Lindenstraße is a program on Das Erste 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 is Sundays at 6:40 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.

Like with any soap starting in Germany ever since, 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 6:40pm and 7:10pm on a Sunday, the standard timeslot for an "all-new" episode.

Today, Lindenstraße has lost some of its core audience to "younger" shows, like Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten or 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, which borrows its main premise (the everyday life of a number of neighbours) from Coronation Street, has caused a couple of stirs in Germany 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".

Even though most epiosdes are filmed three months prior to broadcasting, the producers of the show often use short-term shootings to include current events. For example, references to September 11, 2001, were already made on the episode airing September 16, 2001.

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, since 1985
• Ute Mora as Berta Griese ("Rehlein"), 1985-2003
• Herbert Steinmetz as Joschi Bennarsch, 1985-1986
• Tilly Breidenbach as Lydia Nolte, 1985-1993
• Til Schweiger as Jo Zenker, 1989-1992
• Georg Uecker as Dr. Carsten Floeter

See also: List of television programs

External link

• 18Uhr40.de - preview