Commissioner coincidence
Commissioner coincidence is in the press - and radio - journalism used term that is often at a surprising one reconnaissance crime during the criminal investigation work is used. He is cited in particular when the investigations were unsuccessful in spite of great effort and the clarifying evidence (s) appear or are discovered at a different time and place from the actual investigative efforts . The term is rarely found in connection with entertainment literature in the sense of Deus ex machina .
Early use
The term is a rhetorical stylistic device limited to the German-speaking area , which represents an unexpected event (finding evidence) in a defined context (police search) as a personification (commissioner) of a principle ( chance ). One of the first mentions and at the same time critical questioning of the catchphrase can be found in a book by Hendrik van Bergh in the early 1960s.
Participation of Commissioner Random in known investigations
Particularly in spectacular, protracted criminal cases in which the investigating police or a specially formed special commission are under pressure from the public and the media and have not been able to report any success for a long time despite a large manhunt, Commissioner Zufall is quoted when there is a surprising change in the circumstantial situation :
- Oetker kidnapping
- Arrest of RAF members Horst Ludwig Meyer and Andrea Klump
- NSU terrorist acts
Use in the crime genre
In the author constructed plot of a detective novel or a detective film is Commissioner chance a stylistic device to a deadlock nor surprising but dissolve. This method is also called Deus ex machina by critics .
Parallel use
In relation to the natural sciences, the term Professor Chance can be found in a similar way - in the case of surprising discoveries, in features, in novels - if discoveries or inventions have their origin in chance observations.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hendrik van Bergh: ABC of Spies: An Illustrated History of Espionage in the Federal Republic of Germany since 1943. Ilmgau Verlag, 1963: "One speaks therefore often of the" Kommissar Zufall ". That is a wrong comparison. Chance is not a "commissioner" ”.
- ↑ The kidnappers outwitted us. In: Spiegel. No. 53, December 27, 1976.
- ↑ The old man and the RAF. In: Focus. September 20, 1999.
- ↑ Inspector Random solves the murder of the police and the kebab series of murders. In: Focus. November 11, 2011.
- ↑ Egotrip online magazine: "Furthermore, the" deus ex machina "or" Kommissar Zufall "must help to bring the various narrative strands together." ( Memento of the original from January 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Gudrun Schury: If you don't look, you will find: Accidental discoveries in science . Campus Verlag, 2006, ISBN 978-3-593-37799-5 , p. 4.
- ↑ Phil Humor: Curtain up on philosophy and humor: Stories, plays, poems, Drabbles, philosophical . BookRix, February 25, 2014, ISBN 978-3-7309-8560-1 , p. 10.
- ↑ Alpha O'Droma: The Neanderthals of Tomorrow . epubli, 3 August 2014, ISBN 978-3-7375-0317-4 , p. 19.
- ^ Rudolf Öller: Professor Zufall ; World of Natural Sciences (Scientific Medley).
