Deutschland 83 creator launches prodco

Cold War coming-of-age spy thriller Deutschland 83 sold worldwide

One of the creators and showrunners of German spy drama Deutschland 83 has set up her own production company.

Anna Winger, who together with husband and creative partner Joerg Winger developed the hit series at UFA Fiction, has launched Studio Airlift in Berlin, where she and her team are developing series and other fictional content.

In an interview with German online media magazine DWDL.de, Winger said the company had landed series and film rights to two novels: Deborah Feldman’s Unorthodox, the author’s autobiographical story of her escape from a strict ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect set in New York and Berlin; and Hennie van Vuuren’s Apartheid, Guns & Money, an international thriller about the covert global network spanning some 50 countries that was formed to help South Africa’s Apartheid regime counter international sanctions.

Anna Winger

Studio Airlift is also working on a contemporary half-hour series set in Paris from journalists Pamela Druckerman and Simon Kuper.

The titles are part of a broad range of series and films Winger is planning to develop and produce for the international market, according to DWDL.

Winger said her company would introduce a new way of developing TV series in Germany, explaining that she wanted to emulate the US way of working that sees major series headed by writers. Productions in other parts of the world are currently more commonly spearheaded by non-writing producers.

“Studio Airlift closes this gap and builds passionate teams around projects that will be run by writers,” she said, adding that the company was working closely with streaming services and broadcasters.

Winger originally established Studio Airlift at an office at the site of Berlin’s former Tempelhof Airport, which inspired the company’s name, but it recently moved to another location nearby.

Tempelhof played a vital role in the Berlin Airlift of 1948 to 1949, when Allied planes supplied West Berlin during a Soviet blockade of the city.