Aus der Reihe
I hate to be sentimental about the past, but there is one thing that, for me, perfectly captures the late 1970s and early 1980s: the German TV crime series Derrick (1974–1998) and Der Alte (with Kriminalhauptkommissar Erwin Köster, 1977–1986).
As a child, we actually had more German television channels (three) than Dutch ones (two), thanks to our proximity to the German border. By the early 1970s, West Germany’s Wirtschaftswunder was already well established. In 1973, both German states became members of the United Nations. Yet beneath this surface of stability, tensions were rising in West Germany, particularly in the form of domestic terrorism by the Red Army Faction (RAF).
With a murder to solve in almost every episode, both series explore the psychological landscape of post-war West Germany—sometimes set in working-class environments, sometimes among the upper classes. Their killers are driven by lust, money, or fear.
