Being born in 1980, I can confirm that this TV show is German, aired on German TV, and aired in the 1980s. Everything about this show is authentic, especially its racism. 1980s Germans were exclusively racist towards foreigners they perceived as weaker, never towards obviously bullying foreigners. Italians, Eastern Europeans and Greeks are welcome targets if you follow your 1980s German rule book. Even that part was pleasant to watch because - that was what Germans were and what they strived to be. Germany being located in the centre of Europe is probably destined to shoot this kind of pan-European trucker show.
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makiefer-8712828 January 2024
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suchenwi17 November 2008The plot: a trucker has to drive his truck from A to B to deliver some freight. Then something goes wrong.
It is really astonishing how the makers of this German pre-prime-time serial could, over 28 years (with some breaks) produce over 80 episodes as variations on this theme - and most of them, watched after 20..30 years, still manage to come across fresh, diverse, and often surprising in plot and style.
One easy variation (though costly in expenses, as very much was shot in real locations) is to have the action set in various far-away countries - Greece, Tunisia, South Africa, Finland, Thailand, Chile and so on. To more or lesser degree, locals speak the local language, so for a linguist there is quite some fun here too, although, not to alienate German viewers, far too often some local turns up who studied or worked in Germany, and so speaks German quite well.
But the variety also extends to style and genre - you get pure adventure in the vein of Salaires de la peur, mystery, comedy, spy thrills, some romance.. or the multitude of vehicles driven by Franz Meersdonk and his colleagues (mostly 18-wheelers, but also the Italian tricycle Piaggio Ape, native Thai trucks, up to a diesel locomotive, a DC3 or a steamboat). Big toys for big boys :^)
Never having seen this show when it was aired on TV, I bought the first three DVD box-sets and after having watched more than half, must say that I'm really addicted to Auf Achse, for the time being. Not every episode is as memorable as others (and the plot elements of "the truck being stolen", "the driver being thrown in jail", "the hitch-hiker they'd better not picked up" occur a little bit too often for my taste), but all in all I was thrilled and fascinated much more than I expected. 9/10. -
It's cult, just cult! Manfred Krug, a well known actor from the eastern part in Germany, personalized this show who lasted for almost 20 years (1978-1996) and contained total 86 episodes of 45', made in 7 seasons, with his superb, herb and very original character as a international truck driver. An absolute must-seen for all Krug-fans (Liebling Kreuzberg, Tatort Inspector Stoever etc.) and for all of those, who'd like to share the exploration of less unknown parts of (east-)europe and even more important, who: ...likes special characters-drawn ...develop sympathy for the charming construction of German TV-series from the late seventies and the eighties Now, the very first season is available on DVD - if you don't know "auf achse" and you're able to understand German: give it a try, it's worth it! For all the others: You know what I'm talking about ;-) 8/10