Returning to Berlin writer Francis Stuart reflects on a city he lived in during the war and impressions of the German people.
Francis Stuart left Ireland for Germany in 1940 to take up a post as lecturer in Irish and English literature at Berlin University. At the end of World War II he was arrested by French forces and imprisoned for six months, without any changes ever being made against him. On his release, he lived in Freiburg. Seeing Germany through his eyes, the film concentrates on these places most intimately bound up with his past.
Commenting on the programme in the RTÉ Guide 8 December 1972, producer Ted Dolan says,
It's a tall order to give a comprehensive picture of anything in a half-hour on television. It's a very tall order, indeed, if you set out to capture the essence of an entire people especially if they occupy, by virtue of their recent history, a special place among the peoples of Europe. Perhaps the answer is to get a personal view from someone who has known joy and sorrow among those same people on whom he is asked to pass a kind of judgement.
'Neighbours: The Germans' was broadcast on 13 December 1972.
The programme was filmed in Berlin in August 1971.
