German TV is to finally broadcast an episode of popular crime drama Polizeiruf 110 that was banned back in 1974 and believed lost.
One of Germany’s most popular and enduring TV dramas, Polizeiruf 110 began in East Germany in 1971 and is still running today on ARD. The controversial 1974 episode focuses on an investigation into the actions of a paedophile, and the East German government banned the episode because of fears that it would ignite a debate over the death penalty, which at the time was still in force.
Until 2009, the banned episode was assumed to have been destroyed when it was seized by the government. Miraculously, however, a copy was found in the German Braodcasting Archive, where it had possibly been stored by mistake.
The copy had no soundtrack, but producer Stefan Urlass managed to track down a copy of the script. Reuniting some of the actors originally involved in the episode, Urlass recorded an entirely new soundtrack, and the missing episode is finally due to be screened on German TV this week.
TV Vomit 