Gernstl unterwegs

Reporter Franz X. Gernstl has been on the road for 40 years with his team, cameraman HP Fischer and sound engineer Stefan Ravasz. The programme’s trademark is the red bus in which the three friends explore Bavaria, Germany and the world, on the lookout for interesting people and their stories.

Sometimes it’s about seemingly mundane things like how to make a good pizza, how to repair a classic car or why someone took up his or her profession. In the end, however, it’s usually about the big things in life – happiness, love and death.

Mostly impromptu and without prior notice, Franz X. Gernstl talks to bon-vivants, visionaries, idealists, philosophers and ordinary people. Some of the encounters are funny, some tragic, many are touching. All stories are characterised by something that is increasingly lost in the media: authenticity.

Franz X. Gernstl is a good listener. He does not interrogate people, but gives them time to think, provides a relaxed atmosphere for them to explain their view of the world.

Awards

The team was awarded the Bavarian Television Prize and the Grimme Prize, Germany’s most prestigious prize for television journalism, for their unique reports.