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European Soap Operas: the Diversification of a Genre 245

respectively), the most established, long-term production of a community soap
in Europe is the German Lindenstrasse, which has been running, partly in paral-
10
lel with Die Schwarzwaldklinik, since the mid-1980s. Not surprisingly, in spite
of the professed intention of its producer, Lindenstrasse turned out to be quite
different from its British inspiration.

Power structure

European community soaps all attempt to overcome social conflicts and class
differences by offering an idealized or nostalgic vision of living together. The
British tradition of community soap is proudly working class (with Brookside as
a more middle-class exception). The harmonious, all-embracing neighbourhood
acts as a cosy environment in which the restrictions on upward mobility are not
noticeable as both success and failure drive characters out of the neighbourhood
and the soap. Lindenstrasse, Germany’s community soap opera, is about middle-
class people, although there are many lower middle-class characters, and most
women work as secretaries, waitresses or nurses.
Nostalgia for a gemeinschaft in Denmark’s Lansbeyen stresses the value of the
country and to a traditional community of farmers who have to rely on each
other to weather daily hardships and economic slavery to the banks. Directed
at an older audience, as is Coronation Street, the rural community of Landsbeyen
is another form of nostalgia – for life in the country and for working the land.
In the modern world of capitalism and materialism, it tells us that the good old
values of hard work and loyalty to friends are lost. The villain in this almost Ibsen-
like drama is the new bank manager, originally a boy from the village, who left
with a grudge, made good and comes back to avenge himself.

Social loci

In all European community soap operas characters struggle through domestic
and work problems both at home and at work, and they work mostly within the
community. People meet in the common public places. In Coronation Street, these
are the pub, the garage, the greengrocer’s, the newspaper shop and the laun-
derette; among the gloomier public spaces of Landsbeyen, the bank is a prominent
symbol of threat; in the street, central to Lindenstrasse, we are introduced to the
cafe, the doctor’s clinic, the flower shop, the bench in the park and the Italian
and Greek restaurants. Fewer chores, more leisure.

Gender relations

A look at the relationships between couples shows that women are stronger in
the British community. Like Coronation Street, the families of Lindenstrasse are