7.6 /10 1 Votes
Country of origin Germany No. of episodes 69 (February 2017) First episode date 28 March 1994 Number of episodes 69 (February 2017) Language German | 7.5/10 IMDb Original language(s) German Location(s) Berlin Network ZDF Genre Crime film | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Written by Leo P. Ard
Birgit Grosz
Eva & Volker A. Zahn Starring Florian Martens
Stefanie Stappenbeck
Jaecki Schwarz
Arnfried Lerche
Tayfun Bademsoy
Leonard Lansink
Kai Lentrodt
Maja Maranow Similar Polizeiruf 110, Wilsberg, A Case for Two, Das Duo, Kommissarin Lucas | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ein starkes Team (German for: "a strong team") is a German crime television series developed by the German television channel ZDF since March 1994. Up to four new 90-minute episodes are broadcast annually, resulting in a current total of 69 episodes. Each episode usually revolves around an intricate murder case, regularly coinciding with events in the private lives of the main characters.
Contents
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The Team
The series originally starred detective chief superintendents Verena Berthold (played by Maja Maranow) and Otto Garber (Florian Martens) as the main characters. They became a team following the German reunification, which caused the East-German Volkspolizei, where Otto was working, to be incorporated in the (West-German) Kriminalpolizei. They became partners in a special unit in Berlin, led by commissioner Lothar Reddemann (Arnfried Lerche), and also including the detective chief superintendents Yüksel Yüsgüler (Tayfun Bademsoy, whose character died in episode 43 in 2009) and Georg Scholz (Leonard Lansink; until episode 29 in 2005). After Georg's departure, detective Ben Kolberg (Kai Lentrodt; since episode 30 in 2005) joined the team, who was later promoted to chief superintendent.
In August 2015, Maja Maranow announced to be leaving the series to focus on other movies, but she died of breast cancer on 4 January 2016 at age 54, five days before the air date of the last episode in which she starred. In the following episode, Verena (her character in the series) was said to have emigrated to Australia, and was replaced by detective Linett Wachow (Stefanie Stappenbeck; as of episode 65 in 2016). In episode 56 (2013), the character Verena was out of town to follow advanced training, while in reality Maranow was undergoing chemotherapy and could not attend the shooting of this episode. In this episode, the female lead was overtaken by Ulrike Krumbiegel, who played the role of a former colleague and friend of Otto, named Katharina Dammers.
A running gag in the series is Otto's former colleague from the Volkspolizei, Sputnik (Jaecki Schwarz). He changes jobs between each episode, and provides schnapps, ironic remarks, advice, and practical support to the "strong" team. His many activities include running a Currywurst-stand, owning a sushi bar, exploiting the police cafeteria, organizing pub crawls for tourists, owning a corner pub in Ostalgie style, cooking at a French cuisine temple, starting a miniature golf course, being a credit counsellor, serving as matchmaker, operator of a go-kart racing track, acting as eulogist, etc.