In both East and West they were a beloved ritual for many children. “Sandman Forever” shows the differences between two TV legends beyond shaving.
I grew up on the inner German border, with the two terrestrial eastern and three western broadcasters. And with two sandmen. Although I liked the socialist one much better back then.
The West Sandman (with a full beard) was discontinued in March 1989. The Eastern colleague (with a goatee), on the other hand, is still on the air. For over 66 years now. “Sandman forever… Career of a cult figure” is the right title for the well-made documentary.
Many experts have their say, especially children. After all, the Sandman was made for them. Ex-children from East and West also remember, also critically, but mostly very favorably. Add to that a whisper Actor Axel Milberg poetic information from the off.
The documentary is educational and entertaining. We meet the mother of the West Sandman (Ilse Obrig) and the two fathers of the East Sandman (Walter Heynowski and Gerhard Behrendt). And a race of an ideological nature: in 1959, the broadcaster Freies Berlin planned a TV evening greeting. This causes alarm in Berlin-Adlershof, where the GDR television is based. The plan emerges to get ahead of the West. It worked.
„“Sandman forever… Career of a cult figure”, in the ARD media library
The secret of the Sandman from the GDR? The nice guy shuts up. Come into the house like a good friend and have a bedtime story with popular, almost ancient characters like the fox and the magpie; There are now many new arrivals. It is not hidden that the sandman also had an educational mission during the GDR era. He even drove a tank. That was the political component back then: children should grow into socialist society. Snow from yesterday.
“Our Sandman”, as the official title is, is a fixed and beloved ritual for many human children. A little piece of an ideal world. And part of East German identity. After the fall of the Wall, when it was supposed to be wound up together with GDR television, a wave of protests rolled through the East German states. With success, exceptionally. The sandman was and is reliable. Always.
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