Today on ARD: “A touch of America” – visually stunning series in the first

The ARD series offers a great story, great pictures and a great cast, but not consistently successful entertainment.

Frankfurt am Main – It’s actually strange that this chapter of German post-war history has not yet been told: When the hot phase of the Cold War began in 1950 and tens of thousands of US soldiers were stationed in Germany, some of the poorest areas of the young republic suddenly turned into prosperous areas Landscapes. In the Palatinate, for example, villages became cities almost overnight.

With the Americans came prosperity because barracks and hospitals were built. Thanks to the exchange rate, the soldiers had their pockets full of money, which is why trade flourished around the garrisons. Plain inns suddenly had exotic names, the new jukebox played early rock’n’roll, the pastors warned in vain of the decline in decency, and some regions were officially declared a moral emergency area.

The six-part ARD series “A Touch of America”, produced under the leadership of SWR, tells about all of this. The main characters are two women from the Palatinate in their early twenties. One, Erika (Franziska Brandmeier), daughter of the mayor, is enjoying her new life to the full and dreams of emigrating to the United States at the side of a soldier; eventually she ends up in a Catholic reformatory. The other, Marie (Elisa Schlott), comes from a poor farming family. She promised Erika’s brother Siggi that she would wait for him; that was six years ago.

“A Touch of America” (ARD) tells a story of emancipation

Around the two protagonists, the Palatinate saga, developed by Jo Baier and edited by three authors, creates a panorama that wants to take into account as many facets of the times as possible: Erika’s senile grandmother (Marie Anne Fliegel) habitually greets with “Heil Hitler”, the Mayor (Dietmar Bär) owes his generous domicile to the expropriation of the previous Jewish owner, but received a clean bill of health as a “fellow traveler”, and when Siggi (Jonas Nay) returns from a Russian camp, he is outwardly unharmed, but mentally crippled.

The central theme, however, is different. The prologue already suggests that “A Touch of America” tells a story of emancipation. The series begins with a farewell letter written in 1952, followed by a long flashback to the previous year: When garrison commander McKoy (Philippe Brenninkmeyer) hired Marie as a housemaid, his wife Amy (Julia Koschitz) quickly realized the potential of the young woman, who was extremely talented in drawing (Elisa Schlott). She wants to open up opportunities for her that herself once did not take advantage of. Marie also broadened her horizons in other ways: A soldier with the sonorous name of George Washington (Reomy D. Mpeho) woos her favor for so long and stubbornly until she finally gave in. She doesn’t mind that he’s black. Even more so, his direct superior: Sergeant Hoskins (Tim Kalkhof) warns George several times that he will drive his appetite for “white meat” out of his mind.

“A touch of America” (ARD): There was racism in Germany too

That brings the story to its second big topic: Germany seemed like paradise to many black soldiers because they could enjoy much more freedom here. Of course there was racism anyway; In the end, George even faces the death penalty for a perfidious lie. The series, a plaque warns at the beginning, contains “racist language and other forms of discrimination that reflect the reality of life at the beginning of the 1950s.”

For the locals, the black Americans are of course “negroes”, the pastor makes fun of the “negro music” in the inn, and when Hoskins wants to express his contempt, he calls George a “nigger”. However, when it came to the subtitles of the English dialogues, those responsible lost their courage, there was “N – er” to be read, which seems a bit strange given the blunt language. Apart from that, “A Touch of America” is a prime example of public television: The sense of time seems to have been perfectly matched, even if back then hardly anyone in the Palatinate province probably spoke such flawless Standard German.

“A touch of America” (ARD): There is no real enthusiasm

“A touch of America” (ARD) was directed by Dror Zahavi, who has already made various major contemporary history films, including “The Airlift – Only Heaven Was Free” (2005, Sat.1), “My Life – Marcel Reich -Ranicki ”(2009, ARD),“ Munich 72 – Das Attentat ”(2013, ZDF) or the home drama“ And all have been silent ”(2013, ZDF). With all due respect for the outstanding image design by his preferred cameraman Gero Steffen and the exquisite work of equipment and costume design: especially from the point of view of a young audience that the ARD wants to win over by concentrating on Marie and Erika, that spark that has to jump is missing to generate real excitement. This target group would probably not notice linguistic errors such as “Alles gut”, but given the contemplative narrative with its long shots, it will be difficult for them to get excited about the series.

After all, the ensemble of “A Touch of America” (ARD) is excellent. With Elisa Schlott this is no surprise, the actress has long been one of the best in her age group, but Franziska Brandmeier, who first attracted attention in the Siegfried Lenz film “Arnes Nachlass” (2013), is playing her way forward as perky Erika. No less fascinating is the role of Julia Koschitz as a native of Berlin, who once also dreamed of America is now stranded in the “dump of good hope” (as the Palatinate US base Ramstein was called in the fifties). Also worth seeing are Aljoscha Stadelmann as Marie’s melancholy father, Samuel Finzi as host with a mission and Nina Gummich as “easy girl”. (Tilmann P. Gangloff)