The criminal court

Television series
Original title	The criminal court
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Year (s)	2002-2008
Production company	Constantin Entertainment GmbH
length	45 minutes
Episodes	1058 in 7 seasons
Broadcasting cycle	Monday to Saturday
genre	Court show
Theme music	Dirk Leupolz - criminal court
idea	Carlos Rümpfel
production	Johannes Bregens Tina Scheller Naja Hager
music	Tena Kollin
German-language first broadcast	September 2, 2002 on RTL
occupation

The criminal court was a court show in which fictional trials in criminal matters were presented.

history

After the commercial broadcaster RTL had already put its first court program on its program with the juvenile court a year earlier , the afternoon program was expanded to include two more court programs in September 2002, so that the station had three court programs broadcast immediately one after the other in its program. The first edition of the criminal court ran on September 2, 2002 at 2:00 p.m., the family court , which was also new to the program, one hour later.

On August 30, 2007, RTL initially announced that The Criminal Court and The Family Court would no longer be broadcast from October 15, 2007 due to a reform of the afternoon program. At the time of the press release it was still unclear whether and when episodes had already been broadcast. On September 20, 2007, RTL announced further changes to the new afternoon program: Public prosecutor Posch was determined to be cut in half and postponed to 5:00 p.m. The time slot at 4:00 p.m. was taken over by Das Strafgericht . The entire season should be finished by November 22, 2007. Until April 4, 2008, RTL broadcast the show every weekday, initially at 2 p.m. and later at 4 p.m. From April 21, 2008 to June 20, 2008 new episodes were broadcast in the night program. The last episode for the time being ran on June 20, 2008.

actor

All legal roles on the show were performed by trained lawyers. Ulrich Wetzel played the judge; the public prosecutors were embodied by Ralf Vogel , Gabriele Bender-Paukens and Funda Bıçakoğlu-Heuser ; Carlos A. Gebauer and Simone Dahlmann-Ludwig acted as defense lawyers. Other lawyers also appeared in their roles less often. In the program, more or less everyday criminal cases, which were mainly presented by amateur actors, were judged in a mock court hearing.

Main cast

actor	role	Period
Ulrich Wetzel	Judge	2002-2008
Funda Bıçakoğlu-Heuser	Public prosecutor	2002-2008
Gabriele Bender-Paukens	Public prosecutor	2002-2005
Sabine Karg	Public prosecutor	2002-2003
Ralf Vogel	Prosecutor	2005-2008
Carlos A. Gebauer	defender	2002-2008
Simone Dahlmann-Ludwig	Defense attorney	2003-2008
Guido Brochure	defender	2002-2005
Nicole Nickisch (formerly Hüttermann)	Defense attorney	2003-2005
Claudia divorce	Defense attorney	2002-2003

supporting cast

actor	job
Iris Grohmann	Public prosecutor
Petra Kläsener	Public prosecutor
Katja Bastgen	Defense attorney
Kay Kruppa	defender
Sebastian onion	defender
Trutz Fries	Representation of the accessory prosecution
Nele Port	Representation of the accessory prosecution

background

The Institute for Media Education in Research and Practice criticizes the criminal court for the fact that the representations of social groups are “often characterized by clichés” and “contribute to the consolidation of prejudices”. In addition, "the spectacular and mostly superficially staged cases" are suitable for "promoting distorted ideas about reality".

Market shares

The market share among 14 to 49 year old viewers was over 20 percent. After the airtime of the court show was changed from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., the market share on Thursday of the first week of the change in airtime was only below 9.6 percent.

Web links

• The criminal court in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Footnotes

1. ↑ Episode title
2. ↑ DWDL.de : RTL starts in mid-October with a new afternoon
3. ↑ Flimmo.de an online offer of the association program advice for parents eV