Television: ARD dauerbrenner: “Sturm der Liebe” is 20

Anniversary for the ARD duration burner: “Sturm of Love” is 20 years old and since then has defied all storms in the television industry. On August 1, 2005, the first flap fell into the Bavaria studios in Grünwald near Munich.

At the time, Sepp Schauer would not have thought that this role would accompany him for so long. From day one he can be seen in the series as Alfons Sonnbichler. “Nobody suspected that at the beginning. Only when we were on the air for two to three weeks and gave up the ratings up, we thought, maybe it will follow more than the planned one hundred.”

More than 4,400 have now become. Because the success made the production company and ARD continue. According to the production, there have been more than 347,000 written screen pages, around 12,200 kisses and 600 actresses.

According to the information, the series was called 151 million times in the ARD Mediathek in 2024. Producer Peter Proske-Clayton calls the odds on linear television well and stable.

According to ARD, the series had an average of 878,000 spectators in the first in the first half of 2025, which corresponds to a market share of 10.6 percent. For the 14 to 49-year-olds, the market share was 4.3 percent.

“Tempesta d’Amore” and “Le Tourbillon de l’Amour”

“However, the current number of calls in the media library and the linear quota have taken together that” Sturm der Liebe “is a persistently large series success,” says the broadcaster. The series was sold in 51 countries: in Italy “Tempesta d’AMORE”, in Belgium “Le Tourbillon de l’amour”.

“The aim of the then producer and creator Bea Schmidt was to oppose the afternoon program dominated by court shows and talk formats an emotional, fictional alternative in which the focus is on heart’s heat,” says the current producer, who was still a production manager when it started at the time. “A hotel as a setting offered the ideal backdrop right from the start – a lively microcosm in which humans work, live, meet, encounter, argue, reconcile and fall in love.”

Explosion in the “Fürstenhof” had a practical reason

And sometimes it also pops: in 2011 a bomb and the “Fürstenhof” hotel exploded in flames. The practical reason behind the drama: by switching from SD to HD, more beautiful backdrops were necessary. In addition, the “Marienhof” was discontinued at the time – and the large studio that the ARD series had occupied.

However, one should not change the series much, says Proske-Clayton: “The recipe for success is a clear dramaturgy: Each season begins with a new dream couple, with two people who are intended for one another, but do not yet know. On the way to the big dream wedding, they have to overcome numerous obstacles. It is a modern fairy tale that we tell-but one with heart, depth and always new turns.”

The new season is also no exception: this time the down -to -earth gardener Fanny Schätzl (Johanna Graen) and the charismatic chef Kilian Rudloff (Anthony Paul) have to find each other. The 22nd season of “Sturm der Liebe” is expected to be broadcast from the end of October.

Schauer describes what he thinks is the success concept of the series, so: “In our stories, everyone will find something, whether you are young, grown up or older.” His figure is not the only one who is there right from the start. This also applies to his series wife Hildegard, played by Antje Hagen.

And it also applies to two strange birds: since the first season, two owls have been part of the inventory of the break room. They were probably placed there by an accident – and were so well received by the audience that they are still on the table even after 20 years.