"Hindafing" is an award-winning series on Bavarian TV (BR). A BR broadcasting council, however, was annoyed by the satire - with serious consequences.
Munich - The role is tailor-made for him: Maximilian Brückner as mayor (and later member of the state parliament) Alfons Zischl gets caught up in a pool of sins from drug addiction, corruption and debt. Nothing is left out in “Hindafing” : unabashed rejection of refugees, illegal collusion in local politics, black money accounts and tax tricks, even arms deals.
BR series "Hindafing": showered with praise - but criticism comes from the broadcasting council
The BR series "Hindafing", the second season of which was only recently seen, was showered with praise - the left-liberal taz judged: "With Hindafing, Bavarian Radio has landed a hit." The world wrote of "world class level".
But the regional church council Dieter Breit , who was sent to the BR broadcasting council by the Evangelical Church, does not find the series so successful. In a four-page letter that is available to our editors, he complained to BR Director-General Ulrich Wilhelm .
BR series "Hindafing": Corrupt machinations as the main point of criticism
Breit, a trained journalist , begins with praise - "excellent actors", "sophisticated minimalist lighting", "varied camera work" - but then formulates some objections to the series, which has at least received the Bavarian TV Award. Breit's main criticism is that "Hindafing" characterized "almost all the main characters" in the second season as "thoroughly corrupt, mostly involved in criminal activities, pathologically unscrupulous or at least naively characterized".
Breit counts: the member of the state parliament, the managing director of an arms company, the pastor, the newspaper editor, soldiers, a banker in the Vatican and "even the pope" would be presented as "protagonists of an unscrupulous" Elite "." Satire, the critic explains further, should be entertainment "with a wink" and a "grain of truth".
State church council criticizes BR series "Hindafing": Letter is not without consequences
But, asks Breit: "Where can you find it in Hindafing?" In truth, the series "hearty visual material" provides that "many resentments and defamations that undermine our democracy seem to be justified". If it were "Hindafing", politics, business, the church and the media could "no longer trust with the best will in the world".
The letter was not without consequences. The broadcasting councils should deal with the criticism . In preparation, they received a study on "Representing politics in fictional entertainment". Then the program committee, one of the bodies of the Broadcasting Council, was commissioned to carry out a program observation only for Hindafing. Experts will provide support. The BR hired a professor for personality psychology and a media researcher to evaluate the “question of the clichéd representation” of politicians, church people and business representatives in fictional offers. March 12th is meeting.
Response to criticism of BR series "Hindafing": Green MPs can not understand the procedure
The Munich Greens Landtag MEP Sanne Kurz , who is also on the broadcasting council, can not understand this approach. Of course, humor can be tasteless. "But if you seriously want to discuss the depiction of politics and the church in the media at Hindafing, it really only proves that you didn't understand anything about satire."
Scandal at the Bavarian radio: The well-known presenter Richard Gutjahr published serious allegations against director Ulrich Wilhelm.
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