20 years of "Bauer sucht Frau" Inka Bause was "totally scared" at the beginning
A minister called the show "rubbish", the presenter was scared at the beginning: nevertheless, "Bauer sucht Frau" has become a phenomenon. Now the 20th season is underway. Time for a review.
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- Inka Bause has been hosting the RTL show "Bauer sucht Frau" for 20 years, which was originally based on a British format and has now produced almost 50 babies.
- Despite initial skepticism, the show became a success, although it was often criticized for its portrayal of farmers, which, according to Bause, is entertainment and not a documentary.
- Bause continues to maintain close contact with the participants and is passionate about the farmers' wishes, which sometimes leads to unusual scenes.
Things often turn out differently than you think, that's true in love and also - in the job. When Inka Bause was invited to dinner by an RTL employee more than 20 years ago and he suggested a show to her, it was not one she would have expected. "I actually come from a completely different background. I come from music and have hosted shows," says Bause. Now she was supposed to help farmers, often with a broad dialect and a preference for sausage rolls, to find a wife somewhere in Lower Saxony or Northern Hesse.
Today, almost 50 babies have resulted from this program - RTL has counted them. "Bauer sucht Frau" is the name of the format that has been more or less successfully pairing up farmers (and since 2009 also female farmers) for around two decades. And it is now celebrating an anniversary: On Monday (September 30, 8:15 p.m., on RTL+ in advance), the 20th season begins on RTL. Hardly anyone would have believed it would have such staying power at the beginning.
Even presenter Inka Bause, who is still involved, remembers a certain - well - tension in the first few days. Or as she puts it: "I was totally terrified at the beginning." If you watch the first seasons, you can feel it too. "I'm on the farm with these rugged guys and I knew that if they don't accept me, who come from the big city, they'll kick me out in a heartbeat."
"Barn party" and "farm week"
The format, which RTL classifies as "lovetainment", was originally based on a British original ("Farmer Wants a Wife"). It was first broadcast in Germany on October 2, 2005. It is now so well known that anyone who has ever been near the RTL button on their remote control is likely to know the words "barn party" and "farm week". Also because Bauses Bauern has been broadcasting far beyond their farmsteads from the very beginning - there has been criticism, lots of satirical banter, heartbreak stories and even success in the charts.
The sequence of events: In a kind of pilot episode, farmers are introduced who are looking for love. Letters then arrive from potential suitors. The farmers then select candidates from these and invite them to the "barn party". Whoever succeeds there is allowed to come to the farm - sometimes just one candidate, sometimes several. However, the latter option often turns out to be quite tricky. During the "farm week", the farmer and the chosen one ultimately go through the daily work routine together. Scenes from pigsties or wooden farm kitchens are often accompanied by a rather flowery commentary with Rosamunde Pilcher vocabulary, which contrasts with the sometimes clumsiness of the love-struck farmers.
A random example: pig farmer Torsten sits at a snack in the second season and philosophizes in front of contestant Daniela (an "amateur esoteric" according to RTL) for what feels like an eternity about the greatness of minced meat: "For me, minced meat includes a fresh onion that I've just cut myself. That it's not old yet... And um, for me it's practically like schnitzel with chips." Inka Bause off-camera: "Minced meat with onions as a feast. Did Daniela imagine their first meal together differently?" That sounds nice. And at the same time quite threatening.
Inka Bause gets a red throat
After the start, the German Farmers' Association, among others, was outraged. "The series conveys the image of the clumsy farmer," criticized a spokesperson at the time in 2005. Many farmers complained. In 2007, the then Federal Minister of Agriculture Horst Seehofer (CSU) followed up: The program was completely unrealistic. His verdict in an interview with Hit-Radio Antenne Niedersachsen: "From my point of view, it's rubbish."
Inka Bause, on the other hand, can also talk herself into a rage when asked about it. "I feel sorry for anyone who hasn't understood that we're not making a journalistic show. We make entertainment and not a documentary about rural life," she says. "If a chubby farmer wants to go to the spa with his wife, we organize it so that we get realistic pictures and fulfill his wish," she explains. But we don't force it and don't show anyone up.
We listen to what the farmers have in mind. And then sometimes it's the "wellness temple". "He had never been in a jacuzzi before. But he wanted to be filmed lying in a jacuzzi with a woman," says Bause. She finds it "repulsive" to react to this by wrinkling her nose. "I'm already getting a red throat again."
She keeps in touch with her farmers. Some have become very well-known, even with their wives. For example, the "pious dairy farmer" Josef and the Thai woman Narumol. Or shepherd Heinrich, who began a career as a ballroom singer. "When I find out that his barn has burned down again, I call him and ask him how he's doing," says Bause. He is currently having problems again - with bluetongue disease in his sheep.
