Where does "One Heart and One Soul" play?
Disgust Alfred was a disgust, but in the 1970s he was a popular guest in German living rooms. That's because he was the main character in the "One Heart and One Soul" series. If you weren't in the television age then, then you must have zapped into one of the many repetitions at some point. And maybe you have asked yourself, among other things, where the series is set.
One heart and one soul - a piece of television history
"One heart and one soul" was produced in the 1970s by West German Broadcasting Corporation, WDR, which at that time was still called West German Television, WDF.
- The idea goes back to the similar English series "Till Death Us Do Part". The first twelve episodes, which were still shot in black and white, ran on WDR, those of the next season on ARD. The scripts were written by Wolfgang Menge, who also had the idea of producing a series in Germany based on the English model. The crowd, who died in 2012, was a well-known screenwriter who, for example, also wrote most of the scripts for the crime series "Stahlnetz".
- A total of 25 episodes, which were shown in two seasons, were shot, with one episode lasting three quarters of an hour. The first episode went on Jan. On the air in January 1973, the last episode aired in 1976. The series has since been repeated many times and is also available on DVD.
Where the series takes place and what it's about
If you only know "One Heart and One Soul" from the inside, you might be interested in a few more things than just where it takes place.
- The television series takes place in a Wattenscheid workers' district, although the district is not defined in more detail. Wattenscheid was an independent town until 1974. January 1975 it was incorporated into Bochum. Since most of the action takes place in the row house of the Tetzlaff family, the series could take place anywhere in the Ruhr area or elsewhere in Germany. The characters of the characters involved are decisive.
- The most important figure is Alfred Tetzlaff, almost better known as Disgust Alfred. He was played by Heinz Schubert. Alfred thinks his wife is a "goofy cow" and is basically of the opinion that women belong in the kitchen. One day Alfred decides to go on vacation abroad, but only somewhere where there are no foreigners and no social partners. That's Alfred: he hates socialists, foreigners and communists anyway. He is for discipline and order and for the fact that his wife has cooked something when he comes home, in short: he is an ultra-conservative philistine. However, he has to deal with a simple-minded woman, his daughter Rita, who is not well-off from his point of view, and his left-wing son-in-law Michael Graf. The whole thing is made more difficult by the fact that daughter and son-in-law live in the house.
- Wife, daughter and son-in-law are played by Elisabeth Wiedemann, Hildegard Krekel and Diether Krebs. Helga Feddersen replaces Elisabeth Wiedemann as Else Tetzlaff in the second season, Klaus Dahlen replaces Diether Krebs as Michael Graf.
- All in all, the series is about the conflict-ridden coexistence of two generations in the 70s. On the one hand a very conservative petty bourgeois couple, on the other hand a daughter and a son-in-law who sympathize with the 68ers. As befits a sitcom, something completely new on German television at the time, the characters and conflicts were drawn with great exaggeration.
Do you know the series "One Heart and One Soul", but you don't know exactly who ...
"One heart and one soul" is set in the Ruhr area, but the conflicts at that time were by no means typical of the Ruhr area.