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[Video] Dinner for One: Behind the bizarre German New Year's Eve tradition
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Abi Carter

Editor in chief at IamExpat Media

Abi studied German and History at the University of Manchester and has since lived in Berlin, Hamburg and Utrecht, working since 2017 as a writer, editor and content marketeer. Although she's happily taken on some German and Dutch quirks, she keeps a stash of Yorkshire Tea on hand, because nowhere does a brew quite like home.Read more

[Video] Dinner for One: Behind the bizarre German New Year's Eve tradition

Dec 31, 2020

Tonight, families up and down the country will be switching on their TVs to take part in a long-standing German New Year’s Eve tradition. 

“Same procedure as last year?”

Despite being virtually unknown in the English-speaking world, Dinner for One, a 17-minute, black-and-white slapstick comedy sketch filmed in 1963, has achieved cult status in Germany. It is aired on German public TV channels at least a few times every year, in English and without subtitles - making it the highest-rated TV show in German history, and the most-repeated television programme ever. 

In the video below, Rachel Stewart gets into character to explain all about this peculiar German tradition. 

Video: YouTube / DW Euromaxx

Do you have any unusual New Year’s Eve traditions in your country? Tell us all about them in the comments below!

By Abi Carter