"Hello," says Professor Brinkmann. And then just go

It's time for the annual return to the Glottertal. ZDF Neo is again broadcasting the “Black Forest Clinic” in the run-up to Christmas, one of the biggest television episodes in the old Federal Republic. From now on, anyone who likes can watch all 71 episodes again every Sunday (from November 27, 8:15 p.m.), without a commercial break, one episode after the other, until well into January 2023. “Bingewatching” is what people call it today, while strict parents used to call it “constantly watching” with disapproval.

So go ahead, full throttle back to the past. The three seasons, which were first broadcast at the end of the eighties, are also a journey through time to another society. The viewer can then take a - possibly beneficial - break from the debates of the present. No political correctness, no cancel culture or supposed language bans, not to mention the many crises of the time. The Ukraine war, energy transition, migration and demographic change - all of these are (still) foreign words here.

Not even the East-West conflict occurs. The Wall only fell eight months after the end of the broadcast - on March 25, 1989, the 71st and last episode of the doctor series was broadcast. The GDR, it is very far away in this portrait of the FRG and is not even mentioned once. West Germany was self-sufficient.

The “Black Forest Clinic” had 27.5 million viewers at peak times. In the meantime, of course, significantly fewer people are tuning in. Apparently there is a small, solid base of fans and nostalgics. "Heile Welt is always booming," said the (now deceased) producer Wolfgang Rademann to "Spiegel" in 2010, in an interview on the 25th anniversary of the show. There are also new viewing habits. On Twitter, for example, under the hashtag

In other words, the viewers comment on the program almost live and cheer together on small quirks, every "Oh yes?" and the "Good day" from Professor Brinkmann. The latter said the chief doctor played by the main actor Klausjürgen Wussow, who died in 2007, even when he said goodbye. One of many cultural techniques that young people find difficult to understand ("Yes, what now, Mom! Is he coming or is he going?").

Keyword later-borns: It is particularly fun to watch the “black clinic” with your own pubescent children. "Oh no, not that old stuff again!" It says at first. A little later, the teenagers sit peacefully in the living room and also play "Second Screen". In other words, the 12 to 15-year-olds are playing on their cell phones, they can only half see the television. But it's still easily enough for a few caustic comments.

In any case, any TV nostalgia that may burgeon is quickly stifled by critical questions. They start with the picture quality: the TV picture is slightly blurred and different in color ("Children, there were other recording techniques!"), and there is a black border ("Just imagine: TV sets used to be smaller and had a different format" ), which reinforces the strangeness. Anyone who stays tuned in nonetheless gets to see a Germany that no longer exists: not overdeveloped and completely renovated, with narrow, little-used streets, without any wind farms or solar fields, instead pure provinces and the Black Forest, with trees without any obvious drought damage.

On top of that. The phones still have dials, of course, and to scare the kids, there aren't any mobile phones anywhere. Nobody actually watches TV either, instead everyone reads books or even paper newspapers ("Did they come into the house every day? Who should read all that?" the son asks incredulously). This is also striking: everyone has quite a lot of time and rarely seems stressed. There are also real restaurants, no takeaways and certainly no delivery services. Incidentally, the Lieferando generation finds this “terribly impractical”.

All of this may be picturesque, but it becomes painful (sic!) when you look at the cheerfully staged TV hospital system. Where today on the internet under hashtags like

13 days, since the modern viewer laughs tormented. The only thing that seems more bizarre is the drama that the screenplay served up a little later: the hospital was missing two marks and 30 pfennigs when it came to the internal billing, administrative director Mühlmann (Alf Marholm) can't even remember whether this, his (!) unforgivable error. A few episodes later he finds - a conciliatory digression - his lost wife and their daughter, whom he was unable to track down for decades after being imprisoned in Russia. A story of exiles, as it was still told and mourned in the old Federal Republic.

In general, there is not only director Mühlmann, who looks so aged as if he had long since retired and is no longer what one would probably call “administrative director” in modern German today. In the "Black Forest Clinic" there are many people of advanced age who are still allowed to play leading roles without any botox or other obvious cosmetic surgeries. Above all, of course, Professor Brinkmann, congenially embodied by the Burg actor ("What castle, Mom, was he a knight?") Klausjürgen Wussow, who was also 56 years old in real life when he released his new, in retrospect most popular role.

The same goes for Gaby Dohm, alias Sister Christa (no one says anymore: "Frau Professor" after her marriage to the chief physician), who was already 41 years old when filming began in 1984. Nevertheless, Christa had a (serial) child without any problems or even artificial insemination. Namely Benjamin, who somehow never grew up and didn't speak much either, but at least he was allowed to run away for a whole TV episode. The extended staff seems just as spry these days: housekeeper (“Mama, what is a housekeeper?”) Käthi (Karin Therese Meta Hardt), later replaced and only slightly rejuvenated by Carsta Michaelis (Evelyn Hamann). Apart, of course, from head nurse Hildegard (Eva Maria Bauer), who was undeterred in all three seasons of the station kite and would probably be prosecuted for bullying at work these days.

It is also wonderful to rediscover all the old, almost forgotten everyday objects. There are spoilers and hair dryers, white leather sofas, glass tables, but also "rustic oak". The buffet mostly consisted of cheese hedgehogs and sandwiches, which the secretary Ms. Meis - disrespectfully dubbed "Meislein" by the boss - always pushes in on trolleys when the chief medical team experiences arrivals or departures for dramaturgical reasons. You can also see people who smoke a lot in the car and elsewhere and simply don't buckle up when driving. A real shocker for today's children, who also constantly shudder at the sight of the beige-upholstered, soundproof door to the chief doctor's office. A utensil you know from psycho movies.

The picture that is drawn of women, family and the world of work is actually much scarier than the interior. There is career woman Katarina (Ilona Grübel), who was in a relationship with Udo for a short time and later even married. She wears a tomboyish short hairstyle, soon leaves Udo for her career or a new job in Switzerland and dies suddenly a short time later.

There is little "empowering" going on elsewhere: Christa successfully catches up on her medical studies, then works (dramaturgically good, emancipatory rather badly) as a doctor in the "Black Forest Clinic". But she is not taken very seriously there, and then “breaks” a little later when she dies from her first operation (never happens to any of the male colleagues in this way). She then switches to "research" and to the side of a young, constantly flirting colleague, Prof. Vollmers (Christian Kohlund).

But that's just the beginning of the misery: From then on, the Brinkmanns live a weekend marriage. In other words, she works in another city and still tries to be at home in the evenings as often as possible (interjection from the sofa: “Why is she so stressed out, Mom?”). The typically imperfect, female balancing act between job and family, care work and career. Parental leave, part-time work - none of that was an issue back then, as not only the children find out with some irritation. It's a good thing that social progress has changed some things for the better.

More amusing are the social issues that were burgeoning at the time, garnished with guest appearances by well-known German actors. Healthy eating and weight loss mania (of course, Günter Strack), the first Ökos (not drawn very positively: Markus Majowski as a work-shy acquaintance of Sister Elke), organ donation (went to a child in care, played by Katja Woywood).

Early (in episode 5) and quite impressively, the topic of euthanasia is considered: There is the country doctor who wants his patients to die as desired. However, his opponent, an agile younger doctor, initiates the revival of the old couple who, sick and lonely, had consciously entered into a death pact. Contrary to this, there is slapstick with funny vagabonds (Gustl Bayrhammer), lousy gangsters (Udo Wachtveitl, to this day "Kommissar Leitmayer" in "Tatort") and a lifestyle cancer patient (sad: Harald Juhnke).

In retrospect, however, outrageous, but unfortunately typical of the television world of the eighties: there are no migrants or "guest workers", as they were called back then, to be seen, nowhere. Neither as a boss nor as a temporary help, not even in the hospital corridor, but nurse Mischa (Jochen Schroeder), who changes from conscientious objector to nurse, fumbles through.

In general, the image of men. This causes more irritation among the children than today's debates about transsexuality or non-binaryity: Sascha Hehn as Dr. Udo Brinkmann, with a lot of chest and blow-dried top hair, wide jackets and the legendary "convertible jumper" is immediately debited by the offspring as "toxic masculinity" and canceled ("Whoa, that's embarrassing!"). Today's teenagers also find unbearable the arrogance with which Prof. Vollmers repeatedly alienates his on-off love, nanny Carola (Olivia Pascal), because he desires her, but apparently she doesn't seem befitting to him. "Mom, she's nice, why is he always so rude to her?" asks the daughter. Yes, why. It's somehow good to return to today after a 45-minute journey through time.

Oh yes, if you still don't want to or can't stop with the TV nostalgia: other so-called "TV classics" are currently making the program nice and cozy in the run-up to Christmas ("Three nuts for Cinderella", "The legacy of the Guldenburgs"). Not to forget, of course, "Das Traumschiff", which, as the last surviving relic of the eighties, is still allowed to sail undauntedly through ZDF. The next episode, of course with Captain Max Parger aka Florian Silbereisen, has the promising title "Coco Island" and can be seen on December 26, 2022.

P.S.: "The Black Forest Clinic" can also be seen all year round in the ZDF media library