Image via Channel 4
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!
Back to Deutschland 83, when you finally watched the show, what did you think?
I really like the artistic direction of the show, even if I weren’t in it myself. Anna Winger, the writer, has a great style and the visuals are shot very artistically. It’s just an interesting story, the coming-of-age spy thriller with comedy.
Playing Martin/Moritz, did you ever think, “Oh, I would have done things differently if I were him”?
When we were reading the script, there were some points where I really had to find the motivation to do things…like [Episode 6 Spoiler] when he returns to West Germany, after leaving his pregnant girlfriend, and kisses another girl on the exact same day. I was like, how could he do that? He just found out he’s a father!
What was your favourite part about playing your character?
He’s really sympathetic and just trying to make the best out of every situation. I mean, what a strange and dangerous situation he’s in. He’s leaving life as he knew it behind and has to find himself in totally different world, and he’s doing it all for his family, for his mother who needs to get on the list for a kidney transplant. This is a motivation I totally understand because I’m totally a family man. I would do anything for my family and for my mother. There’s a lot of me inside Moritz.
Moritz has to learn how to take his future into his own hands instead of just relying on other spy people. He has to find his own place between two ideologies, and I think lot of people my age have to figure out their own position, too.
Were there any props or cool vintage things you took from the show?
There were a lot of things I took from the show! I took a watch that has a calculator on it. It’s so cool, it has 24 little buttons and I wear it sometimes. I also took the picklock – I’m not allowed to have it, but I took it. Everybody on the set was really into the gadgets. Every time I was on the set, there was somebody grabbing something and saying, “Oh, I used to have this! Do you remember this?” There were some really expensive, collectors’ items. The production designer, Lars Lange, was in decoration love.
For most of the people working with me, 1983 was their youth. There was a guy who wanted to explain to me how a Walkman works, and how to push the buttons for a scene. I told him I had a Walkman and used to record stuff on it, but he wouldn’t believe me. He said, “No! You were born in 1990, you don’t know anything!”
What was the most exciting stunt you shot on the show?
There’s a scene with a race through the underground. I’m chasing this guy with a bomb. We spent a whole day shooting this chase and our fight on the train tracks. Training went on for a long time and on the weekends I worked with the stuntman on fight choreography. I did kickboxing in Berlin 2-3 times a week.
I didn’t know how to fight before the show. There was one time in my life before the show where I got in a fight and I broke my hand. This was, for me as a pianist, not such a good moment in my life.
But now if you got in a fight, you would be better off.
Maybe, but I also learned how to run – I had to do a lot of sports to get through this production. So probably I would just run away. Even if you didn’t see me running on an episode, I had to run a lot before filming a scene just to get the pulse high. The whole shooting day was me running from one side to the other and stepping up and down.
Finally, if you could travel back in time the 1980s, land anywhere and do anything, what would you do?
I would definitely go to a Genesis and a Police concert. And (as a musician), I would want to meet my great grandfather in person, who once was a conductor of big orchestras, as far as I know.
Deutschland 83 is now available to watch on All4.
