Producer
Leopold Hoesch
Director
Jobst Knigge
Producer
Vera Bertram
Genre
Documentary
Broadcaster
WDR
Length
1 x 45'
Editor
n/a
Year
2016
OUR LAND
The pot is shaking - THE 80s

In the fourth part of the series "Our Land", WDR and BROADVIEW TV take a look at NRW in the 1980s. In probably no decade has North Rhine-Westphalia been so battered as in this one: Heavy industry takes its toll, environmental disasters in the form of toxic rivers or smog clouds cast gloomy shadows over the state. At the same time, heavy industry is finally going under. The Rheinhausen rolling mill, for example, has to close. But the state becomes a stronghold of pop and rock music, new cultural venues spring up - harbingers of a new North Rhine-Westphalia. Johannes Rau promises "We in NRW" - and gives the state a soul.

Nena from Hagen becomes a world star. In general, the small town at the gateway to the Sauerland region with the Humpe sisters and Extrabreit shaped the soundtrack of our country far beyond the 1980s. Just like Herbert Grönemeyer with his hymn to Bochum, the Düsseldorf Toten Hosen and Cologne's BAP. What a decade! Hundreds of thousands gather in Bonn to protest against rearmament. Citizens understand that "our country" needs a better environmental policy. In Wuppertal, Ursula Kraus is elected the first female Green mayor. From a party that had just been founded. Rheinhausen becomes synonymous with protest, for months the miners from Duisburg strike to keep their steelworks open, blocking bridges and motorways. The country is behind them, but they are not successful in the long run. Large sections of the youth, however, are losing their taste for politics. Poppers, punks, skins or ecos - never has a generation been as fragmented as this one.

In Cologne, the Museum Ludwig is being built, creating another crowd puller right next to the cathedral: The museum houses one of the world's most impressive Pop Art collections and not only forms an exciting counterweight to the historic cathedral, but also sets the direction for NRW. The federal state must become more modern, must reinvent itself. The poisoned Rhine, which flows under the Hohenzollern Bridge right by the cathedral and Museum Ludwig, is a reminder of this.

The end of the decade makes it clear that nothing will be the same after the 1980s: while the traditional Henrichshütte steelworks is closed, the state parliament moves into a new building. It is glassy and transparent, seems to symbolically show that a new openness is necessary in times of upheaval. In Berlin, the Wall is falling, Germany is changing. And like the whole country, NRW will have to face new challenges and reinvent itself completely in the coming decade.

Between environmental sins and times of upheaval, great stories and small anecdotes unfold - an exciting journey through time that is only a small part of the diverse history of North Rhine-Westphalia brought to life by the "Our Land" series.

First broadcast: Friday, 9 September 2016, 8:15 p.m. on WDR

OUR LAND - The pot is shaking - THE 80s

In the fourth part of the series "Our Land", WDR and BROADVIEW TV take a look at NRW in the 1980s. In probably no decade has North Rhine-Westphalia been so battered as in this one: Heavy industry takes its toll, environmental disasters in the form of toxic rivers or smog clouds cast gloomy shadows over the state. At the same time, heavy industry is finally going under. The Rheinhausen rolling mill, for example, has to close. But the state becomes a stronghold of pop and rock music, new cultural venues spring up - harbingers of a new North Rhine-Westphalia. Johannes Rau promises "We in NRW" - and gives the state a soul.

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