People
Western fan Welke prefers GDR productions
Oliver Welke (l) and Bastian Pastewka present “Welke & Pastewka – seeing each other again is fun!”. photo
© Julia Feldhagen/ZDF/dpa
TV Westerns existed not only in West Germany, but also in the GDR. Oliver Welke even appreciates the DEFA films more because they are better cinematically and more historically correct.
Of course, there is also a touch of propaganda: “The American is always a capitalist and fundamentally evil at the same time. That was always part of it, even in fiction, that a little bit of public education had to take place,” said Welke. From a purely cinematic perspective, the DEFA Westerns are better than “our Pierre Brice and Lex Barker Westerns” from today’s perspective. DEFA (Deutsche Film AG) was a state-owned film studio in the GDR. Mitić was the best-known leading actor in the DEFA westerns.
Welke said that his earliest television memories included western series such as “Smoking Guns” and “Bonanza.” “I had an impressive collection of cowboy hats for years and if cowboying had been considered an apprenticeship in East Westphalia, I would definitely have done it,” he said.
At the turn of the year, Welke will be hosting a show on curiosities from 60 years of television together with comedian Bastian Pastewka – both self-confessed TV nerds. “We were massively surprised a few times and couldn’t believe that certain formats already existed at a time when we could theoretically have seen them,” said Welke. The two episodes “Welke & Pastewka – Seeing each other again is fun!” will run on December 29th and January 5th at 10:30 p.m. on ZDF.