TV outlook: Coldest Cases: The new format “XY history”

TV outlook
Coldest Cases: The new format “XY history”

Ernst Gennat once revolutionized criminology in Germany. Photo: Police History Collection Berlin/ZDF/dpa

Ernst Gennat once revolutionized criminology in Germany. Photo

© Police History Collection Berlin/ZDF/dpa

A bit of “Aktenzeichen”, a bit of “Babylon Berlin”: The makers of Germany’s most successful crime show have something new on the way.

The ZDF classic ““Aktenzeichen XY … ungelöst” is getting another spin-off. After spin-offs such as “Aktenzeichen… Vermisst” and “Aktenzeichen XY… Gelöst”, the makers of Germany’s most successful crime show are now digging through the files of ancient criminal cases. “XY history” starts on Wednesday (September 4th) on ZDF.

Classifications from the present and scenes from the play alternate. Two episodes are shown on the first evening. And this is what the first episode is about: “In December 1927, shortly before Christmas, the well-off 21-year-old butcher Dora Perske sets off to visit relatives. When the train reaches Berlin-Friedrichshagen on time an hour later, she is found lying in a pool of blood, seriously injured. An ambulance takes her to the Charité, but she dies a short time later,” according to the ZDF announcement.

His special form of interrogation

Ernst Gennat (Stephan Grossmann), Germany’s first homicide detective, begins the investigation. Always at his side: secretary Trudchen Steiner (Marina Lötschert). The brilliant investigator will later convict the perpetrator using his special form of interrogation.

“Gennat is still considered a luminary in German criminal history,” says ZDF. “Until the 1920s, the police had no homicide department, no standardized interrogation protocols and no autopsy reports. As a commissioner, the so-called “Buddha of Alex”, who was a real heavyweight not only in his profession, streamlined and structured the investigation methods and achieved an above-average crime clearance rate.”

The important “seven-point plan”

“XY history” shows how Gennat revolutionized criminology. Sven Voss, who hosts the show, is traveling around Berlin today and is a guest of Sebastian Kraus, head of all Berlin homicide squads. He personally secures evidence and finds out what role Gennat’s “seven-point plan” still plays in police investigations today.

In the North Rhine-Westphalia State Archives, Voss is given a unique insight into files on a particularly spectacular pre-war case that were only rediscovered in 2023. Among other things, there are letters from the so-called “Vampire of Düsseldorf” – one of Germany’s most notorious serial killers, Peter Kürten.

Ernst Gennat was also one of the investigators in this case. “This is how the first known perpetrator profile in criminal history was created and Gennat coined the term ‘serial killer’,” explained ZDF.

dpa

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