With "Als das Wetter verrückttspielte - 1970" (When the weather went crazy - 1970), WDR and BROADVIEW TV take a look at Our Country in 1970 on 11 August 2017 from 8.15 p.m. Actress Esther Schweins was born in Oberhausen that year and narrates the exciting and entertaining journey through the year of her birth.
The weather was crazy in 1970, the winter was freezing cold, the summer stormy. There was a lot, a lot of snow at the beginning of 1970. Everywhere in North Rhine-Westphalia it was wintry. The whole country was white, a closed blanket of snow from the Lower Rhine to East Westphalia. What do we need the Alps for, thought the people of North Rhine-Westphalia. We can ski at home, too. The Sauerland became a ski paradise. In Mönchengladbach, a football fairy tale began that would shape the entire decade. The Foals became champions for the first time, Berti Vogts remembers the most important year of his career. And Heide Ecker-Rosendahl will never forget 1970 either. After all, she jumped a world record - and also had a lot of fun with her hometown Radevormwald at the television spectacle "Spiel ohne Grenzen". The winter dream quickly turned into a nightmare. Because it just wouldn't stop snowing. And then there was this: smallpox alarm in Meschede, four deaths frightened the country. 25 people had contracted smallpox, 260 patients had to be quarantined. Magdalena Drinhaus was one of them. In "Als das Wetter verrücktspielte - 1970" (When the weather went crazy - 1970) she tells of her dramatic fight for survival; and the very special role that snowfall played for her.
1970 was an eventful year. In some parts of the country, snow lay until May - and was replaced by summer storms and thunderstorms. The citizens of the state elected a new state parliament and confirmed Minister President Heinz Kühn in office. Cologne Airport, the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus and the Ruhr Tunnel were opened, and the first Manta was built in Bochum. The beginning of a success story. Thousands took to the streets in Dortmund: mini or maxi, the length of their skirts drove women up the wall. The television event of the year was produced by WDR: the Millionenspiel, a fictional story about a deadly show that very many viewers took seriously. It is the great stories and little anecdotes that Esther Schweins tells about and that bring the year 1970, when not only the weather was going crazy, back to life in the broadcast series "Unser Land - Die 70er".
First broadcast: Friday, 11 August 2017, at 8:15 p.m. on WDR
