Lindenstraße

Lindenstraße is a long-running German television series broadcast on Das Erste. Its first episode aired on 8 December 1985 and the show continued weekly until 29 March 2020, running for a total of 1,758 episodes. Its creator is Hans W. Geißendörfer, who also wrote and directed the first 31 episodes; it was produced by his own company Geißendörfer Film- und Fernsehproduktion, and the music was composed by Jürgen Knieper. In 2013 Geißendörfer's daughter Hana Geißendörfer joined the team, and the first episodes written by her aired in late April of that year.

The story is set in a fictional street in Munich, while filming took place at the WDR studios in Cologne-Bocklemünd, on an outdoor street set built for that purpose. Inspired by the British series Coronation Street, the show takes its basic premise from the everyday life of neighbours. Among the residents of the street, the Beimer-Schiller, Beimer-Ziegler and Zenker families stand out; the locations include a doctor's office, a Greek restaurant called "Akropolis" and a supermarket.

Dealing with subjects such as racism, cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer's disease, physical and mental disability and homosexuality, the series is also known for quickly incorporating current events into its storylines. In 1987 it drew attention for featuring the first gay kiss on German television. Although its early episodes mostly received poor reviews, the show soon became one of the most successful series on German television. On 16 November 2018 ARD announced that, despite reaching between two and three million viewers a week, it had decided on cost grounds not to renew its contract with the production company; the series therefore came to an end in March 2020 after nearly 35 years.