Polizeiruf 110: Six exciting facts about the cult format

Police call 110
Six exciting facts about the cult format

Lieutenant Grawe (Andreas Schmidt-Schaller, right) and Captain Beck (Günter Naumann, 2nd from right) researching manuscripts in “Police Call 110: The Crossword Puzzle Case”.

© MDR / DRA / Wolfram Zeuch

The “Polizeiruf 110” is one of the most popular crime series and will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2021. Six exciting facts about the cult format.

On June 27, 1971, a format started in the GDR that has long since achieved cult status: The “Polizeiruf 110” was intended as a counterpart to the West German “Tatort” and quickly developed into a TV hit. It is one of the few GDR formats, next to the “Sandmännchen”, which was able to establish itself in all German television programs after the fall of the Wall. In 2021 the “Polizeiruf 110” celebrates its 50th anniversary. On this occasion: Six exciting facts about the Sunday crime format.

“Polizeiruf 110”: focus on living room furniture

In “Polizeiruf 110”, minor crimes were on the agenda in GDR times. Instead of chasing after murderers, it was mostly theft, burglary or fraud. This should suggest an ideal world in which there are no capital crimes. A prime example of this is “Polizeiruf 110: The Missing Lords” from 1974. In it, the police officers had to solve the theft of living room furniture from a furniture store. Today one could hardly lure crime fans in front of the screens with such a case.

To this day, the cases in “Polizeiruf 110” are usually no big boobs. In contrast, explosions and wild shootings at Hamburg’s “Tatort” commissioner Nick Tschiller (Til Schweiger, 57) are almost standard, and Wiesbaden’s “Tatort: ​​Born in Pain” (2014) holds a record with around 50 fatalities in 90 minutes. In the early days of “Polizeiruf 110”, police investigative work was also in the foreground. What the commissioners did after work was mostly hidden.

No permanent team of investigators during the GDR era

While there are permanent teams today such as Inspector Alexander Bukow (Charly Hübner, 48) – at least for one last case in the coming year – and profiler Katrin König (Anneke Kim Sarnau, 49) at the “Polizeiruf 110”, saw that in GDR times different. The teams were put together by chance, which is why there were 120 commissioners in the 391 episodes (including the anniversary episode on May 30).

With a total of 84 cases, Captain Fuchs (Peter Borgelt, 1927-1994), who investigated from 1971 to 1991, was most frequently seen on “Police Call 110”. Followed by Lieutenant Huebner (Jürgen Frohriep, 1928-1993) who was seen in 64 cases between 1972 and 1991. Herbert Schmücke (Jaecki Schwarz, 75) and Herbert Schneider (Wolfgang Winkler, 1943-2019) went on the hunt for criminals in Halle after the fall of the Wall (1996-2013) and ended up in third place with 50 cases.

Real criminal cases in “Polizeiruf 110”

A special feature of the “Polizeiruf 110” in GDR times was the fact that many of the consequences were based on real criminal cases. For example “The Crossword Puzzle Case” from 1988. In it, director Thomas Jacob (78) drew one of the most famous crimes in the GDR with investigators Thomas Grawe (Andreas Schmidt-Schaller, 75) and Günter Beck (Günter Naumann, 1925-2009) -History after.

A seven-year-old boy disappeared in Halle-Neustadt without a trace. His body was later found in a suitcase that contained old newspapers with crossword puzzles filled in. By evaluating over 500,000 written samples, the commissioners were finally able to convict the perpetrator. To this day, the “Polizeiruf 110” episode is one of the best known in the history of the format. The “Polizeiruf 110: The Crossword Puzzle Case” is available in the ARD media library until June 24th.

That costs a Sunday crime episode

Every year 43 to 48 new “Tatort” and “Polizeiruf 110” episodes run on Sunday evening at Das Erste. As the public broadcaster announced in 2019, the average price per minute for a 90-minute crime novel is 18,500 euros gross. That means: almost 1.7 million euros are due per case.

A “crime scene” commissioner in “Polizeiruf 110”

Til Schweiger (57) has been slipping into the role of Hamburg commissioner Nick Tschiller in “Tatort” since 2013. But the actor was also in front of the camera for a “Police Call 110”. In the 1995 smoldering fire, he played inspector Martin Markwardt, who himself became the perpetrator during the film.

Special gift for the 50th anniversary

That brings it to the 50th “Polizeiruf 110” anniversary Federal Ministry of Finance issued a special postage stamp in the series “German TV Legends”. It shows a scene from the opening credits. This is to honor the long running time of the format, the special history and the great popularity. The 95-cent stamp will be available from the Deutsche Post AG from November 2nd.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary on May 30th (8:15 pm, the first) the “Polizeiruf 110: An der Saale hellem Strande” with the new team of investigators Henry Koitzsch (Peter Kurth, 64) and Michael Lehmann (Peter Schneider, 46) from Halle.

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