As such, the topics discussed by the artists on the show have sometimes had a potential to cause uproar and scandals with contemporary politicians, especially conservative ones like Franz Josef Strauß.

Hildebrandt pitched the idea of the show to Sender Freies Berlin (SFB) in 1980 after his previous program, Notizen aus der Provinz on ZDF, had been canceled.

During that time, several sketches were broadcast that made the show famous, such as Kriegerdenkmal (war memorial), Rhein-Main-Donau-Kanal (Rhine–Main–Danube Canal) or Der Verstrahlte Großvater (the radioactive grandfather).

[7] In 2008, Hildebrandt, who had been holding the rights to the name Scheibenwischer since 1980, forbade the further use of the name for the show because Richling wanted to change the nature of the program to feature more stand-up comedy guests.

[12] Helmut Oeller, the program director for BR, justified the move saying that the sketch Der Verstrahlte Großvater (The Radioactive Grandfather), performed in response to the Chernobyl disaster, contained "non-community-friendly elements".

[2] The controversy triggered people to bring copies of the sketch into Bavaria for private screenings as well as artists refusing to work with BR again, and caused the Munich Abendzeitung to publish excerpts of the script.