Seit 1985 versucht das Ensemble der „Lindenstraße“, den deutschen Gegenwartsalltag mit all seinen großen und kleinen Problemen fiktional abzubilden. Dabei werden neben serientypischen Beziehungsdramen um Liebe, Ehe und Tod auch immer wieder kontroverse Themen wie Homosexualität, Drogenmissbrauch, häusliche Gewalt, Vergewaltigung, Fremdenfeindlichkeit, Prostitution oder AIDS behandelt. Dabei wird gelegentlich sogar auf tagesaktuelle Ereignisse wie Bundestagswahlen eingegangen, da diese sonntags, am Aussttrahlungstags der Serie, stattfinden.

Lindenstraße is a German television show on ARD's Das Erste, one of Germany's two publicly administered TV channels. The first episode was aired on 8 December 1985 and since then new episodes have been broadcast weekly. Its current timeslot on Das Erste is Sundays at 18:50. The events of the Sunday episode usually take place on the Thursday before the show, based on the TV station's original plan of airing the episodes Thursday night. Prior of the start of the show, the timeslot was switched to Sunday evening but the Thursday remained the day the events usually take place as the show shall feature the daily life routine of the protagonists on a working day. Exceptions are the so-called holiday episodes that take place on Sunday, such as for Christmas and Easter and also on important election days.

Setting the pace for other soap operas in Germany, the first episodes were met with mostly bad reviews. However, Lindenstraße soon became one of the most successful shows on German TV.