly.^[6] The show has since developed a large following elsewhere in Europe and beyond. The relationship between Oliver and Christian develops with different stories over two years to the couple's engagement and wedding.

The show has also attracted international popularity with the lesbian character Carla von Lahnstein and her relationship with Stella Mann as a lesbian couple. They are featured on the gay media interest website Afterellen.com^[7] and the relationship is chronicled in detail in gay media interest blogs.^[8] Before Carla's relationship with Stella, the character was involved in two other popular love stories with Hanna Novak and Susanne Brandner.

Extended episodes & Clarissa's return

On December 16, 2010, Das Erste announced the cancellation of Verbotene Liebe's lead-out Marienhof in May 2011. Instead of running a new show, the episodes of Verbotene Liebe get extended to 45 minutes per episode.^[9] Program director Volker Herres announced that this will give the show another look and changed dramatics.^[10] Fans received the news with mixed feelings; fearing that it could lead the show to a story telling much like in long-running German telenovelas.^[11][12] It was made official a little while later that one plotline will be playing on the Spanish island Mallorca. The fans were in for another big surprise when the network announced on March 28, 2011 that Isa Jank returns to her iconic role as Clarissa, as well as Clarissa's children Jan and Julia; recast with actors Hubertus Grimm and Nina Bott.^[13] The executives behind the show said that with that move they want to return to the origin of the show.^[14] It was also announced that the first 45 minutes episode will be Episode 3865, which aired on June 21, 2011.^[15]

Cast

Current cast members

Recurring cast members

Comings and goings

Schedule and ratings

Schedule

VL German Broadcast History:

• 2 January 1995 - 28 December 2007: Mon-Fri 5:55pm on Das Erste
• 1 December 2006–present on Passion (Reruns)
• 7 January 2008–18 January 2012: Mon-Fri 6:00pm on Das Erste
• 22 June 2011-present: Mon-Fri about 8:00am on mdr (Repeat)
• 6 September 2011-present: Mon-Fri 12:00pm on EinsFestival (Repeat)
• 23 January 2012-present: Mon-Fri 5:50pm on Das Erste

VL aired weekdays at 5:55 PM on Das Erste from 1995 to December 2007. In the 1990s the show aired in the morning with repeats of old episodes. Then in December 2006 the new Pay-TV Network Passion broadcasted the first episodes from 1995. Since 7 January 2008 the new episodes of Verbotene Liebe are aired at 6 PM on Das Erste. The network changed the airtime, because of the RTL-Soap Unter uns. On June 22, 2011, mdr started showing repeats of Verbotene Liebe from the previous day. EinsFestival started about two months later.

In early 2012, Das Erste is about to make significant changes in their eve line-up. Verbotene Liebe will be losing six minutes of it's runtime and has been given a new airtime, now starting 5:50 PM and ending 6:30 PM.

Ratings

In the show's best years, Verbotene Liebe had three million viewers per episode^[16] the second highest rated soap opera behind Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten and had 16 percent market share in the target group (viewers: 14-49).^[17] In the end of 2007, the show was still around 2.5 million viewers. That changed in 2008, when the show's ratings dropped dramatically^[18] and lost nearly one million viewers in only one year. On 15 December 2008, only 1.57 million watched the soap opera.^[19] The rating problem, according to the fans, is because of several cast changes over the year, uninteresting new characters and bad story lines. The production responded; characters left or were put in a different direction. In 2009, Verbotene Liebe wanted to restore the "elegant" feel of its former storylines, and introduced two new characters, a princess and a mysterious woman with connections to the Lahnstein family.^[20] With the anniversary of the 3333rd episode, the ratings rose upwards again. 2.18 million viewers saw the special episode, which featured a masked ball.

But show was still troubled and feared cancellation in early 2010, when Das Erste announced to work on their evening program.^[21] The ratings dropped in 2010 to around 1.70 million viewers again.^[22] The show tried various changes, first premiered in January 2011. A voice over to every episode by a character was added, as well as getting rid of the third storyline in an episode. This didn't receive well in ratings at all, but it was still lead-out Marienhof that got canceled in December 2010. Verbotene Liebe got extended to an hour and was saved from cancellation. The show added other major changes with the return of Isa Jank and letting play one storyline in Spain; beginning in June 2011.

Awards

German Soap Awards

• 2011 "Sexiest Woman" Jasmin Lord (Rebecca von Lahnstein)
• 2011 "Fan Award Male" Jo Weil (Oliver Sabel)
• 2011 "Most Beautiful Couple" Oliver Sabel and Christian Mann

Rose d'Or

• 2005 "Best Soap"

See also

• List of Verbotene Liebe characters
• List of cast members of Verbotene Liebe
• Minor characters of Verbotene Liebe
• List of longest-serving soap opera actors

External links

• Das Erste: Official website (German)
• Vebotene Liebe at the Internet Movie Database
• Verbotene Liebe-Spoiler

This article incorporates information from the German Wikipedia.

• Maxdome.de: Video on demand - Extensive archive & new episodes

Notes