“The Germans and the Poles, the history of a neighbourhood”. A film project and many stories.

After previews in Berlin und Wiesbaden, the first three parts were broadcast by 3Sat at 20.15 on 9th November 2016. Almost 700,000 viewers tuned in at prime-time, a market share of 2.1%. These very good figures also came as a surprise to the makers of the programme who had expected much less public interest in such a niche theme. The Breslau film was broadcast by ZDF on 18th December (980,000 viewers and a market share of 10%), and shortly before Christmas the Polish parallel version had its premiere on TVN, albeit at around 22.55, a considerably less attractive time (Part 1: 400,000 viewers and a market share of 6%).

Reactions in Germany and Poland were very positive. The elaborate recordings, the richness of historical documents, and even – quite contrary to the fears of the participating historians – the newly shot dramatised scenes were praised, especially the fact that the fresh, dynamic and varied presentation also attracted the interest of new groups of viewers in such a complex theme as German-Polish relationships.

Parallel to the television series the Theiss Verlag in Darmstadt published a richly illustrated book with deeper information on German-Polish relationship structures. This was organised by the German Polish Institute and financed by the Sanddorf Foundation.

Peter Oliver Loew, June 2017

The Film:  Mediathek von 3sat 

For a link to the film project page, see:  deutsche-polen.eu

For information on the accompanying publication: http://www.wbg-wissenverbindet.de/shop/de/wbg/deutsche-und-polen