"Königskinder" (2007-2009) - ZDF Documentaries on Europe's Heirs


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Henri M. said:
Constitutionally the Queen of the Netherlands (unlike her other colleagues herself an integral part of the Government and also the formal president of the Council of State, which is not only the highest Court of Administration but also the unavoidable institution in the legislative process) has a more outspoken political profile. She is also not 'neutral' between Government and Opposition like in other countries: she is IN the Government..
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Good point Henri. :) Beatrix is a remarkable public figure. We do hear about Beatrix here in New York because of a wonderful visit she gave to the city awhile back. She is quite a formidable woman. You probably know that New York was founded as New Amsterdam and therefore the Dutch Royal Family keeps friendly ties with the city.

Henri M. said:
The King of the Belgians is also formally more infuential than his Spanish colleague. In the divided country he tends to remain a-political, but these days showed the King stepping into the complicated formation of a new Belgian Government, with own initiatives and talks to revive the stuttering process.
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That is indeed interesting. It looks like not only the Belgian monarchy but the Belgian country is going through massive changes; yet one rarely hears about it outside of Belgium; this program that left off Mathilde and Philippe is a prime example of the inattention the situation is getting and the inattention is not only happening in royal forums but elsewhere in the media.
 
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I watched the series, except the Mary and Frederik part. I have to agree it was very sugary, and I was somehow disappointed, but I should have expected nothing serious. Yes, there is a fairly big group of royalty watchers in Germany, but somehow royalty watching is considered to be a grandmother's hobby :sleep::ermm:, and the only magazines where you can read something about royalty is the yellow press ( and they are well known for new strange headlines every day: Mette-Marit: twins!, Letizia threatened by the queen, Deadly disease for Màxima, and so on).
The only time you see the royal families normaly on TV is for new babies or weddings. So I think the ZDF thought the sugary part of royal life was the main interest of the German TV viewers, and maybe they are right.

Strangel, the didn't inlude a Belgian part in the series, but also the yellow press never writes anything about them. I don't know why this is the case, before I joined the Royal Forums, I only knew that Belgium had a royal family, but never knew of Mathilde, etc; maybe because I never heard my grandmothers talking about them...;):cool:
 
I was wondering if there is another way to watch the videos because everytime I click on video, it shuts down my internet connection.
 
ZDF has a new part of Königskinder. It will be broadcasted on 07-07-2009 at 20:15. It is about William and Kate and called "William and Kate - The prince and the beautiful from the country".

Die Königskinder - ZDF.de
 
As it seems they also got a new part on Victoria & Daniel. It will be aired one week earlier
ZDFroyal - ZDF.de
 
There will be two more parts:

21-07-2009; 20:15
Frederik und Mary - Die perfekte Prinzessin (The perfect princess)

28-07-2009; 20:15
Felipe und Letizia - Die gezähmte Prinzessin (The domesticated princess)
 
I am curious whether these parts are really new or if they just updated the old serious. No doubt the new parts will be as sugary as the old ones, but I'll watch them anyway!
 
Thank you for this information, hoping to be able to see these two series.
 
I watched the first part of the new "Königskinder" episodes and I quite liked it.
I liked how Victoria's and Daniel's lifes were summed up .
(and I loved the elks "Daniel" and "Victoria" :lol:, that was hilarious)
I also liked that the old love stories of the family were mentioned (I absolutely love Bertil's and Lillian's love story).
Brigitta's face looked rather scary to me. :whistling:
All in all it was a nice docu in a classical ZDF Royal style.


Next week they'll show the story of William and Kate.
 
Part 2 (the part of William and Kate) was postponed to 2009-08-25.
 
 
 
I've seen both parts, Victoria and Mary, so far and I am pleased that it's less sugary than the first time around. Even critical topics, like Daniel's future as consort (what will be his "job" / impact of his illness) or Mary's soft spot for luxury lifestyle or attention were mentioned. Much better than last time when everything was so perfect with a happy ending. Whether there will be a happy ending we'll only see in a few decades.

Today is Letizia's turn, in the german media she has been presented for years as the CP who was shut down by the system (the title of today's feature is "the tamed princess") what left her sad / depressed, thin and struggling with the SRF and personal blows like the suicide of her sister Erika (this image fills the pages of the yellow press, week in week out).

Too bad there won't be features on MM & Haakon or WA & Maxi. Why on earth they chose William and Kate, who are not even a confirmed couple, remains a mystery. The only plausible reason is that german people love Diana and as a consequence they love Diana's son. Anyway, the feature has been postponed, maybe there was fear WillsnKate could have broken up in the meantime.
 
Duke of Marmalade, I know another couples who are also matching to the "Königskinder":

Mathilde and Phillippe of Belgium, but the Belgian Royal Family is not so known in Germany like the other main persons of part 01-04.

Sophie and Alois of Liechtenstein, same reasons like the Belgians.
 
principessa said:
Duke of Marmalade, I know another couples who are also matching to the "Königskinder":

Mathilde and Phillippe of Belgium, but the Belgian Royal Family is not so known in Germany like the other main persons of part 01-04.

Sophie and Alois of Liechtenstein, same reasons like the Belgians.
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I agree principessa, the Belgian CP couple is rarely in the media, too "boring" due to the lack of scandals.

There was a feature on the older generation of the BRF because especially Queen Paola and Queen Fabiola are relatively popular or well known in Germany, again for media reasons, Paola has had her share of scandals, rocky marriage and Fabiola is a tragic Saint, married her husband for love but couldn't have children of her own.

I liked the Koenigshaeuser features a lot since not only the Belgians were covered but also Morocco & Jordan what doesn't happen too often.
 
Letizia

Well, I just saw the Letizia&Felipe reportage.

It was pretty interesting as they also showed lots of historical facts (pretty different to the two previous reportages).

Who was that Spanish writer? That "Juan Carlos biographer"...
Wow... it seems like this man truely hates Letizia. :eek:
It was harsh when he called her "the worst possible choice Felipe could make". :nonono:

All in all it was well done. It showed different facets of Letizia... and, thank God, they didn't mention any "weight problems" once. ;)

Compared to the other reportages this one was graver, anyway.
 
Her_Majesty said:
All in all it was well done.
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I agree, I think it was fair, like the other two series before. Not getting lost in clichees but showing the pros and conts. The "sad" image the german press usually supports is as wrong as the "perfect" image other parts of the media are promoting. The truth is probably inbetween and the docu was well balanced. Seems that they learned something after the first series "Königskinder" that was partly pure sugar as if the viewer was completely stupid.
 
Larzen said:
José Apezarena says he did not find Letizia the right choice for Queen of Spain

- I would have not chosen Letizia. She really did not have the right qualifications. Her job, her family, her lack of political education.
-No, I would have not chosen her, I wanted someone like Sofia. But it was the Prince who chose her.”

Felipe had decide to marry him, when the King and queen thought of a profile for a daughter in law, than Im sure they did not think of someone like Letizia
-He insisted on marrying Letizia.
-He just introduced her to his parents. The King took the news well, Queen Sofia needed a more time.
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This surprised me. I thought the Queen was the one who took the news fine but that the King was the one who had problems with Felipe's choice.
 
Her_Majesty said:
Who was that Spanish writer? That "Juan Carlos biographer"...
Wow... it seems like this man truely hates Letizia. :eek:
It was harsh when he called her "the worst possible choice Felipe could make". :nonono:
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He is Jaime Penafiel, what a surprise :eek::lol:. He is a yellow press writer, never a biographer of Juan Carlos or Sofia. This German program doesn't even manage to get the very basics right.
 
donnaK said:
He is Jaime Penafiel, what a surprise :eek::lol:. He is a yellow press writer, never a biographer of Juan Carlos or Sofia. This German program doesn't even manage to get the very basics right.
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my mistake. I was mixing two people up. In the reportage it says "Royalty Expert".
Sorry.
Already wondered why they would make such a mistake... as it was a serious program.

Btw, it seems like Queen Sofia is a Saint for him. He was praising her to the skies.
 
Her_Majesty said:
my mistake. I was mixing two people up. In the reportage it says "Royalty Expert".
Sorry.
Already wondered why they would make such a mistake... as it was a serious program.
my mistake. I was mixing two people up. In Btw, it seems like Queen Sofia is a Saint for him. He was praising her to the skies.
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He has lost his royal connection long time ago (long before Letizia appeared), more a 'royalty gossiper' than a 'royalty expert'.
He really hates Sofia because of his daughter who had drug problems and died of AIDs. He published a book on the marriage of JC and Sofia and JC's infidelity to 'celebrate' his 70th birthday last year. But since he wanted to criticize Letizia, he would praise Sofia to the sky, that's just his style, going extreme. The old man is like a laughing stock in Spain, no longer gets much publicity since the TV show with him got canned due to the lowest rating. If the German TV wanted pros and cons, they should have interviewed Paloma B, who at least talked better than this old man.
Do those German TVs have better things to do than making series on the royals each year ? If they are so interested at royalty, why don't they restore the monarchy themselves instead of gossiping about the others ?
 
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