Producer

Leopold Hoesch

Direction

Nicole Kraack

Producer

Annebeth Jacobsen

Genre

History

Transmitter

WDR

Length

1 x 45'

Editor

Year

2017

OUR COUNTRY 1973

Thick air and a breath of fresh air

In 1973, NRW was under a lot of steam: thick air and a fresh breeze blew through our state.
The fourth part of the ten-part documentary series about the 70s in North Rhine-Westphalia shows how thick fog, legendary street sweepers and a singing foreign minister shaped the attitude to life in 1973.

Marie-Luise Marjan has fond memories of filming the movie "Smog" by Wolfgang Petersen.
She played the female lead in it.
The WDR environmental thriller shocked audiences at the time.
Many viewers thought the film about an environmental disaster in the Ruhr region was real.

Filmmaker Nicole Kraack found contemporary witnesses for whom one moment in 1973 completely changed their lives - for example Christa Vahlensieck.
She made the marathon a women's sport.
At the time, this sport was taboo for the "weaker" sex in elite sport.
In the small town of Waldniel, she and others ran the world's first all-female marathon.
And won it in a record time of under three hours.

1973 was also the year when "wildcat strikes" swept NRW and the so-called "guest workers" of the time gave vent to their discontent.
In Lippstadt at Hella and at Ford in Cologne, they demanded higher wages and better working conditions.
Migrant women in particular took to the barricades.
One of them was the Greek Irina Vavitsa - on strike for more justice, especially for foreign women.

In addition, a particularly disgusting show, Germany's first talk show and the first comedy format flickered across the screen of the WDR program known as "Das Dritte".
The plateau shoe spread across NRW's sidewalks and the oil crisis spoiled drivers' trips on "Immer wieder Sonntags".
A comet also created a doomsday atmosphere.
And the men's world cried out: Carmen Thomas became the first woman to present "Aktuelle Sportstudio".
Scandal!

The film is narrated by WDR presenter Asli Sevindim, who was born in Duisburg in 1973.
WDR was able to win a total of ten prominent personalities from NRW as sponsors and speakers for the films.
They tell the stories and events of the year in which they were born, making the series "Unser Land - die 70er" a very personal and entertaining journey back in time to a turbulent decade.

First broadcast: Friday, September 1, 2017 at 8:15 pm on WDR

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