German soaps: GZSZ, UU & AWZ

Huntress · November 13, 2019

This is the new intro for Unter uns which will debut during the anniversary week later this month. Again, there will be two different versions.

The show's logo and the theme have been updated once again.

Version A: Jens Hajek (Benedikt Huber) –Antonia Michalsky (Saskia Weigel Huber) – Benjamin Heinrich (Bambi Hirschberger) – Tabea Heynig (Britta Schönfeld) – Kai Noll (Rufus Sturm) – Jakob Graf (Luke Färber, new contract role) – Josephine Becker (Leni Schäfer) – Milos Vukovic (Paco Weigel) – Timothy Boldt (Ringo Beckmann) – Isabell Hertel (Ute Kiefer)

Edited November 13, 2019 by Huntress

Huntress · November 22, 2019

Now it's official: Petra Blossey, the last remaining original cast member, has left Unter uns after 25 years.

In July 2019, Blossey's alter ego Irene Weigel-Küpper left to visit her daughter Anna in Japan. On the episode dated November 28th, 2019, Irene's husband Robert (Luca Maric) and foster-daughter Sina (Valea Scalabrino) impatiently await Irene's return at the airport. They are shocked when Irene eventually "returns" – in a coffin...

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Petra Blossey debuted as Irene Weigel on the show's 1st episode on November 28th, 1994. Born in the former German Democratic Republic, Irene, née Schwarz, fled to West Germany in the 1970s, moved to Cologne, and married master baker Wolfgang Weigel. They had three children: Chris (aged 19 at the show's debut), Till (aged 16) and Anna (aged 12). Back then, the extended Weigel family also consisted of Wolfgang's mother Margot Weigel, Margot's sister Sophie Himmel, Irene's brother Dr. Olaf Schwarz, and Olaf's daughter Antonia Schwarz. These characters were gradually phased out over the years, with only Till remaining on the show (after a recast). Olaf departed in 1995, Antonia and Chris in 1997, Margot died off-screen in 2006 (the actress passed away in 2005), and Sophie died off-screen in 2012. Till left in 1996, but returned in 2000. Anna originally left in 2004, returned as a recast in 2006, and received a third recast in 2009, with the final actress leaving in 2014.

Over the past 25 years, Irene lived through a lot of trials and tribulations: She became pregnant with a disabled baby, but suffered a miscarriage. She was hit on by a lesbian friend of hers. She lost her memory and had amnesia, not recognizing her entire family, for months. Wolfgang left her for a younger woman, but returned to Irene after a while. In 2009, Wolfgang died of a heart attack. Irene was heartbroken for months, but found a new love in stubborn handyman Robert Küpper, whom she eventually married. For years, Irene battled Wolfgang's illegitimate son Rolf Jäger, who terrorized the neighborhood with his sick antics. On the other hand, she gladly took in Wolfgang's illegitimate daughter Sina who appeared in town after Wolfgang's death. Irene was a tower of strength for every neighbor of the apartment house Schillerallee 10.

According to an extensive interview, Petra Blossey decided to quit Unter uns at her own request. She taped her final scenes in April 2019 and moved back to her native Potsdam (near Berlin) to be with her family.

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In other news:

After being with the show for roughly one year, Madeleine Krakor is leaving Alles was zählt. The red-haired actress debuted in the contract role of Steffi König in Oktober 2018. Steffi was a boring character from the get-go. She became Ingo's (André Dietz) new girlfriend of the year and was only obsessed with becoming pregnant – but Ingo is infertile. When she met her former crush Sören, she had a one-night-stand with him. Of course she became pregnant by him, and now Steffi's leaving town with Sören.
In turn, actress Franziska van der Heide has been cast in the new contract role Ina Ziegler. Van der Heide is best known for her stint on GZSZ where she played streetkid Mieze on contract from 2013 to 2015. In a first press release, Ina is said to be the sister of an established character. She is also a professional cook. (And she will probably also only last a year on this incestuous show.)

Seriously, AWZ has been so boring for ages. Apparently they can't afford more than 16 regular cast members – but instead of using all of them, only ~ 8 of them get frontburner storylines while the others are just filler material. In addition, recurring actors Alexandra Fonsatti (Chiara) and Ron Holzschuh (Niclas) are featured more than most regulars. Why they don't drop all this dead weight and hire some new fresh faces is beyond me.

Edited November 22, 2019 by Huntress

Huntress · November 28, 2019

On November 21st, Unter uns held a big anniversary party celebrating 25 years on the air. All current and several former cast members were in attendance.

Petra Blossey said Goodbye on Instagram:

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Since the soap year 2019 is almost over and previews are available until December 27th, it's time for a little retrospective.

Current soap schedule:

2.10 pm Rote Rosen (ARD)

3.10 pm Sturm der Liebe (ARD)

5.00 pm Herz über Kopf (RTL)

5.30 pm Unter uns (RTL)

7.05 pm Alles was zählt (RTL)

7.40 pm Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten (RTL)

Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten (1992-present, RTL)
Total episodes in 2019: 251 (#6667 to #6918 [#6749, #6750 and #6751 were shown as a 90 minute episode on the same day])
Current cast: http://www.soapsworld.de/gute-zeiten-schlechte-zeiten-gzsz/besetzung

Contract arrivals:

Patrick Heinrich as Erik Fritsche (May 2019-present; recurring previously)
Nils Schulz as Robert Klee (March 2019-present)
Gisa Zach as Yvonne Bode (January 2019-present)
Annabella Zetsch as Brenda Schubert (September 2019-present; recurring previously)

Contract departures:

Maximilian Braun as Luis Ahrens (August 2017-June 2019)
Eric Stehfest as Chris Lehmann (December 2014-March 2019)
Lea Marlen Woitack as Sophie Lindh (March 2014-February 2019)

Unter uns (1994-present, RTL)
Total episodes in 2019: 249 (#6016 to #6265)
Current cast: http://www.soapsworld.de/unter-uns-uu/besetzung

Contract arrivals:

Josephine Becker as Leni Schäfer (April 2019-present)

Contract departures:

Petra Blossey as Irene Weigel-Küpper (November 1994-July 2019)
Linda König as Larissa Huber (April 2018-October 2019)
Astrid Leberti as Andrea Huber (April 2017-August 2019)

Alles was zählt (2006-present, RTL)
Total episodes in 2019: 249 (#3094 to #3343)
Current cast: http://www.soapsworld.de/alles-was-zaehlt-awz/besetzung

Contract arrivals:

Alexandra Fonsatti as Chiara Nadolny (November 2019-present; recurring previously)
Birte Glang as Lena Öztürk #3 (February 2019-present)
Amrei Haardt as Nathalie Reichenbach (April 2019-present)
Ron Holzschuh as Niclas Nadolny (November 2019-present; recurring previously)

Contract departures:

Franziska Benz as Michelle Bauer (February 2016-September 2019)
Madeleine Krakor as Steffi König (October 2018-November 2019)
Maike Johanna Reuter as Pauline Reusch (October 2017-April 2019)

Freundinnen (2018-2019, RTL)
Total episodes in 2019: 72 (#87 to #159)

The final episode aired on April 12th, 2019.

Alles oder nichts (2018-2019, Sat.1 + Sat.1 Emotions)
Total episodes in 2019: 57 (#48 to #105)
The show ended its run on Sat.1 on January 2nd, 2019 (episode #48), and the remaining episodes were shown on Sat.1 Emotions.
The final episode aired on March 22nd, 2019.

Herz über Kopf (2019-present, RTL)

Total episodes in 2019: 86 (#1 to #86)

The first episode aired on August 26th, 2019.

Rote Rosen (2006-present, ARD)
Total episodes in 2019: 240 (#2801 to #3041)
Current cast: http://www.daserste.de/unterhaltung/soaps-telenovelas/rote-rosen/darsteller/index.html

Sturm der Liebe (2005-present, ARD)
Total episodes in 2019: 233 (#3065 to #3298)
Current cast: http://www.daserste.de/unterhaltung/soaps-telenovelas/sturm-der-liebe/darsteller/index.html

Lindenstraße (1985-present, ARD)
Total episodes in 2019: 44 (#1701 to #1745)
Current cast: https://www1.wdr.de/daserste/lindenstrasse/personen/aktive/index.html

The show will end its run in March/April 2020.

Edited November 28, 2019 by Huntress

Huntress · February 13, 2020

Some ratings:

Monday, February 3rd, 2020:

Friday, February 7th, 2020:

The final episode of "Herz über Kopf" (#113) aired on February 7th, 2020 as the show was canceled due to low ratings. A talk show hosted by Marco Schreyl (former host of German Idol) has taken over the timeslot at 5 pm.

At the same time, it looks as if AWZ has finally awoken from its deep slumber: Last fall, Damien Lott was hired as the show's new producer. Previously, he had worked as a producer for GZSZ for many years. Now his material eventually starts airing and a lot of things have been shaken up:

– Nathalie has been moved into Maximilian's orbit and away from boring Finn.

– Two new contract roles have been added: In January, Julia Wiedmann and Franziska van der Heide arrived as sisters Lucie and Ina Ziegler. Lucie has lost her boyfriend in an accident, and she believes that Moritz received his heart. Meanwhile, Ina works as a cook at Marian's diner. Apparently, she's a lesbian.
– Married couple Marian and Lena, who have spent the last few years more or less on the backburner, have received more airtime and were eventually broken up when Lena started an affair with Niclas Nadolny. This is the first time since Birte Glang took over as Lena that the character has anything worthwhile to do.

– Another married couple, Jenny and Deniz, have also broken up and Deniz has been paired up with Marie (aka "Little Miss Perfect").

– Jenny felt betrayed by her family and moved out of the family mansion. One recent cliffhanger saw her slipping on the exterior staircase, falling to the ground and staring at the sky as she became unconscious. In a dream scene, she imagined reuniting with Deniz and making up with Simone, Richard and Vanessa. Kaja Schmidt-Tychsen was so brillant in all those scenes. Jenny fell into a coma, but regained consciousness soon after. Vanessa moved her back into the family mansion but Jenny refuses to eat because she's done with her family. Vanessa blackmails Ingo to work as Jenny's physical therapist. Looks like Jenny and Ingo will be paired up in the long run which is quite exciting because they first used to tease this couple 8 years ago after Jenny had run over Ingo's wife Annette.

– Figure skating princess Chiara has a drunk one-night-stand with Ina and will also be moved into Richard's orbit – her father's nemesis.

Deniz (Igor Dolgatschew) visits a comatose Jenny (Kaja Schmidt-Tychsen) in the hospital as a jealous Marie (Cheyenne Pahde) watches them from the outside

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Jenny is awake

Vanessa (Julia Augustin) and Simone (Tatjana Clasing) talk about Jenny's condition

Richard (Silvan-Pierre Leirich) and Simone take care of their grandson

During the press conference for "InkaKraft", tensions rise between Niclas (Ron Holzschuh, left) and Moritz (Tijan Njie, right) as Ronny (Bela Klentze), Chiara (Alexandra Fonsatti) and Marie look on.

Marian (Sam Eisenstein) is jealous when Lena (Birte Glang) flirts with other men.

Ina (Franziska van der Heide) becomes friends with Ingo (André Dietz).

Lucie (Julia Wiedmann) tries to get closer to Moritz.

Chiara comforts Nathalie (Amrei Haardt, left) after Maximilian has stood Nathalie up.

Deniz and Marie want to be there for one another.

Edited February 13, 2020 by Huntress

DRW50 · February 13, 2020

Thanks as always for the spoilers and photos. I see they still don't have much of worth for Deniz. I'm surprised he's still there.

Huntress · February 13, 2020

Haha, me too... at some point years ago, he was pushed into the "romantic lead" role but his pairings never really worked. It's especially frustrating that they broke up Deniz and Jenny because of Marie. She never makes any mistakes and she's oh so precious.

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On a side note, Big Brother Germany was relaunched last Monday. The first 11 seasons ran on RTL2 between 2000 and 2011. After season 11, RTL2 gave up on the franchise.

In 2013, Sat.1 started airing Celebrity Big Brother (German title: Promi Big Brother). So far, there have been seven seasons, one each year.

In 2015, a 12th season of regular Big Brother was broadcast on sixx, a small channel belonging to the Pro7/Sat.1 group. Ratings were awful and Big Brother disappeared once again from the public eye.

Now, Big Brother is back – this time on Sat.1. The show airs weekly recaps Monday to Friday at 7 pm and there's a live show every Monday featuring evictions and whatnot.
However, unlike past seasons, there are no recaps on the weekends, and there's no 24/7 livestream, either.

The concept has also been changed. There are two houses, each inhabitated by 7 contestants.

The audience can rate the contestants via the show's official app.
The Glass House (Glashaus) is full of luxuries. The contestants receive their "daily value" every day.
The Block House (Blockhaus) is modest and the contestants have limited resources. The contestants don't get to know their "daily value".
Every week, there's a match and the winner can decide if they want to switch houses or if somebody else has to switch instead.

These are the 14 contestants: https://www.sat1.de/tv/big-brother/die-bewohner/mehr

wingwalker · February 14, 2020

His only real successful pairing was with Roman. I wish someone on the show would remember that Deniz is bisexual and give him a MALE love interest.

Huntress · February 16, 2020

I think the last time that Deniz' bisexuality was somehow relevant was when Joscha was introduced in 2013 – but even at that point Deniz had only been involved with women for at least 2 years and he shrugged off Joscha's advances. All long-running characters on AWZ – that includes Simone, Richard, Vanessa, Jenny, Ingo, Marian, Lena, Maximilian, Ben and Deniz (half of the cast) – haven't really evolved in years and they keep on receiving the same stories over and over again. Hopefully that'll change now.

GZSZ is quite boring now as there's no big storyline happening. Everything is just filler material.

Katrin (Ulrike Frank, right) tries to mend her friendship with Maren (Eva Mona Rodekirchen), but Maren cannot forgive her (-> a few weeks ago, Maren's daughter Lilly performed surgery on Katrin's daughter Johanna which left Johanna paralyzed. Katrin tried to sue Lilly for medical malpractice).

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Paul (Niklas Osterloh) and Emily (Anne Menden) are still happily married.

Yvonne (Gisa Zach) surprises Jo (Wolfgang Bahro) with a special costume.

Dr. Benedict (Jacob Weigert, left) wants to destroy Lilly's (Iris Mareike Steen) medical career and tells her that she's made a mistake once again as Philip (Jörn Schlönvoigt) looks on.

Erik (Patrick Heinrich) learns that he has a 16-year-old daughter which he fathered when he was only 15. He and Shirin (Gamze Senol) are shocked to receive the news.

Emily and Sunny (Valentina Pahde) make future plans for their booming handbag business.

Jo tells Erik and John (Felix von Jascheroff, middle) that their false testimony could land them in jail.

Katrin uses Brenda's (Annabella Zetsch) infatuation with Felix in order to get her company back.

Since they can't get a place in a nursery school for little Emma, Maren and Alexander (Clemens Löhr, left) plan to open their own day care center in the neighborhood. Leon (Daniel Fehlow), Jonas (Felix van Deventer) and Yvonne cheer them on.

Aron (guest star Frederik Funke) tries to flirt with Emily.

Erik tries to get to deal with his teenage daughter Merle (new contract star Ronja Herberich).

DRW50 · February 16, 2020

Thanks for the photos. Are all the lgbt characters gone from GZSZ?

Huntress · March 23, 2020

Yes, currently there's no LGBT character on GZSZ.

Like in the US and in the UK, most tv productions have come to a halt in Germany due to coronavirus. All three RTL soaps are affected and they have stopped filming for a while (for how long exactly is still unknown). According to a spokesperson, the break will be used to "adapt scripts to the new circumstances".

All three soaps should have filmed enough episodes to air at least until the beginning of May. The 7000th episode of GZSZ is supposed to air as a primetime special on April 29th, 2020.

ARD's telenovelas "Rote Rosen" and "Sturm der Liebe" have also stopped filming for at least 2 weeks. Like the RTL soaps, they film episodes 8 to 9 weeks in advance.

Huntress · March 30, 2020

Apparently GZSZ and UU will resume filming earlier than planned. AWZ on the other hand remains shut down since an extra has tested positive for coronavirus after filming several scenes.

Yesterday, the weekly soap Lindenstraße aired its final episode after being on the air for almost 35 years and running for 1758 episodes. The show's cancelation was announced in November 2018 (see here: https://boards.soapoperanetwork.com/topic/27994-german-soaps-gzsz-uu-awz/page/45/?tab=comments#comment-1593274)

Final cast: https://www1.wdr.de/daserste/lindenstrasse/personen/aktive/index.html

The final episode was called "Auf Wiedersehen" (Goodbye). 4 million people tuned in to say goodbye to Mutter Beimer & Co.

The show ended with Helga Beimer (Marie-Luise Marjan) entering the Akropolis restaurant to celebrate her 80th birthday with all of her neighbors. As she closed the door, the camera zoomed out and the words "Liebe Zuschauerinnen und Zuschauer, Team und Ensemble bedanken sich von Herzen für die vielen Jahre Ihrer Treue!" (Dear viewers, team and ensemble sincerely thank you for so many years of loyalty!") appeared. The closing credits played out for the last time.

Edited March 30, 2020 by Huntress

Huntress · April 16, 2020

UU is the only soap left that's currently filming – GZSZ resumed filming after a short break but they had to shut down production once again on April 8th, 2020, since a crew member had been tested positive. AWZ stopped production on March 23rd, 2020.

Nevertheless, GZSZ will celebrate its 7000th episode on April 29th, 2020. Like in the past years, there's going to be a 90-minute primetime episode followed by a "Behind the Scenes" special.

The 7000th episode was filmed on location in early February on the Spanish island of Fuerteventura.

In the show's storyline, friends Maren (Eva Mona Rodekirchen), Nina (Maria Wedig) and Yvonne (Gisa Zach) look forward to spending a nice holiday in the sun. However, Katrin (Ulrike Frank) tags along – and she's not exactly best friends with either woman anymore: She was once Maren's best friend, but last year, Maren's daughter Lilly performed surgery on Katrin's daughter Johanna which left Johanna paralyzed. Katrin wanted to sue Lilly which in turn ended Katrin and Maren's friendship. Nina is Katrin's employee at W&L, but is constantly being harassed by her. Last but not least, Yvonne and Katrin hate each other for multiple reasons: Yvonne's daughter Laura tried to scam Katrin, and now Yvonne is married to Katrin's ex-husband Jo.

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Official print campaign: Maren, Katrin, Nina & Yvonne

On location: Maren, Katrin, Nina & Yvonne

Merle, Maren, Sunny, Emily, Katrin, Nazan & Nina

Erik, Laura, John, Nihat, Emily, Sunny & Jonas

Philip, Emily, Katrin, Jo, Sunny, Leon & Laura

John, Erik, Nihat & Jonas

A short promo:

Edited April 16, 2020 by Huntress

Huntress · April 29, 2020

AWZ actor Ron Holzschuh has suddenly passed away from a short, but severe illness at the age of 50. On AWZ, he had played the role of Niclas Nadolny since March 2019. Introduced as a recurring star, he eventually became part of the contract cast earlier this year. Prior to his stint on AWZ, he had played Bernd von Beyenbach on "Verbotene Liebe" from 2003 to 2007 and Simon Franck on "Unter uns" in 2014. In addition, he appeared on two telenovelas and was a very busy theater and musical actor. RIP.

Ron last filmed for AWZ in early March. At this time, he posted this video on Instagram where he already appeared to be fragile:

His former VL co-star and good friend Claudia Hiersche is one of many actors who posted images in his honor:

Skylover · April 29, 2020

That's sad

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Episode 7000 of GZSZ tonight! Can't wait

gyroscope · April 30, 2020

I've finally been able to register and post!

Long time lurker here, who is using my first post to say how much I enjoy this thread.

A big thank you to Huntress and any other contributors - I have read your updates for a long time and enjoy them very much and really appreciate you posting them.

I'm a german learner, who uses AWZ and GZSZ to practise my listening skills and I of course really enjoy them too, especially GZSZ. Just wanted to post to say how good this thread is for information and to let you know people are reading!

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German soaps: GZSZ, UU & AWZ

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