Martin Rauch is on the run, but skids to a stop. It’s a contrast of primary colours for this East German’s first time in a Western grocery shop: red Puma T-shirt tucked into blue jeans, stark white Adidas Stan Smiths, and an innocuous row of yellow bananas that mesmerise him long enough to get caught. Visually, it’s one of the most memorable scenes from Deutschland 83, an East-West espionage series that began airing on Channel 4 last month. The first episode of the German-language show drew in a combined total of 2.5 million viewers, making it the highest-rated foreign language drama in UK TV history.
There’s international tension, family drama and irony, all set to a killer soundtrack of David Bowie, Duran Duran and the biggest hits of 1983 (good luck not getting the theme’s earworm ‘Major Tom’ stuck in your head). Think coming of age and counterculture clash a la This is England mixed with the secrecy and Cold War politics of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. 25-year-old Jonas Nay plays Martin Rauch aka “Officer Moritz Stamm” aka code name Kolibri, the spy newbie who goes undercover in the West German military to do his duty and save his mum. Nay, whose primary knowledge of this time came from music, had to undergo extensive preparation for the show – including consultation with a NATO expert, combat training and reading history books. When he’s not acting, Nay plays with his band Northern Lights and is studying jazz piano in his hometown of Lübeck.
The actor took a moment to talk about Deutschland 83, his love of British TV and whether his stunt training would be useful in real life.
![Deutschland 83 is one of the rare German TV shows to reach broadcast outside of Germany. What do you think makes it appealing to an international audience?
Probably because Deutschland 83 has a global dimension. It’s not just the history of two German states, but two German states that are the playing balls between two powers [the Soviet Union and the United States]. The Cold War is actually a theme right now, just recently in the news.
I also think Germany is a little late with doing programmes with one story arc. We have a lot of crime shows with just one story per episode. But now we’ve started doing more of the continuous storyline, which is popular abroad and with young folks like me. I watch a lot of series on Netflix and I see that type of show is more common with the English-language market.
The show even aired in the U.S. before in Germany. Americans have a stereotype of being adverse to foreign language films, so congratulations – you convinced Americans to read subtitles!
Yes, that’s true! Did you know that after the first episodes, some Americans were complaining that the subtitles were too small? Then they made it bigger and everybody was like, “Thank you!”
Back when I was more studious, I used to watch German movies with subtitles. It’s where I picked up useful words like rumvögeln [to screw around].
It’s a good way of learning languages. I’m improving my English by watching English series, especially British shows. I’ve been watching Sherlock…The IT Crowd…oh, what’s the name of the show that takes place in an old people’s home? [A pause to look it up.] Yes, Derek. And Extras. I'm a total series junkie and there are a lot of good British shows.
Since you’re such a fan of British TV, if you could be in any of those shows, which one would you choose and what character you would want to play?
Oh, that’s a good question. If they were to continue shooting this series, I would want to be in Extras and play one of the people who work on the film set. I think the creator characters need a young assistant. The creators don’t like him because he’s really nerdy and always suggesting really bad stuff, but they’re forced to keep him. Yes, that’s my character.
A young, inept German film assistant…is this character based on any real life experiences?
[Laughs.] No, of course not!](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Eb0yFr2jVAU/mqdefault.jpg)
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Deutschland 83 is one of the rare German TV shows to reach broadcast outside of Germany. What do you think makes it appealing to an international audience?
Probably because Deutschland 83 has a global dimension. It’s not just the history of two German states, but two German states that are the playing balls between two powers [the Soviet Union and the United States]. The Cold War is actually a theme right now, just recently in the news.
I also think Germany is a little late with doing programmes with one story arc. We have a lot of crime shows with just one story per episode. But now we’ve started doing more of the continuous storyline, which is popular abroad and with young folks like me. I watch a lot of series on Netflix and I see that type of show is more common with the English-language market.
The show even aired in the U.S. before in Germany. Americans have a stereotype of being adverse to foreign language films, so congratulations – you convinced Americans to read subtitles!
Yes, that’s true! Did you know that after the first episodes, some Americans were complaining that the subtitles were too small? Then they made it bigger and everybody was like, “Thank you!”
Back when I was more studious, I used to watch German movies with subtitles. It’s where I picked up useful words like rumvögeln [to screw around].
It’s a good way of learning languages. I’m improving my English by watching English series, especially British shows. I’ve been watching Sherlock…The IT Crowd…oh, what’s the name of the show that takes place in an old people’s home? [A pause to look it up.] Yes, Derek. And Extras. I'm a total series junkie and there are a lot of good British shows.
Since you’re such a fan of British TV, if you could be in any of those shows, which one would you choose and what character you would want to play?
Oh, that’s a good question. If they were to continue shooting this series, I would want to be in Extras and play one of the people who work on the film set. I think the creator characters need a young assistant. The creators don’t like him because he’s really nerdy and always suggesting really bad stuff, but they’re forced to keep him. Yes, that’s my character.
A young, inept German film assistant…is this character based on any real life experiences?
[Laughs.] No, of course not!
