This post is about the ZDF Series Wendland with the German actor Ulrich Noethen.
I worked in Wendland for 11 Years: Because of the Zonenrandgebiet and Gorleben a North German area near Lüneburg, not to be missed! The Elbtaulaue from Bleckede to Dannenberg and Hitzacker has attracted many visitors from Europe and around the world.
The area is Storch Country and very known among cyclists mostly with push bikes on their racks like the Police Volkswagen Van.
Paradise for Bird Watching and Campers and Outdoors.
Artists have settled here as well.
Known is the annual Kulturelle Landpartie.
More to come here soon.
Ulrich Noethen and “Wendland”: A Critical Review
About the actor Ulrich Noethen
Ulrich Noethen, born November 18, 1959 in Munich, is one of Germany’s most acclaimed character actors . His breakthrough came in 1997 when he starred as Harry Frommermann in “Comedian Harmonists,” earning him the German Film Award for Best Actor in 1998 . He has notably portrayed Heinrich Himmler twice, in “Der Untergang” (Downfall) and “Mein Führer” , and played Otto Frank in “Das Tagebuch der Anne Frank” (The Diary of Anne Frank) . Noethen has won numerous awards including the Bavarian Film Award, the German Television Award, the Grimme Award, and the German Television Academy Award in 2022 .
The “Wendland” Series: Premise and Setting
“Wendland” is a German television crime series that has been broadcast by ZDF since 2022 as part of their Saturday crime programming, with Ulrich Noethen starring as Criminal Chief Commissioner and author Jakob Stiller . Stiller worked in the evidence archive of the Hamburg State Criminal Police Office and was viewed as a “troublemaker” after publishing his first novel, leading to his transfer as the new precinct leader in Dahlow in the Wendland region .
The series was shot in the previously crime-free Wendland region along the former so-called “zone border,” specifically in Hitzacker, Dahlenburg, and the beautiful Salderatzen manor house, along the Elbe and Jeetzel rivers – precisely the area where I worked for 11 years myself in the High School in Dannenberg / Elbe named Fritz – Reuter – Gymnasium.
Critical Review: When a Beautiful Landscape Meets Troubled History
The Premise and the Protagonist
“Wendland” presents an intriguing premise: a disillusioned city detective who writes crime novels gets punished for his literary honesty and finds himself exiled to rural Lower Saxony. The character Jakob Stiller cannot stand the sight of blood, prefers riding a bicycle, and is described by Noethen as “a very friendly man” with “courage, the ability to easily offend people, but also great warmth” . This creates a deliberate contrast between the sensitive, literary Großstädter and the rough provincial world he must navigate.
The series attempts something ambitious: it incorporates the historically significant region with the “myth of the ‘Republic Freies Wendland’” as a thematic peculiarity . This is no small undertaking. For those of us who lived and worked in this region, the Wendland is not merely picturesque countryside but a place deeply marked by decades of resistance.
The Gorleben Legacy: “Atomkraft? Nein Danke”
The Wendland’s identity is inseparable from its anti-nuclear activism. On June 4, 1980, police units cleared a village erected by nuclear power opponents near Gorleben, the “Republik Freies Wendland” . This followed the February 1977 announcement by then-Minister President Ernst Albrecht that an end repository for nuclear waste and a reprocessing plant would be built in the Wendland .
On May 3, 1980, approximately 5,000 nuclear power opponents marched to the drilling site “1004” near a salt dome favored for nuclear waste storage, occupied it, and declared it the “Republik Freies Wendland” . Around Gorleben, where the population prevented an end repository through tenacious protest and where many still demonstrate against nuclear power, the iconic “Atomkraft? Nein Danke” sun symbol has not yet lost its relevance .
This history permeates the landscape. Every kilometer of the Wendland carries memories of protest, resistance, and community solidarity. The yellow “X” marking resistance sites, the Castor transport blockades, the Sunday prayer vigils that began in 1989 – this is the cultural DNA of the region.
The Series’ Strengths
“Wendland” is traditional crime television that tells its stories with as much calm, deliberation, and love of landscape as older ZDF audiences on Saturday evening primetime would appreciate . Noethen brings his considerable talent to a character who is refreshingly non-macho, intellectually curious, and genuinely humane. This alone is a plus of the series of 5.
The series demonstrates “the concept of ‘Noethen-Noir’ with humorous elements” and thereby “gains independent life and uniqueness” . The most recent episodes have shown range: the fourth film, “Stiller and the Devil Sucker,” deals with vampire myths and a murdered historian , while the fifth film explores a mysterious death in the forest with jealousy and a caravan playing central roles .
The production clearly values the Wendland’s beauty. Hitzacker provides an authentic backdrop. The series captures the region’s distinctive character – the quiet dignity of its farmland, the melancholy of its forests, and the architectural charm of its few manor houses.
The Critical Shortcomings
However, here lies my primary criticism, particularly relevant given my experience in the region: there are “too many past explanations in the script that inform in bear-explaining mode through neatly presented backstories in the past tense,” where “sometimes less text would have been nice” . The series seems to treat the Wendland’s political history as atmospheric background rather than living tissue. I would have suggested to keep these parts rather short.
For someone who lived through “Atomkraft nein danke” not as a slogan but as a daily reality – who saw neighbors transformed into activists, who witnessed the solidarity between conservative farmers and radical environmentalists, who understood that Gorleben was not just a place but a principle – the series risks aestheticizing struggle into mere local color.
One critic questioned whether future scripts will truly develop Stiller “into a genuine character” comparable to Noethen’s other memorable roles . The same question applies to the Wendland itself: Will it become a character in its own right, with all its contradictions, its stubbornness, its history of resistance? Or will it remain merely a beautiful backdrop for conventional crime narratives?
The Wendland earned its place in German history not through quaintness but through confrontation. The anti-nuclear movement in Germany is distinguished in European comparison by its strength and particularly its continuity, with Gorleben remaining the symbolic site of anti-nuclear protest . This is not folklore; it’s living memory. And only farmers and country folks joined by activists living in Germany and traveling to Gorleben again and again will understand my point: The Wendland is unique and different from any area in Europe. I find it iconic, and would not have liked to delete my eleven years living there.
Final Verdict
“Wendland” is competently crafted television that benefits enormously from Noethen’s sensitive, layered performance. Recent episodes have achieved “atmospheric, exciting crime thrillers” that weave “classic suspense with regional legends and a pinch of mystery” . For viewers seeking intelligent, beautifully filmed crime stories with a literary protagonist, it delivers very well, indeed.
But for those of us who know the Wendland intimately – who remember when “Atomkraft? Nein Danke” was not nostalgia but necessity – the series feels like an opportunity only partially seized. The landscape is there, gorgeously filmed. The history is acknowledged. But the fire, the stubbornness, the decades of determined resistance that made this region what it is? That remains largely in the margins or looks half baked only.
The Wendland deserves a series that doesn’t just visit its beauty but grapples with its soul. Perhaps future episodes will dig deeper into the region’s identity, treating its activist history not as exotic local lore but as the defining characteristic it truly is. Until then, “Wendland” remains good television set in a remarkable place – but not yet remarkable television about that place.
Rating: 3.5/5 stars – Elevated by Noethen’s performance and genuine affection for the landscape, but missing the full depth of the region’s extraordinary character. A great actor, indeed: Chapeau!
With my kind greetings to the people living in Wendland
Kindly from Australia yours
Peter Hanns Bloecker, Director of Studies and tetired since 2015.
Updated Thu 23 Oct 2025.
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