At this moment, three candidates of "Mission: Germany", the new show on ProSieben, are being hunted by viewers who are watching on the Internet and television as they run through Germany. The sporty manhunt via the TV screen is a copy of previously successful formats such as "The Hunt” in the Netherlands, or "The Runner” in the U.S. The hunted receive 150,000 Euro, and the station promises a new television attraction: he combination of a real life agent thriller, Internet, and interactive TV. However screenplay author Wolfgang Menge developed precisely this scenario back in 1970, and triggered the biggest viewer and media feedback in early German television history to date with "Das Millionenspiel” (directed by Tom Toelle). It was the fictional live presentation of a manhunt on non-public television, which was not as harmless as the ProSieben version: the hunted was pursued by actual murderers and collected one million Marks, if he succeed to survive. Similar to the effect of the radio play "War of the Worlds” by Orson Welles in 1938, thousands of German citizens took the scenario literally, and violently protested against the wire-pullers behind the show or applied for the role of the killer themselves.
Heated public discussions ensued about what television should or shouldn’t do. The show finally reached its legend status when a dispute about copyright got "Das Millionenspiel” pulled after only one re-airing in 1971. This dispute, however, was now resolved after extensive legal efforts on the part of WDR: the Cologne Conference is proud to present the first viewing of this television jewel in over thirty years. The Cologne Conference is using this opportunity to dedicate an exhibit to the work of screenplay author and multiple prize-winner Wolfgang Menge ("Grimme-Preis”, "Bambi”, "Prix Italia”, etc.). At the same time, the exhibit aims to examine public television (the exclusive viewing offer in Menge’s early days) and its modest range of programming, which nonetheless acted as an important means in the shaping of public opinion. Menge’s outstanding role in television of the late sixties and early seventies could already be seen in early pieces, such as "The Dubrow Crisis”. In it, Menge described the consequences of the potential fall of the wall and reunification as early as 1969, an idea long since confirmed by reality. Aside from political developments and inscrutable tendencies of the media business ("Das duals. A cynical, merciless fundamental attitude is unique for Menge – at least he furthers this impression to the best of his ability. "Coaching in things misanthropic”, he once said, was something he never needed. This may have made the draft of his most popular creation, the grump "Ekel Alfred”, from the legendary series "Heart and Soul”, much easier. In the Bremer talkshow "III Past Nine”, which he co-founded, the sharp-tongued Menge was more famous for his aggressiveness than his smooth conversational leadership. Yet cynicism and morality never win the upper hand in his films. Menge worked his way to the heart of the German condition with puns and authenticity, down to the smallest dialogue line. His knack for the summing up the casual symptomatic and everyday essence distinguished him – the monstrous nature in a word retained its light tone and remained unspectacular thanks to congenial staging on the part of the directors. Menge worked a bit further removed from the unglittered precision of societal satire in the late seventies, in a nostalgic retrospective on times gone by in "What Would We Be without Us”, which was frequently certified by a hint of harmlessness. And why not – Menge did not want to be the big admonisher, he actual felt responsible for the viewer’s amusement above all. He always knew how to create suspenseful entertainment, whether in his precise analyses of political mechanisms ("Question Time”), or in his genre pieces such as the comedy of thieves "Four against the Bank” (directed by Wolfgang Petersen). Even the creation of the wild customs investigator Kressin for the series "Tatort”, more likely served the fun of the genre than an obligation to reality. For the cosmopolitan author Menge, Anglo-Saxon presentation and television formats served as an example in both cases – as also for "Steel Net” and "Heart and Soul”. Wolfgang Menge, who lives in Berlin and Sylt, continues to write for public stations, and recently worked German material as author of the film "Kelly-Bastian – Story of Hope”. He however distanced himself from the piece, which he above all attributed to historical inaccuracies in the work’s staging. And so the title of today’s successful show at ProSieben can absolutely be regarded from the fundamental attitude of Menge’s work: he remains an intolerant fighter for shows like "Mission: Germany”; a chronicler of German post war and media history. The selection of more than one hundred films that were created by Menge’s pen, include German cinema entertainment and guiding German television films, which remain current in their aesthetic and contextual precision. The directors – Wolfgang Petersen, Tom Toelle, and Peter Zadek – accompanied Menge in part for years, and in their way also became exceptional figures.