The big criminal cases

Television series
German title	The big criminal cases
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Year (s)	2000-2012
length	between 40 and 45 minutes
Episodes	41 in 9 seasons
genre	documentary
First broadcast	May 11, 2000 ( Germany ) on Das Erste

The big criminal cases is a documentary series of the ARD . The first episode Life Prison for Vera Brühne was broadcast on May 11, 2000.

action

Each episode of the series deals with a known crime in German post-war history. Contemporary witnesses are interviewed and the deeds are reopened. So far 9 seasons with 2–6 episodes each have been created. After the first broadcast, the individual episodes are made available to the other public broadcasters for a second evaluation. From the 3rd season it was mostly commissioned work by other broadcasters. Season 4 appeared irregularly and in some cases the date of the first broadcast was set on the NDR broadcaster . To accompany the television series, two non-fiction books were published by Campus Verlag .

Season overview

season 1

episode	title	First broadcast	Film by	Further information
1	Life sentence for Vera Brühne	May 11, 2000	Michael Gramberg	Vera broth
2	The child murderer Jürgen Bartsch	May 18, 2000	Thomas Fischer	Jürgen Bartsch
3	The Rosemarie Nitribitt case	May 25, 2000	Helga Dierichs	Rosemarie Nitribitt
4th	The crossword puzzle murder	June 8, 2000	Gunther Scholz	Crossword murder
5	The Gladow Gang - Chicago in Berlin	June 22, 2000	Ute Bönnen and Gerald Endres	Werner Gladow
6th	Walter Sedlmayr - death of a folk actor	June 29, 2000	Walter Harrich and Danuta Harrich-Zandberg	Walter Sedlmayr

season 2

episode	title	First broadcast	Film by	Further information
7th	The woman murderer of St. Pauli - Fritz Honka	May 10, 2001	Walter Harrich and Danuta Harrich-Zandberg	Fritz Honka
8th	Death of a Beast - The Fall of the Hawthorn	May 17, 2001	Michael Erler	Erwin Hagedorn
9	The hammer killer - trail of blood from a police officer	May 24, 2001	Anne Worst	Norbert Poehlke
10	The murder of Satan - death of a student	May 31, 2001	Ulrike Baur	Sondershausen murder case
11	The soldier murder - the shots at Lebach	June 7, 2001	Inge Plettenberg	Soldier murder in Lebach

season 3

episode	title	First broadcast	Film by	Further information
12	The St. Pauli killer	September 30, 2002	Walter Harrich and Danuta Harrich-Zandberg	Werner Pinzner
13	Hunt for the escape king	October 6, 2002	Michael Gramberg	Alfred Lecki
14th	Poison package to Rügen	October 14, 2002	Ute Bönnen and Gerald Endres	Otto Bergemann
15th	The mysterious child murder	October 21, 2002	Christel Schmidt	The Tommy case
16	A murder and not a corpse	October 28, 2002	Inge Plettenberg	Hugo Lacour

Season 4

episode	title	First broadcast	Film by	Further information
17th	The Bluebeard of Fehmarn	June 16, 2004 ( NDR )	Michael Gramberg	Arwed Imiela
18th	The Schlecker kidnappers	February 16, 2004	Roland May	Abduction of the Schlecker children
19th	Morschen's parricide	June 22, 2004 ( NDR )	Ulrike Bremer	Parricide by Morschen
20th	Murder in the Caribbean - Apollonia's Death Voyage	June 8, 2004 ( NDR )	Danuta Harrich-Zandberg and Walter Harrich	Apollonia (criminal case)
21st	The Schmücker murder	March 15, 2004	Ute Bönnen and Gerald Endres	Schmücker process
22nd	The killer in the garbage can	March 22, 2004	Inge Plettenberg	Karl Klein

Season 5

episode	title	First broadcast	Film by	Further information
23	Schmökel - the killer on the garden fence	March 13, 2006	Christian Frey	Frank Schmökel
24	Bernhard Kimmel - The "Al Capone" from the Palatinate	March 20, 2006	Roland May and Dirk Laabs	Bernhard Kimmel
25th	Family ties - the killer and his son	March 27, 2006	Christel Schmidt	Abduction of Jakub Fiszman
26th	Death in the taxi	March 29, 2006	Dietmar Noss	Murder of a taxi driver
27	Mail from the tango youth	April 10, 2006	Dirk Blumenthal	Erich von Halacz
28	The revenge of Marianne Bachmeier	April 17, 2006	Michael Gramberg	Marianne Bachmeier

Season 6

episode	title	First broadcast	Film by	Further information
29	"Dagobert" - the department store blackmailer	October 8, 2007	Sven Ihden and Roland May	Arno Funke
30th	Monika Weimar and the child murder	October 15, 2007	Erika Kimmel and Bernd Isecke	Monika Böttcher
31	The dead maker Rudolf Pleil	October 22, 2007	Hans-Dieter Rutsch	Rudolf Pleil
32	Ronny Rieken - The girl killer	October 29, 2007	Annette Baumeister and Jobst Knigge	Ronny Rieken

Season 7

episode	title	First broadcast	Film by	Further information
33	Jakob von Metzler - death of a banker's son	December 1, 2008	Philipp Engel	Kidnapping of Jakob von Metzler ; Magnus Gaefgen
34	The ripper of Magdeburg	December 8, 2008	Hans-Dieter Rutsch	Peter Albrecht (in the film serial killer Jürgen S. )
35	The grandma killer from Bremerhaven	December 15, 2008	Dirk Blumenthal	Olaf Däter

Season 8

episode	title	First broadcast	Film by	Further information
36	Rudolph Moshammer: The lonely death of the fashion designer	5th July 2010	Danuta Harrich-Zandberg , Walter Harrich	Rudolph Moshammer
37	The deadly love of Ingrid van Bergen	July 12, 2010	Ulrike Brincker , Rüdiger Liedtke	Ingrid van Bergen
38	Locked up for life ... The woman murderer Heinrich Pommerenke	July 19, 2010	Tom Ockers	Heinrich Pommerenke
39	A child disappears - the Pascal case	July 26, 2010	Rüdiger Mörsdorf	Pascal process

Season 9

episode	title	First broadcast	Film by	Further information
40	Günther Kaufmann's false confession	May 14, 2012	Peter Gerhardt , Kamil Taylan	Günther Kaufmann
41	The dramatic descent of Bubi Scholz	2nd July 2012	Rüdiger Liedtke	Bubi Scholz

literature

Helfried Spitra (ed.): The great criminal cases. Germany in the mirror of famous crimes. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2001, ISBN 3-593-36719-X .
Helfried Spitra (ed.): The great criminal cases. The St. Pauli killer, the escape king and nine other famous crimes. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2004, ISBN 3-593-37438-2 .