BeiträgeDear Mr Stone,
I cannot answer directly your question on how “Untold History” was received in Germany. I got rid of my TV years ago and I have now watched the original DVD. Truth be told, the broadcasting of “Untold History” in Germany has hardly attracted any attention. The TV station N-tv which broadcast it in the end was also not the first choice. When it comes to foreign documentaries, the major German broadcasting stations do not simply air a dubbed version, but use the available material to create their own adaptation to which they will add their own commentary. Therefore, your format didn’t have much of a chance. Unfortunately, N24 changed the title from “Untold History of the United States” to “History of the United States”, which naturally arouses different expectations.
A renowned German newspaper, the SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG, wrote something derogatory about your documentary. This very newspaper made fun of your portrayal of Henry Wallace as a hero and argued that 99.55% of German television viewers probably would not know him. Although the assessment of the level of awareness may be true, many of the other comments stem from pure ignorance. After all, the newspaper agrees that Roosevelt left the Second World War to the Russians for far too long and that the atomic bomb was not decisive for the war. The latter assumption is also widespread in Germany.
Although I get the impression that (modelled on the BBC approach) German television and the German media in general appear more independent than the more patriotic U.S. media, the conditions here are far from perfect. Germany’s leading political magazine DER SPIEGEL, thus, in relation to the Kennedy assassination prefers to ridicule sceptics and doesn’t even provide the level of research of the ARRB of 1998. So whoever deals critically with the assassination is put on a par with UFO crackpots by DER SPIEGEL. In Germany, by the way, no one knows who Allen Dulles or Lyman Louis Lemnitzer was and even the tensions between the Kennedys and the Pentagon at the time were widely unknown in Germany.
Incidentally, I was touched that you also mentioned the bombing of my city of Münster. Two duds were discovered during construction works under the tracks at the railway station, just last year.
So, ignore the ignoramuses and keep doing your work! I like every piece of it!
