Domino Column: From a Bavarian Rainshower to “Stranger Things”
Small coincidences, big impact. This column traces the crazy domino effects in the media world—whether they begin or end in Bavaria. Today: Why a rain shower in Garmisch-Partenkirchen is responsible for an iconic “Stranger Things” scene.
01 – Summer 1928.
A surrealist painter from Hamburg is wandering around Garmisch. He’s looking for a girl he’s fallen in love with. She’s supposed to live somewhere around here.
02 – He can’t find it.
Then it starts to rain.
03 – The painter flees into a store.
The store is… unusual.
04 – There are silk fabrics from Arabia
– and a capuchin monkey named Jonathan, who’s climbing all over the counter.
05 – But the painter only has eyes for the owner.
06 – The rain doesn’t stop, not even after closing time.
So the woman invites the painter up to her apartment. They talk about art, literature, and philosophy. All night long.
07 – They get engaged that same fall.
Nine months later, her son is born: Michael Ende.
08 – He becomes a writer and publishes *The Neverending Story* in 1979,
one of the most famous German-language fantasy novels.
09 – Four years later, the book is adapted into a movie
– produced by Bernd Eichinger. At the time, it was the most expensive German film ever made.
10 – You need a theme song for the U.S. market.
So they hired Euro-disco pioneer Giorgio Moroder—nicknamed the “Father of Disco.”
11 – Moroder casts an English former boy band singer named Limahl.
He flies to Munich with a hangover and thinks the song “Never Ending Story” is just so-so .
12 – The Movie Is on Fire
yet it remains etched in the memory of an entire generation.
13 – About 30 years later
Two twin brothers from North Carolina want to pay tribute to the cult films of their childhood.
14 – Your idea:
A series that feels like Spielberg is adapting a Stephen King novel for the screen.
15 – That becomes “Stranger Things,”
The nostalgia machine of the streaming era. Everything it touches comes back to life…
16 – … for example, old hits by Limahl.
17 – In the final episode
In the third season, Dustin and Suzie sing the theme song from “The Neverending Story” as a duet over the radio.
18 – The scene goes viral.
Spotify reports an 825 percent increase in streams. In just one week.
19 – And all because it rained in Garmisch in 1928.
