Hand aufs Herz

Hand aufs Herz
Genre	Soap opera
Country of origin	Germany
Original language	German
No. of episodes	115 (as of March 16, 2011)
Original release
Network	Sat.1
Release	October 4, 2010 – present

Hand aufs Herz is a German television soap opera and premiered on October 5, 2010 on the private broadcasting station Sat.1. The show focuses around a fictional high school in Cologne and tackles with the first love, first sex, big feelings, schemes and competition fights. Hand aufs Herz also introduces something completely new to the genre of a soap opera by including music and dance as one of the main elements.

The show already got compared to the successful American television show Glee and the High School Musical franchise, not knowing if that's to believe a good or bad thing.

Hand aufs Herz started two weeks after the failed daily drama Eine wie keine aired its final episode due to low ratings. The show is in direct competition with the long-running soap opera Verbotene Liebe (Forbidden Love) and is starring with Vanessa Jung and Andreas Jancke two of its former stars.

It was created by the writer/producer Petra Bodenbach.

Plot

After finishing her schooling in Munich, Beate Vogel (Vanessa Jung) becomes the new music and singing teacher at her former school, the Pestalozzi comprehensive school. On her first day of work she literally crashes into her new colleague Michael Heisig (Andreas Jancke), leading to a first encounter that begins a journey. Though, not everyone is in happy at the idea of Beate's return to the school where she once was a student. The sports coach turns out to be Bea's former schoolmate Alexandra Lohmann (Verena Mundhenke), who holds Beate responsible for the mysterious disappearance of her sister. Alexandra and the vice principal, Julian Götting (Sebastian Hölz), plot against Bea and her mentor Gabriele Krawcyk (Marie Schneider), the principal of the Pestalozzi comprehensive school. Furthermore, Julian has his own motives in helping Alexandra as he's actively after Gabriele's job.

When Bea takes a look at the school choir, she soon learns that much has changed at her former school. What was once the flagship activity has now been pushed aside by the beach volleyball team. Nevertheless, Beate is excited when she learns that a student, Luzi Beschenko (Selina Müller), wants to form a music study group together with her fellow students Dennis Horstfeld (Dennis Schigiol) and Emma Müller (Kasia Borek). They only need a teacher to supervise the group. With much enthusiasm, Bea decides to make the music study group her first project. Much to the anger of Caro Eichkamp (Sonja Bertram), the it girl of the school and star of the beach volleyball team, who thinks the formation of a music study group will lessen the influence she has at the school. Together with her best friend Sophie (Franciska Friede), she tries to manipulate and expose the newly formed study group.

After a first long day of work, Beate spends the evening at a club called "Chulo’s" with her best friend Miriam (Caroline Maria Frier), the wife of her brother Piet (Oliver Petszokat). This is where she meets the attractive young Ben Bergmann (Christopher Kohn). Bea and Ben spend a passionate night together. However, Beate gets the shock of her life when Ben is introduced to her as one of her new students. A dangerous fiery game begins, in which Ben is still fascinated by Bea, even though she's his teacher.

Cast

Actor	Character	Duration
Sonja Bertram	Caro Eichkamp	2010-
Kasia Borek	Emma Müller	2010-
Ulrich Drewes	Stefan Bergmann	2010-
Franciska Friede	Sophie Klein	2010-
Caroline Maria Frier	Miriam Vogel	2010-
Sebastian Hölz	Julian Götting	2010-2011
Andreas Jancke	Michael Heisig	2010-
Vanessa Jung	Beate Vogel	2010-
Matthias Kofler	Bastian Heisig	2010-
Christopher Kohn	Ben Bergmann	2010-
Amelie Plaas Link	Lara Vogel	2010-
Selina Müller	Luzi Beschenko	2010-
Verena Mundhenke	Alexandra Lohmann	2010-2011
Oliver Petszokat	Piet Vogel	2010-
Lucy Scherer	Jenny Hartmann	2011-
Dennis Schigiol	Dennis "Hotte" Horstfeld	2010-2011
Marie Schneider	Gabriele Krawczyk	2010-
Barbara Sotel	Karin Beschenko	2010-
Rocco Stark	Timo Özgül	2010-
Franziska Traub	Ingrid Jäger	2010-

Reception

The show's first episodes were generally favorable reviewed, with some saying that the project was a bold move while others praised its realistic setting. However, viewers criticized the fact that the show's characters, other than Bea and Ben, showed signs of being stereotypes. Hand aufs Herz debuted with 1.29 million viewers and closed its first week with 1.19 million viewers; giving a constant performance in the ratings. The debut of the soap did not reflect in the ratings of its time-slot competitor Verbotene Liebe (Forbidden Love).