Rediscovering “Was Bin Ich?” - How a Classic German TV Show Reveals the Lost Art of Intelligent Entertainment
In recent weeks, I have been revisiting old episodes of the German television classic “Was bin ich?” (“What Am I?”). As a child and teenager, I used to watch the show regularly. Back then, I found it somewhat old-fashioned, even a little slow but the guessing game itself was exciting enough to keep me engaged. Watching it today, decades later, feels like discovering an entirely different program. For non-German readers, “Was bin ich?” was a long-running panel show in which a group of well-known personalities had to guess a guest’s profession by asking yes-or-no questions. Hosted by Robert Lembke, the format was simple, calm, and rooted in conversation rather than spectacle. There were no flashing lights, no dramatic sound effects, no humiliating stunts - just wit, logic, and respectful curiosity. As a child, I mainly saw the surface: a somewhat dated set, formal clothing, and a tone that felt more like a school lesson than entertainment. Today, I recognize something far more remarkable...