File number XY… unsolved

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Television series
Original title File number XY… unsolved
File number XY Logo 2014.svg
Country of production Germany
original language German
Year (s) since 1967
Production
company
ZDF
Securitel Film + Fernsehproduktions- und Verlagsgesellschaft mbH
length about 90 minutes
Episodes 547 and 15 special editions
Broadcasting
cycle
twelve times a year
(Wednesdays, 8:15 p.m.)
genre True crime
Director Kurt Grimm , Thomas Pauli , Robert Sigl , Utz Weber , Günter Mitgutsch , Michael Bentele , Kerstin Ahlrichs (contributions)
idea Eduard Zimmermann
production Martin Gross
music Heinz Kiessling
Ernst August Quelle
camera Ivan Minov
Moderation

Former moderators:

First broadcast October 20, 1967 on ZDF
Former logo up to episode 487 of October 29, 2014

File number XY… unsolved (also just file number XY , file number or XY ) is the title of a TV series that started in 1967 on ZDF . From 1968 to 2003 it was created as a Eurovision program in cooperation with ORF and SRF . The aim of the program is to solve real crimes . The broadcast is one of the oldest ZDF formats.

format

With the help of spectator notices, unexplained crimes are to be cleared up in the context of public searches. For this purpose, three to six unsolved criminal cases are presented to viewers in each broadcast in the form of about ten-minute filmic reconstructions ( film cases ) in which the facts determined by the police are illustrated. In addition, cases are dealt with in which faded-in photos of people, phantom images or images of striking objects are used to search for criminals or the identity of unknown dead ( studio cases ). Spectator references can be given by telephone or the Internet. According to the editorial team, an average of around 40 percent of the broadcast cases are cleared up.

Rubrics

In addition to the main purpose of dealing with unresolved criminal cases, the program is also divided into smaller sub-headings:

  • File number XY ... resolved - Cases from previous broadcasts that were cleared up by the police are discussed. As a rule, a short clip of scenes from the episode in question is shown for illustration. It also explains how the investigation came about and what the police investigations have revealed.
  • File number XY… update - In this section, viewers are brought up to date with the latest investigations in cases that have already been dealt with. These are still unsolved, but there have been decisive changes in the investigation. So z. B. incorrect investigative approaches excluded or new ones are taken up.
  • File number XY… Top wanted - People are searched (mostly fraudsters or pedophile sex offenders). In this section, no cinematic reconstructions are prepared for the searches.
  • File number XY ... international - In this section the XY editorial team cooperates with foreign police stations. Criminal cases are shown that have happened abroad. Most of them, however, have a connection to Germany.
  • Aktenzeichen XY… Prevention - The audience is informed about the current behavior of criminals and how one can protect oneself from them.
  • File number XY… query - This rubric appears at the end and often also in the middle of the broadcast time. In relation to the received information from viewers, a first balance is drawn by Alfred Hettmer from LKA Bayern , who has been involved in the program since 1986 and is in charge of the recording studio.

history

Moderators

The broadcast began on October 20, 1967. The originator of the format and first moderator was Eduard Zimmermann . After the 300th episode, he handed the broadcast over to Butz Peters on October 24, 1997 , who presented it together with Zimmermann's daughter Sabine Zimmermann , who had been in the Unterföhring studio alongside Zimmermann since the 200th XY episode (November 6, 1987) Presented searches and also acted as production manager. Rudi Cerne has been moderating the show since January 18, 2002 .

broadcast

With the file number XY ... unsolved , Eduard Zimmermann created a world first in collaboration with ZDF in 1967. It is true that news broadcasts had already searched for perpetrators with photos and phantom images ; The first manhunt of this kind was on the Paul Nipkow television station in 1938, where the coat left behind by a murderer was shown. As a separate broadcast format, searches were still unknown.

Zimmermann came up with the idea for the show while working on his series, which started in 1964, Caution trap! , in which he warned viewers of current fraudulent schemes with replayed scenes (subtitle: Nepper-Schlepper-Bauernfänger ) and then often received corresponding personal descriptions and information about fraudsters from the audience. That gave him the idea of ​​dealing with unsolved crimes in cooperation with the criminal police in a separate program, in the caution trap! Mailings from the first few years were actually searched for specific perpetrators with photos and names - up to the introduction of file number XY. Eduard Zimmermann also confessed to having become the victim of a fraudster himself and to have drawn his motivation for these programs from this. For the first time, on June 7, 1968, a murder case was solved with the help of spectators, the murder of Dr. Boll. The previously unknown perpetrator was arrested just twelve hours after XY was broadcast .

From the fourth edition (March 15, 1968), the ORF , from January 13 (24 January 1969) also the Swiss television (SRG, later SF DRS), participated in the production and broadcasting of the program. Thus XY aired for the first time as the Euro Vision broadcast. Since January 17, 1975 the program has been broadcast in color. For this occasion, a new title leader and a new decoration were introduced. In the years that followed, however, the moderator described the colors of evidence or other objects shown for search purposes very precisely, as black and white televisions were still in use in many households.

As part of the broadcast, other technical possibilities were used quite early on, for example, telephone numbers were set up in cooperation with the Bundespost and Telekom , under which viewers could listen to tapes with recorded perpetrator voices. In 1996, an Internet address was first referred to under which the Police had released information on a case. The show got its own internet presence a year later.

Filming (under Kurt Grimm) of a bank robbery for a film case in Munich, 1998

The program was initially produced from Hall 1A in the ZDF studios in Wiesbaden Unter den Eichen, and then from September 12, 1969 in the studios of the ZDF subsidiary FSM in Unterföhring , today's Bavaria Studios . Since then, the spectator phone can be reached at Munich 95 01 95. From the first broadcast until the end of 1998 , the studio was in charge of the Federal Film Prize winner Kurt Grimm , who during this time also directed hundreds of film cases and played a key role in determining the scripts.

The title and suspense music for the film cases was composed for many years by Heinz Kiessling and, in the early days, by Ernst August Quelle . The speakers were mostly Wolfgang Grönebaum (1967–1989), Isolde Thümmler (1985–2005), Michael Brennicke (1989–2003, 2006–2019), Marion Hartmann (1992), Joachim Höppner (2001–2006), Leon Rainer (2011 –2012), Hansi Jochmann (since 2014) and Christian Baumann (since 2019).

On the occasion of the 100th broadcast, Aktenzeichen XY… unsolved on October 7, 1977, Eduard Zimmermann received the Federal Cross of Merit from Federal President Walter Scheel . On June 16, 1986, Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker awarded Zimmermann the Federal Cross of Merit, 1st Class.

To mark the 30th anniversary of the television program, ZDF broadcast a special program moderated by Frank Elstner in 1997 , which, in conversation with Eduard Zimmermann, presented four particularly spectacular cases in the series based on the respective original wanted films and, in short clips, reproduced their clarification with details that were re-enacted had held back so far. The original film cases have been shortened slightly and the names of those involved have been changed; Grönebaum spoke some of the texts anew for this purpose.

On November 8, 2002 - after 35 years of XY  - the 350th program was broadcast. In this anniversary episode, Eduard Zimmermann was once again a guest on his show at Rudi Cerne, in order to make a new attempt to solve the murder case Ursula Herrmann (1981), which he said was particularly close to his heart.

With the issue on December 6, 2002, the participation of Austrian television ended; a year later, on December 5, 2003, Swiss television also dropped out. Since then, the program has only been broadcast in Germany, but can still be received via satellite and cable in Austria and Switzerland .

On Saturday afternoons from October 16, 2004 and 2005, the prevention magazine XY ... Sicherheitscheck was broadcast twelve times as a supplement to the wanted program.

From October 27, 2005 to 2007, XY was broadcast twelve times a year instead of the previous ten. Since July 5, 2007, XY has been broadcast in the 16: 9 aspect ratio . In connection with major program changes, ZDF returned to ten issues a year from February 20, 2008, but extended the broadcasting time to 90 minutes. Due to the good audience ratings in 2008, twelve episodes have been broadcast per year since 2009, with unchanged broadcasting time.

On May 10, 2007, ZDF broadcast the 400th XY episode. Eduard Zimmermann , Sabine Zimmermann , Butz Peters , Konrad Toenz , Werner Vetterli and Stephan Schifferer appeared as guests in the studio . The 500th program aired on October 14, 2015.

Since January 2010, the XY broadcasts have been repeated in the late evening as a recording in the ZDFneo program and later also in the ZDF main program.

The general awareness of the show and its distinctive features meant that it was repeatedly the subject of parodies , for example by Loriot or, more recently, the Today show .

Special editions

File number XY… unsolved - Special - Where is my child?

Since 2011 there has been a special issue once or twice a year with the title Aktenzeichen XY ... unsolved - Special - Where is my child? broadcast, which deals solely with cases of minors or young adults reported missing.

File number XY… unsolved - special - beware, fraud!

On October 26, 2016, a special issue with the title Aktenzeichen XY ... unsolved - special - caution, fraud! only with cases that can be assigned to the topic of prevention .

File number XY… unsolved - special - caution, vacation trap!

On May 30, 2018, a special issue with the title Aktenzeichen XY ... unsolved - special - caution, vacation trap! exclusively with cases that can be assigned to the topic of prevention for vacation and travel.

File number XY ... solved

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the show, there was a first special issue on November 15, 2017 with the title Aktenzeichen XY ... solved . Like the sub-heading of the same name, the show was exclusively devoted to resolved cases from 50 years. Other special editions with this title were broadcast on November 28, 2018 and July 15, 2020. Criminal psychologist Lydia Benecke was a guest on all programs and analyzed the solved criminal cases from a scientific and psychological perspective together with Rudi Cerne.

Recording studios

In addition to the main moderation, there were always so-called recording studios, in which the audience notices, mostly received by telephone, were recorded and checked. The German recording studio in Wiesbaden (1967–1969) or Unterföhring ( district of Munich ; referred to as "Studio Munich") was initially headed by Peter Hohl , from 1979 by Irene Campregher and from November 6, 1987 by Sabine Zimmermann . Alfred Hettmer from LKA Bayern has been in charge since 2002 .

When Austrian television entered the series in 1968 and Swiss television in 1969, these countries also got their own recording studios. The recording studio in Vienna was initially taken over by Teddy Podgorsky ; from December 10, 1971 until ORF left the company in 2002, it was headed by Peter Nidetzky . The recording studio in Zurich was first managed by Werner Vetterli , from January 16, 1976 by Konrad Toenz and from 1998 until the SRG left in 2003 by Stephan Schifferer . On July 18, 1969, Dutch television and radio were represented with journalist Johan van Minnen through their own recording studio in Enschede . The Dutch viewers were able to receive simultaneous translations of the wanted texts in Dutch on the radio parallel to the German television broadcast (which operated under the title Dossier XY on Dutch television ). Due to the high language barriers, the project was immediately abandoned. Experience showed, however, that the program enjoyed a certain popularity even without special recording studios in the German-speaking border regions and neighboring countries, as reports from these areas were repeatedly received or searches for people who had gone there were successful.

The DFF had his own recording studio for a short time. For the first time, Eduard Zimmermann welcomed the recording studio in Berlin-Adlershof in the XY broadcast on October 5, 1990, two days after German reunification , which was headed by Annette Judt . After only five broadcasts, however, this ceased to exist with the end of the DFF in February 1991. After the DFF was dissolved, on March 8, 1991, on the former DEFA site in Potsdam - Babelsberg, a telephone reception point was set up under the direction of Monika Runge for the Shipment installed. It was needed because the telephone connections between the old and new federal states were still inadequate; after the expansion of the telephone network, it was no longer necessary.

Audience reactions

After one of the people wanted there had been arrested immediately after the first broadcast, the spontaneous idea was to announce this first success of XY in the ZDF program on the same evening (apart from the queries in the recording studios during the broadcast) . In this way, the audience reactions arose (also called late broadcast , result broadcast or the second part of the broadcast ), in which later in the evening the first developments in the searches of the main broadcast were informed. Occasionally, only vague information was deliberately given about individual cases in order not to endanger the investigation. The late-night program was also used to respond to requests made by viewers by telephone, such as showing phantom images of wanted perpetrators again or replaying recorded perpetrator voices. The mostly 10-minute reviews were only broadcast live on ZDF and then broadcast on ORF and SF DRS at different times.

In the first late broadcasts, Eduard Zimmermann asked the recording studios in Vienna and Zurich about the results by phone; later a still image followed via an image line. As the technology also improved, direct image transmission followed from 1997 without a still image.

After the withdrawal of Swiss television, audience reactions were also discontinued at the end of 2003 . Since then, the first results can only be read later in the evening on the web portal founded by Zimmermann and, since October 2008, in parallel on ZDF teletext.

Balance (2017)

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the program in October 2017, a balance was drawn (as of August 1, 2017): In the previous 500 episodes since 1967, 4586 cases had been dealt with. 1853 of these could be clarified, which corresponds to a success rate of 40.4%. A total of 2319 perpetrators were arrested.

Almost every third XY case was a homicide . Of the 1502 deaths presented so far, 623, i.e. 41.5%, could be resolved over the years. In second place in the statistics are robbery cases (1287 cases, 31.1% resolved), followed by fraud (589 cases, 59.7% resolved), attempted homicides (230 cases, 41.4% resolved), and sexual offenses (182 cases , 41.9% resolved) and missing persons cases (143 cases, 33.6% resolved).

As part of the searches from Germany, cases from North Rhine-Westphalia (817 cases, 39.6% resolved) were most frequently treated, followed by Bavaria (544 cases, 45.4% resolved) and Hesse (509 cases, 37.0% resolved) ). A total of 3604 cases were treated, 39.5% of which could be resolved.

In the case of non-German searches, Austria ranks first with 469 cases (41.1% clarified), followed by Switzerland with 463 cases (47.5% clarified). The Netherlands also presented 15 cases in XY (20.0% resolved).

Special occurrences

  • It happens again and again that criminal cases that occurred in summer have to be re-enacted in winter for organizational reasons, so that the actors can sometimes be seen in a snow-covered landscape, even though the reconstructed crime was committed in summer - or vice versa. These deviations are usually pointed out by the moderator.
  • In order not to make the perpetrators aware of the search in advance (and also for reasons of cost), the film reconstructions are usually not shot at the original locations. Exceptions are only made for locations with unique features that can only be found there, e.g. B. at the Theodor-Heuss-Brücke over the Rhine between Ludwigshafen and Mannheim, where the footpath that can only be found there in this form between the lanes of the motorway played a role.
  • Unknowingly, several cases of presumably feigned crimes have been shown over the years.
  • In older programs, when reconstructing crimes, dialects were sometimes deliberately spoken that matched the location of the incident. Sometimes, however, it also happened that actors inadvertently fell into their own dialect, although this was not at all appropriate for the location of the crime (e.g. the depicted Hamburg police officers - but with a Munich tone).
  • Another special feature of older programs is the great reluctance to portray elements of an act that belong in the sexual field, e.g. For example, prostitution, homosexuality or adultery are often only very indirectly circumscribed and not explicitly addressed, according to the moral ideas of the time.
  • The most distant cases that were ever presented on the program concerned the time of National Socialism : Once the shooting of French prisoners by German soldiers in Caen prison on June 6, 1944 (dealt with in the program of February 20, 1981) on others the murder of the family of a cousin of Albert Einstein , which was shown in the broadcast of February 23, 2011 , presumably also by German soldiers, in August 1944. However, the crime was not cleared up by the information after the broadcast. A third case of this kind, broadcast on June 1, 1979, was about the search for a witness who had been imprisoned as a prisoner in the Neuengamme concentration camp and had witnessed the murder of two small children there. Also after the camp doctor Aribert Heim , known as "Dr. Tod" , who went into hiding in 1962, was searched on January 17, 1986 on the broadcast. Finally, the broadcast of May 12, 1989, looked for Gottfried Weise , who had been convicted in 1988 for his work in the Auschwitz concentration camp , but then went into hiding.

1967

  • The very first case to be solved was the unplanned studio case in the first broadcast on October 20, 1967, in which a milking machine fraudster was wanted. He was arrested after just a few minutes, as reported in the following broadcast.

1968

  • The first murder to be solved with the help of this program was the murder of the publisher Bernhard Boll . The case aired in the sixth episode on June 7, 1968.

1969

  • In the broadcast of March 7, 1969, this was also used extensively for prevention for the first time by showing various common methods used by later burglars to scout houses and apartments.
  • In the April 11, 1969 broadcast, one of the three film cases dealt with the fourfold murder of Lebach soldiers . A spectator led the police on the right track. It was the well-known fortune teller Madame Buchela who recognized a visitor by the false name used. The two perpetrators were arrested two weeks after the broadcast.

1970

1971

  • On June 4, 1971, Danish television took over a film from the XY show .

1972

  • On July 14, 1972, the American soldier broadcaster AFN / TV in Germany took part in case number XY ... unsolved by taking over and translating a wanted movie.

1973

  • On March 12, 1973, the justice ministers of the federal and state governments passed a general order on the use of publication organs for the search for persons involved in criminal prosecution. The Conference of Interior Ministers then passed the same ordinance for the police authorities. Both guidelines confirmed the cooperation between the file number XY ... unsolved and the investigative authorities in Germany, which has been in force since the start of the series .
  • In the broadcast of August 10, 1973, the problem arose that certain acts were not punishable in all three countries of the broadcasting area and therefore the wanted searches could not be broadcast in all three countries for legal reasons. This was solved by dealing with a studio case (search for a suspected gold smuggler) in the late broadcast (which was only broadcast live in Germany), and when the late broadcast was later broadcast in Austria and Switzerland, the search was then cut out.

1976

  • In June 1976, 17 founding members founded the White Ring on the initiative of Eduard Zimmermann . The association works for crime victims and tries to improve their legal, social and economic situation. Zimmermann was elected first chairman, in the first few years after the foundation, file number XY ... occasionally reported unresolved about the work of the association and the help given to crime victims.

1980

  • There was a technical malfunction in the broadcast on May 16, 1980. At the moment when Eduard Zimmermann asked his Swiss colleague Konrad Toenz about the first results, the sound was switched to the broadcast of a soccer game between Hamburger SV and Eintracht Braunschweig . The commentator just announced with a loud “Goal! Goal! “The goal to make it 1-0 for Hamburg. This error was shown again in the late broadcast by Eduard Zimmermann and it was pointed out that it was a technical problem.

1984

  • In the broadcast of September 7, 1984, Eduard Zimmermann pointed out that an ever-expanding technology was helping with the search: A hotel employee had recorded the previous broadcast with a video recorder and watched it later, whereupon she reported a decisive tip.

1985

  • There was a particularly surprising solution in the case of a young woman who had disappeared, for whom the January 11, 1985 program had searched in vain. At the time, the police assumed that she must have fallen victim to a crime - 31 years later, however, it turned out by chance that the person wanted had voluntarily gone into hiding and had lived under a false name in a major German city until she was discovered.

1989

  • In the broadcast of April 7, 1989, a robbery was re-enacted in a film case, in which the perpetrator cut off the victim's thumb with secateurs to obtain a thumb ring. The victim from the Bonn area, referred to as Jochen K., may have wanted to defraud his insurance company of a seven-figure disability pension by means of self-mutilation . After several trials, DM 900,000 was  paid out instead of the maximum possible DM 4.5 million.
  • The first 15 minutes of the broadcast on June 9, 1989 were not broadcast due to the live broadcast of a tennis match in Germany. At the end of the broadcast there was a summary of the missed quarter of an hour.

1990

  • The broadcast on October 5, 1990 saw the establishment of an additional recording studio in Berlin under the direction of Annette Judt for the areas of the five new federal states of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) that had joined the Federal Republic two days earlier . With the discontinuation of German television broadcasting , the studio was saved again in the March 1991 edition; instead, for technical reasons, a telephone exchange was set up in Potsdam for viewers from the former GDR. When the telephone connections between the old and new federal states were expanded accordingly, the telephone reception area was also closed in mid-1993 (last used in the broadcast on July 9, 1993).

1992

  • In 1992 Donald Stellwag was falsely identified as a bank robber because of the great resemblance to the perpetrator in the surveillance images on the basis of the recordings of a surveillance camera broadcast on XY on April 10, 1992 and later sentenced to eight years in prison, which he served as an alleged "crime denier" under more stringent conditions. It was not until 2001, after his release from prison, that the miscarriage of justice was recognized and the real perpetrator arrested.
  • The case, broadcast on February 7, 1992, of a 25-year-old woman allegedly kidnapped from Frankfurt Central Station and sexually abused for three days, for the solution of which an elaborate model of the basement rooms she described, turned out to be a few years later, after the alleged admission Sacrifice itself, as completely made up.
  • For the 250th broadcast on November 6, 1992, the Federal Criminal Police Office in Wiesbaden in cooperation with the US Federal Police FBI and the sister program America's Most Wanted after William Bradford Bishop jr. wanted. In the same program Zimmermann took stock: In 25 years, 2182 cases were broadcast, of which 905 were cleared up. In many of these cases, the police were at the end of their usual methods, so that the public search became the last hope of an investigation.

1994

  • In some cases a crime has been resolved between the completion of the film reconstruction and the broadcast of the program. Sometimes the finished film was then shown anyway as a preventive measure, e.g. B. in the broadcast of June 10, 1994, where a bank robber was caught shortly before the broadcast. The film then served as a warning to viewers.

2001

  • On January 19, 2001, the boxer Axel Schulz was the guest of Aktenzeichen XY ... unsolved . He represented the White Ring's “force against violence” campaign against juvenile delinquency . In their favor, Schulz auctioned off his signed boxing gloves.
  • In the program, people were also repeatedly sought to help investigate crimes with a terrorist connection. The terrorist offense with the highest number of fatalities in the history of the broadcast was an international studio case on the October 12, 2001 broadcast. Several people were wanted in connection with the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 with a total of almost 3,000 deaths in several locations in the United States.

2004

  • On April 29, 2004 Sebastian Krumbiegel , singer of the group Die Prinzen , was a guest at XY . He was himself a victim of a violent crime and has been committed to the XY Prize ever since.

2008

  • In the broadcast of February 20, 2008, XY, in cooperation with the FBI, was looking for the US criminal James J. Bulger and his partner. Shortly after the broadcast of video recordings from a surveillance camera, which allegedly should show Bulger and his partner, it turned out that the recordings showed an innocent vacationing couple from Germany.

2012

  • On April 19, 2012, the actor Aaron Defant , who played a jewel thief active in Kirn on the March 14, 2012 broadcast , was recognized as an alleged perpetrator in Stuttgart and checked by the police.
  • In the broadcast on September 5, 2012, 38 minutes, a little less than half of the 90-minute broadcast time, were dedicated to the kidnapping and murder of the banker's wife Maria Bögerl in 2010; The corresponding clip was 27 minutes long, the longest in the history of the show up to that point. Editor-in-chief Ina-Maria Reize explained: “In order to do justice to the Bögerl case, it cannot be presented in ten minutes.” More than 200 reports were received by noon on September 6th. The show had the largest market share that evening, with 19.7% and 5.85 million viewers. In the broadcast on April 5, 2017, the Bögerl case was dealt with again because an unknown man had confessed to the crime to witnesses. The suspect was arrested that night. However, a DNA analysis only a few hours later showed that he was out of the question as the perpetrator.
  • On October 31, 2012, XY searched for the identity of a male water body that was discovered in 2011 near Xanten on the Lower Rhine. However, the information on the body size of the deceased made on the basis of forensic medical examinations turned out to be incorrect, as an incorrect formula from a textbook for forensic medicine was used for their calculation. Although the person was significantly smaller than stated during his lifetime, a reference to the audience led to the clarification of the identity of the man who, according to the criminal police, had committed suicide.

2013

  • On August 7, 2013, the most elaborate and longest single player at just under 30 minutes was shown. This thematizes the bank robbery in a Steglitz branch of the Berliner Volksbank on January 14, 2013. Presumably several perpetrators had dug a 40 meter long tunnel from an underground car park into the bank and then robbed the lockers of private individuals.
  • On October 16, 2013, ZDF broadcast the longest episode of XY to date from 8:15 p.m. to 10:15 p.m. The broadcast dealt with the case of Madeleine McCann , then three years old, who disappeared in Portugal in 2007 for around 30 minutes . Their parents and an investigator from Scotland Yard were also guests in the studio. The audience was 7.26 million viewers, the market share was 24.3 percent and it was the most watched program of the day.
  • During the broadcast on December 18, 2013, strangers apparently tried to prevent the recording of clues via the telephone system in the studio. Within the first 30 minutes of transmission, 700 calls were received from just two telephone lines. Obviously there is a connection to the fact that shortly before the broadcast the topic of advance payment fraud was taken up. Here, the victims are made false promises of profit over the phone in order to later force them to transfer money with reference to various fees, taxes, customs, etc.

2015

  • In August 2015, there was a controversy surrounding the search for a black sex offender, a young woman raped had: The editors at first decided for now not to broadcast this case, since one instrumentalization of the crime of propaganda against because of the color of the perpetrator refugees feared . After criticism from the public and the police, it was finally decided to broadcast.

2016

  • The broadcast on October 5, 2016 searched for a young man for bodily harm resulting in death , who had knocked down a senior in June 2015 after a banal argument on the street. After the senior fell into a coma, he succumbed to his head injuries a few weeks later. The perpetrator, who was not aware that he had ultimately killed the man by the blow, followed file number XY on television that evening and recognized himself; The next day he turned himself in to the police.

2019

  • In a studio case of the show on June 5, 2019, which dealt with the attack on a casino operator in the middle of Berlin in November 2018, a possible connection to "a well-known family clan" was indicated. The responsible production company spoke in a press release of a connection to the so-called Abou Chaker clan . The responsible Berlin police were annoyed with this speculation that had not been agreed upon and tried to clear up the matter. The production company relied on a corresponding report in the Bild newspaper , which speculated about the connection, which the producers finally presented as a fact.
  • In the broadcast on September 18, 2019, viewers were shown the body photo of a man unknown to the police for several seconds with the intention of clarifying his identity. For further discussion of the case, only a drawing of his face was then used. The reason for this was that the investigators found the discrepancy between photo and drawing too big for the audience and hoped that this would give them a greater chance of obtaining clues - but this approach also met with criticism. In the past, however, photos of the dead had already been shown several times (e.g. in the first broadcast in 1967).

criticism

Right from the start, and increasingly in the first two decades of its broadcast, the format met with critical voices in parts of the press and public, including those of the television series “Manhunt”, the promotion of denouncing , discrimination against minorities, stirring up fears and the instrumentalization of crimes for entertainment purposes. Advocates of the show, however, referred to the strict objectivity of the search contributions and the constant close cooperation with the investigating authorities.

Eduard Zimmermann himself published in 1969 under the title The invisible network (see section “Literature”) a documentation of the cases dealt with in the program up to that point and also dealt with the criticism of the format.

The rejection of the program concept on the part of the West German student movement in connection with the extensive reporting on the terrorism of the German autumn at times led to the need for police protection for Eduard Zimmermann in the 1970s .

The criminologist and criminal law expert Arthur Kreuzer criticized in 1995 by the example of the search for a non returned from a parole offenders, who in the meantime rehabilitated was the disproportion and the possible abuse as "convenient for investigators method".

Recently, the increasingly emotional design of the special programs Where is my child? criticized. The inclusion of relatives of the victims through (understandably) emotionally charged appearances in the program is also viewed critically, for example in the case of Maria Bögerl , where the husband and children appealed to the kidnapper to release his victim.

On the occasion of the 500th broadcast it was stated in a newspaper article that the cinematic crime reconstruction of the broadcast, in contrast to earlier practice, uses increasingly dramatic, often exaggerated effects and that the broadcast “picks up the viewer from where he is: with one leg in American crime series such as ' CSI ', with the other in the scripted documentaries on reality TV ”. As a result, the concept runs the risk of no longer being taken seriously and being on the level of pure entertainment programs.

In August 2015, the decision of Aktenzeichen-XY editor -in- chief Ina-Maria Reize-Wildemann, a planned manhunt for a dark-skinned man who is said to have raped a 21-year-old woman , met with criticism from the Dortmund police and the public in the next XY - Not to broadcast the program in order to prevent a possible “propaganda against refugees”. “We don't want to add fuel to the fire or create a bad mood. These people don't deserve that, ”said Reize-Wildemann. The ZDF finally decided to include the case in the broadcast of September 2, 2015. The station's statement said that the "selection of the cases ... by the editors and producers in close cooperation with the criminal police according to the relevance of the cases, their urgency and the current status of the investigation". "The skin color or other personality traits of a suspected perpetrator play no role." In the program, the case was shown without mentioning the previous discussions.

The XY price

Once a year, under the patronage of the Federal Minister of the Interior, the XY Prize - jointly awarded against the crime that Eduard Zimmermann and the XY team launched together with ZDF in 2002. The prize is intended to honor people who have campaigned with moral courage for the protection of the life, health or property of fellow citizens. The candidates that can be proposed by anyone and their exemplary actions are presented in the context of the XY broadcasts with short clips; the award of the prize by the Federal Minister of the Interior usually takes place in September.

Prominent guests

Over the years numerous prominent actors appeared in guest roles in XY film cases. These include:

Kathrin Ackermann , Natalie Alison , Robert Atzorn , Benjamin Bara , Christiane Blumhoff , Gerda Böken , Markus Böker , Peter Bond , Philipp Brammer , Volker Brandt , Katharina Brauren , Hanna Burgwitz , Jochen Busse , Niels Clausnitzer , Till Demtröder , Roswitha Dierck , Markus H Eberhard , Elinor Eidt , Sebastian Fischer , Pierre Franckh , Mogens von Gadow , Norbert Gastell , Wolfgang Grönebaum , Gisela Hahn , Raimund Harmstorf , Karl-Heinz von Hassel , Broder B. Hendrix , Michel Jacot , Adam Jaskolka , Sabine Kaack , Heide Keller , Stephanie Kellner , Andreas Kiendl , Wilfried Klaus , Anja Klawun , Eva Klemt , Diana Körner , Marion Kracht , Ingeborg Krabbe , Annette Kreft , Andrea L'Arronge , Heiner Lauterbach , Madeleine Lierck , Marianne Lindner , Ursula Ludwig , Thomas Luft , Wilhelm Manske , Franjo Marincic , Heinz Meier , Patrick Mölleken , Simon Mora , Ruth Moschner , Miroslav Nemec , Christine Neubauer , Ingo Nommsen , Karl Obermayr , Caroline Ohrner , Tommi Piper , Gerhard Polt , Sabine Postel , Franz Rampelmann , Robinson Reichel , Simone Rethel , Marianne Rogée , Jörg Rohde , Dieter Schaad , Otto Sander , Tana Schanzara , Karl Scheydt , Rolf Schimpf , Klaus Stiglmeier , Ingeborg Schöner , Hans E. Schons , Renate Schubert , Tanja Schumann , Gregor Seberg , Wolfgang Seidenberg , Melanie Sigl , Gunnar Solka , Andreas Sportelli , Florian Stadler , Krista Stadler , Rinaldo Talamonti , Sven Thiemann , Julia Thurnau , Cordula Trantow , Irmhild Wagner , Martin Walde , Herbert Weicker , Annemarie Wendl , Kai Wiesinger , Claus Wilcke , Funda Vanroy , Timur Ülker , Gundis Zámbó , Hans Zander , Christine Zierl and Billie Zöckler .

Similar formats

Germany

In Germany, the public broadcasters MDR with Kripo live (1990/1992) and ORB with perpetrator-victim police (in May 1992) each developed a similar format, influenced by XY . While these two programs ( perpetrator-victim-police now at the RBB ) continue to run with success in the program, the private broadcaster Sat.1 put its wanted files (1997) format, which was launched in September 1997, after three years of running in 2000 due to a lack of ratings back on. The Crime! - The justice report from HR , which was started at the beginning of 2004 and moderated by Kirsten Rademacher, did not last long. The program Unexplained Murder - On the trail of the perpetrator , broadcast on RTL 2 , shows only unsolved homicides, including those that have already been dealt with unsolved in file number XY… . NDR and WDR have been broadcasting the program Kriminalreport since 2008 . In this co-production, not only searches for people but also numerous tips on crime prevention are published. Since the second season, which began in July 2008, there has also been a recording studio there, where viewers can telephone information about the criminal cases dealt with. From May 9, 2016 to September 23, 2016, Sat.1 broadcast the daily Fahndung Deutschland show .

International

XY's broadcast format has been sold to several European and non-European countries since 1982. These include:

  • United Kingdom: Crimewatch UK , June 7, 1984 to March 20, 2017
  • Ireland: Crimeline (1992-2004) or Crimecall , since 2005
  • Israel: Crime Investigation , since November 10, 1986
  • Italy: Chi l'ha visto , since April 1989
  • Netherlands: Opsporing Verzocht , since November 15, 1982
  • Poland: Magazyn Kryminalny 997 , from October 1986
  • Sweden: Efterlyst , since spring 1990
  • Hungary: Az XY Akta Megoldatlan , since November 1992 (with MTV )
  • USA / Canada: America's Most Wanted , February 7, 1988 to June 18, 2011 on FOX , then until 2013 on Lifetime .

literature

  • Eduard Zimmermann: The invisible network. Report for friends and enemies, Munich 1969.
  • Katrin Hampel: File number XY unsolved: The most spectacular cases of Eduard Zimmermann. The extraordinary story of the TV manhunt . BSV, Nuremberg 1997, ISBN 3-932234-09-X .
  • Stefan Ummenhofer, Michael Thaidigsmann: File number XY ... unsolved - crime, controversy, cult . Romäus, Villingen-Schwenningen 2004, ISBN 3-9809278-1-4 .

Web links

"Relevant" private website:

Individual evidence

  1. securitel.de: productions
  2. The XY statistics: Figures on the broadcasts from October 20, 1967 to March 8, 2019. March 8, 2019, accessed July 14, 2019 .
  3. Facebook video: Alfred Hettmer simply belongs to the show Aktenzeichen XY. But how did it actually come about? June 22, 2018, accessed July 14, 2019 .
  4. cf. Ummenhofer / Thaidigsmann, p. 17 f.
  5. https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/polizeigeschichte-vom-verbrecheralbum-zur-fernsehfahndung/4005482.html
  6. ↑ In 1962, according to his own statements, Zimmermann had ordered a prefabricated house, which was then delivered without a roof, and was left with the damage. See Ummenhofer / Thaidigsmann, p. 17 and conversation on ZDF with Frank Elstner on October 18, 1997.
  7. 42 years of file number XY unsolved , www.tvspielfilm.de
  8. As news presented in the broadcast of September 9, 1977, the voice of the kidnapper in the Oetker case could be heard.
  9. Broadcast of December 6, 1996, expressly referred to by Eduard Zimmermann as a premiere on the Internet.
  10. 300th broadcast on October 24, 1997.
  11. Second German Television (ZDF): XY Special: Beware, Fraud! - ZDF.de. In: www.zdf.de. Retrieved October 26, 2016 .
  12. File number XY ... unsolved. Retrieved September 19, 2019 .
  13. File number XY ... unsolved. Retrieved September 19, 2019 .
  14. Third special edition "Aktenzeichen XY ... solved" on ZDF. In: presseportal.de. Retrieved July 18, 2020 .
  15. Criminal psychologist Lydia Benecke explains in "Aktenzeichen XY": This is what makes criminals tick. November 28, 2018, accessed February 17, 2019 .
  16. Tim Stinauer: "Anyone can become a murderer": Lydia Benecke from Cologne is a guest at "Aktenzeichen XY". November 15, 2017, accessed on February 17, 2019 (German).
  17. geek-germany.de: 50 years of criminal hunt: file number XY unsolved - Part 2
  18. a b c 50 years of "Aktenzeichen XY ... unsolved" , ZDF press portal, accessed on September 15, 2017
  19. (133) File number XY from 02/20/1981. YouTube , accessed August 27, 2018 .
  20. "File number XY ... unsolved" - The archive. (No longer available online.) Press Partner Price, archived from the original on January 22, 2016 ; accessed on August 22, 2019 .
  21. 116 file number xy from June 1, 1979. YouTube , accessed on October 1, 2018 .
  22. 215 file number XY of May 12, 1989. YouTube , accessed on May 2, 2019 .
  23. www.nordbayern.de
  24. Broadcast on April 7, 1989. In: xy wiki. Retrieved February 13, 2019 .
  25. Man was imprisoned innocently for almost five years . In: Welt Online , July 11, 2001. Retrieved May 11, 2014. 
  26. Broadcast from 02/07/1992 - file number XY… unsolved. In: xy wiki. Retrieved February 14, 2019 .
  27. Prinzen-Singer Krumbiegel: I'm not brave. www.sueddeutsche.de, May 17, 2010
  28. File number XY is looking for murderers with the wrong picture . www.faz.net, February 22, 2008
  29. Police confuse actor (file number XY) with jewel thief . Spiegel Online , April 23, 2012; Retrieved August 17, 2012.
  30. Maria Bögerl murder case: Hundreds of new clues after the TV search . Spiegel Online , September 6, 2012 (with misleading information regarding the airtime used by the case).
  31. Negative DNA test: detainee released in the Bögerl murder case. In: Spiegel Online . April 6, 2017. Retrieved June 9, 2018 .
  32. Identified dead person from the Rhine - reference to “Aktenzeichen XY” on ZDF . www.derwesten.de, November 9, 2012. Retrieved September 20, 2013.
  33. LKA chases Berlin tunnel gangsters . ( Memento from August 8, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) www.zdf.de, accessed on August 8, 2013
  34. Maddie case pushes “Aktenzeichen” to record high , dwdl.de; Retrieved October 17, 2013
  35. Article about call center mafia: Suspicion of sabotage with "Aktenzeichen XY" . Mirror online. December 19, 2013. Retrieved November 1, 2014.
  36. "Aktenzeichen XY" shows an article with a black perpetrator
  37. XY ... solved: How a man recognizes himself as a perpetrator on television. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . December 30, 2016, accessed August 12, 2018 .
  38. Marisa Gold: Abou-Chaker-Clan: Police outraged: ZDF speculates about the connection between the clan and the file number XY case . In: Focus Online , June 6, 2019, accessed June 25, 2019.
  39. Ida Haltaufderheide: TV column "Aktenzeichen XY:" Robbery in Berlin: ZDF rows back after speculation about the clan coup . In: Focus Online , June 6, 2019, accessed June 25, 2019.
  40. "Aktenzeichen XY" shows real corpses: ZDF reacts to criticism. Retrieved October 11, 2019 .
  41. FOCUS Online: outrage over the corpse photo in live broadcast - now file number XY reacts. Retrieved October 11, 2019 .
  42. "Aktenzeichen XY" (ZDF): Authentic corpse photo shocks TV viewers - the police speak out. September 28, 2019, accessed October 11, 2019 .
  43. An example of polemics against XY from 1970: Helga Novak, Horst Karasek : XY-Jäger und XY-Gejelte . In: Die Zeit , No. 41/1970 (online scan faulty).
  44. Cf. on the course of the discussions and mutual arguments summarizing Ummenhofer / Thaidigsmann, pp. 99–110.
  45. ^ Critical review by Frank Arnau in "Der Spiegel" from November 17, 1969, online
  46. Ulrike Meinhof : File number XY - dissolved. In: specifically, 17/1968, pp. 10/11
  47. File number XY… unsolved - The documentary .
  48. Arthur Kreuzer: XY and the big catch , Die Zeit 22/1995.
  49. Arno Frank : "Aktenzeichen XY ... unsolved": Full of the lacrimal gland. In: Spiegel Online . May 22, 2014, accessed February 27, 2015 .
  50. ^ Bögerl murder case: oddities and allegations
  51. Antje Hildebrandt in Die Welt on October 14, 2015: “Aktenzeichen XY” turns crimes into puppet theater , accessed on November 10, 2017.
  52. "ZDF shows wanted article about black suspects" in WAZ from August 21, 2015 [1]
  53. Christian Meier: "Self-censorship: File-number posse about black rapists" in Die Welt from August 21, 2015, online
  54. XY Prize 2010 - moral courage is rewarded. E110 Security Portal, August 12, 2010, archived from the original on September 12, 2010 ; accessed on February 12, 2019 .
  55. The program started in 1992 at MDR took over the title and concept from DFF ; see. Kripo Live ( Memento from April 23, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) on the MDR website.
  56. ^ Offender-victim police at the RBB .
  57. ^ The program "Kriminalreport" ( memento from April 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) at WDR
  58. ^ History of the program Crimewatch ( Memento from April 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) BBC .
  59. History of the shipment Crime Call RTÉ .
  60. Chi l'ha visto RAI .
  61. Opsporing divides AVRO .
  62. ^ TVP ( Memento of October 7, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) ( Telewizja Polska ).
  63. Efterlyst ( Memento of 25 January 1999 in the Internet Archive ) TV3 (Viasat) .
  64. ^ AMW History and Highlights ( Memento from February 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) on the Internet pages of the program.