Treffpunkt: Deutschland
Treffpunkt: Deutschland is a German-language BBC schools TV series from the 1970s and 1980s, covering German Language for secondary school pupils.
A series in which West German teenagers and adults are seen going about their daily activities, such as shoe shopping, visiting the doctor, going to school or church. Each episode is made up of a number of distinct, short sequences each with its own title shown on screen, so that they could be video recorded and shown individually by the teacher. The programmes are designed to be useful to students in their second or third year of studying German.
The participants, some of whom reoccur in multiple episodes, come from the German towns of Braunschweig
and Hamelin, and they appear on camera being interviewed about their lives around the film of their activities, speaking in their own unscripted words. A carefully scripted German commentary repeats and reinforces the key vocabulary.
The series was made while Germany was divided into West and East and references the split, including a sequence in which teenager Volker goes to meet the border guards who patrol close to where he lives.
This was the first German-language schools television programme made by the BBC, in fact the only German schools television programme produced and broadcast by either the BBC or ITV in the entire decade of the 1970s.
It is linked closely with the English-language series Encounter: Germany which was shown at the same time. Both series were the result of three weeks filming in German in the summer of 1976, and while they had originally been envisaged as parallel productions - the same film sequences narrated in either German or English - sufficient useful footage was shot that the two series are actually distinctly different but complementary. The same participants, and some of the same situations, appear in each, but Treffpunkt: Deutschland focuses on dialogue and transactional activity between people, while Encounter: Germany uses material relevant to background study of the country and culture.
This pairing of language and geography Encounter series was later reproduced for several other languages, with Appuntamento in Italia/Encounter: Italy following in 1978, and then Rendez-vous: France/Encounter: France in 1979 and Descubra España/Encounter: Spain in 1981.
Treffpunkt: Deutschland was eventually replaced with an updated pair of series along the same lines in 1986, in the form of Treffpunkt: Osterreich/Encounter: Austria.
Titles & Theme Music
Flags of various European countries fly out from a grid of flags, culminating with the flag of Germany filling the screen and displaying the series title and emblem.
In common with the other Encounter series of the 1970s, the theme music is House of the King by the group Focus.
Watch on YouTube.
Episode List
| # | Title | Broadcast |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | An Ort und Stelle | 26 Apr 1977 |
| 2. | Schule | 3 May 1977 |
| 3. | Verbindungen | 10 May 1977 |
| 4. | Arbeit | 17 May 1977 |
| 5. | Freizeit | 24 May 1977 |
Broadcasts
| Year | Term | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Channel | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1976-77 | Summer 1977 | Tuesday, 2:14pm | Thursday, 2:45pm | BBC1 | ||||
| 1977-78 | Autumn 1977 | Monday, 11:00am | Tuesday, 2:14pm | Thursday, 2:45pm | BBC1 | Fortnightly | ||
| 1978-79 | Autumn 1978 | Tuesday, 2:14pm | Thursday, 2:14pm | BBC1 | Fortnightly | |||
| 1979-80 | Spring 1980 | Tuesday, 2:14pm | Friday, 9:05am | BBC1 | Fortnightly | |||
| 1980-81 | Spring 1981 | Tuesday, 2:14pm | Friday, 9:05am | BBC1 | Fortnightly | |||
| 1981-82 | Spring 1982 | Tuesday, 9:53am | BBC1 | |||||
| 1982-83 | Spring 1983 | Wednesday, 9:15am | BBC1 | |||||
| Summer 1983 | Thursday, 9:15am | BBC1 | ||||||
| 1983-84 | Autumn 1983 | Thursday, 1:20pm | BBC2 | |||||
| Spring 1984 | Thursday, 9:33am | BBC2 | ||||||
| 1984-85 | Autumn 1984 | Thursday, 1:20pm | BBC2 | |||||
| Spring 1985 | Thursday, 9:20am | BBC2 |
Credits
| Commentary by | Georgina Green |
| Taking part | Ines Full, Heike Muller, Volker Kamm, Andrea Worrech, Richard Alderson, Elke Lyk, Holger Gaus, Susan Gerecke, Falk Rass, Eckard Wiegand, Anita Ehlerding, Regina Leiss, Martin Herrmann, Olaf Kolla |
| Consultant | Edward Neather |
| Film cameraman | Godfrey Johnson |
| Sound recordist | Derek Medus |
| Film editor | John Billingham |
| Producer | John Prescott Thomas |
Resources
Teacher's Notes
Notes containing segment-by-segment descriptions, vocabulary lists, transcripts and follow-up activities were available, initially costing 45p.
Related programmes
- Encounter: GermanyCompanion series in English
Sources & References
- BBC Schools Annual Programme Guides 1976-1984. London: BBC.
- Encounter: Germany teacher's notes, 1977.
- Mullen, Eileen (1977) 'Educational Broadcasting: BBC' in Visual Education April 1977. London: National Committee for Audio-Visual Aids in Education.
- Radio Times listings, 1977-1985. London: BBC.
- Treffpunkt: Deutschland teacher's notes, autumn 1977.
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