Manfred Kuechler
Hunter College (CUNY)
Last update: Dec 5, 1998

German Elections Campaign 1998

The German Election of September 1998 ended the reign of Chancellor Helmut Kohl and his CDU after 16 years. The SPD and the Greens were the winners, controlling an absolute majority of the parliamentary seats, and Gerhard Schroeder was elected Chancellor. Schroeder and his SPD campaigned under the theme of "The New Center" -- whatever this is supposed to mean. And while trying to project an image of being modern and ready for the 21st century, their campaign platform was very vague. The following SPD spot was used extensively and is prototypical for the lack of substance in much of the SPD's campaign.

28.8 connection: Web server -- RealServer
56K connection: Web server -- RealServer
"Surestream"(using a RealServer, the server dynamically adjusts the transmission rate -- and thus video/audio quality -- to actual network traffic conditions; but make sure to set your RealPlayer to your "normal" bandwidth, e.g., "LAN" on the Hunter campus, 28 or 56K off campus, in "options/preferences/connection". The down side is that in a bad connection, the transmission may keep going but that video reverts to a series of stills or freezes altogether, while audio keeps playing. With a fixed rate, transmission will temporarily stop. So, there are pros and cons. )

The 28.8 file has 231 KB, the 56K file 381 KB and will show better quality, but you are also more likely to experience problems if traffic on the Internet is heavy. Your best bet is "surestream". The file size here is large (some 3MB compared to over 7MB for the original .mov file), but only part of the file gets actually transmitted -- depending on connection properties. If neither version works, check the troubleshooting page.

Here is the same video (for 28.8 connections) with English subtitles added. These provide a translation of the (hardly legible) German text screens in between the video sequences. Web server -- RealServer

Another example from the SPD campaign is a spot shown mostly in movie theatres. (Unlike in the United States, five to ten minutes of commercials are shown before the screening of the feature film in almost any movie theatre in Germany.) Again, English subtitles have been added. Though largely void of substance, this is one is clever and funny while the first one is just sappy. Web server -- RealServer
A well working 56K connection is needed. A version produced for 28.8 turned out to be of rather poor quality. The 56K is still under 200KB whereas the original quicktime movie (same size) is 2.8MB.

Here are some materials from the PDS campaign:

Complete presentation using a variety of graphic images and the official campaign song (German rap) from the PDS and supplementing it with text (notes on PDS and PDS leaders, lyrics for the rap song). Web server -- RealServer

requires well working 56K connection, when using a modem connection allow 1-2 minutes for the RealPlayer to "connect"

just the song (28.8) Web server -- RealServer
just the images (28.8) Web server -- RealServer -- may even work with a 14.4 connection
images and song with no added text: Web server -- RealServer -- requires basically as much as the complete presentation

More material may be added over time. Also, eventually, all files will be converted to "surestream" format, now that the RealServer is up and running. So, check back soon. Or instruct Netminder (a free service) to watch this page and send you e-mail whenever this page changes.

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