Der Fahnder

I've seen quite a few of those on German TV in the eighties and it was one my all time favouite series. The characters are depicted very lovingly and I never got tired watching it. Thinking back in time, this is one really few series I remember very fondly, no uniform cookie cutter stuff but with an endearing personality of its own. Bring it on again any time - I'd be happy to watch!

For starters, 'The Investigator' was a show aired by the German company Transtel which gave us other brilliant detective shows like 'Derrick' and 'The Old Fox'. 'The Investigator' revolved around an undercover cop named Faber and his police department in Munich, Germany.

Faber and his colleagues tackled everything - from deranged criminals with hostages to amateurs who want to make a quick buck by robbing people, or asking a ransom. What made this show a class apart from other detective shows was its interest in the characters and their development. Faber wasn't just a cop; his relationship with his girl-friend Suzannah was probed right from their courtship till the time they get married and after they have their first child.

Adding to the appeal of this show were the other witty and interesting characters. Faber's colleagues were an amusing, adorable lot - from the straight collared cute Max (Faber's partner) to the funny Otto who provided plenty of humor with the silly enterprises he fell into every now and then! An integral part of this mayhem was of course Herr Rick, Faber's Boss who tried to maintain control with his exaggerated leadership skills but failed miserably! The center of attention was their office which served as everything from an overnight refuge for hostages (in one case Faber himself) to a chaotic "madhouse" (Rick) with criminals hanging around the place as if they work there and there was a shortage of staff!

This was a memorable show which lasted for more than eight years, must be even more... This might not be the best show for kids to watch but when I was growing up, there weren't many good TV shows around... We just happened to have an abundance of German detective shows on TV and I stumbled upon them once and never looked back! I grew up watching 'The Investigator' and perhaps that's the reason why I have very fond memories of it! I used to love it because unlike some other grim police shows this was funny, the characters were friendly, endearing and after awhile they became like old friends. In that sense, it was perhaps a little like 'Due South' which I saw much later in life. 'Due South' was also a comic-drama revolving around the law and crime... 'The Investigator' would have lost its appeal if they had not bothered to individualize every character and present it in a rounded way. It was humorous without being slapstick and behind every crime that Faber perseveringly solved, there was a very realistic probe from a human, layman's point of view.

One thing that really amazed me about 'The Investigator' was its realism, the actors acted so effortlessly that it really felt as if there was some hidden camera in some Police department in Germany and these guys were being shot on and off the job. Realism is one thing I really credit this serial for. I would like to *Thank* everyone connected with this show, especially the actors - Klaus Wennemann (The Investigator himself), Hans Jurgen-Schatz (Max), Dieter Pfaff (Otto), Dietrich Mattausch (Rick) and Barbara Frier (Suzzanah, I wonder why she's not credited over here?) and Stefan Melbinger who provided that catchy title music for the show. Before I say "Ladies & Gentleman" I'll stop!

Klaus Wennemann, who played "Faber", the main character of this serial, died January 7th of lung cancer.

"Der Fahnder" was his biggest success: He had about 40 percent of all viewers with this serial and that was quite a fantastic quote in the 80s and early 90s in Germany.

Faber is a very special character: quick-tempered and impatient, but professional. He doesn`t seem to know why he still is a cop, and anyway he kinda likes it. Faber is a guy like Dirty Harry. He doesn`t believe in the system he supports, but he still works for it, until somebody presents a quite nice alternative to him.

The early parts of the serial (with Wennemann) were made in Germany during the Cold War. Some interesting facts showed the viewers that the makers of this serial were very careful with their makings: The license plates you see on every car display the first letter "G" which means nothing concrete in these times. The makers didn`t want to hurt the name of any big German city with their ideas of brutal crime, drug selling and other mean problems, because the serial was quite violent. After the Cold War "G" became the license plate symbol for the City of Gera, but the serial never played there with Wennemann.

Although the name of the city where everything happens in this serial was never really told: Some German journalists wrote that Fabers precinct was in the West-German industrial area between the cities of Dortmund and Cologne (the so-called "Ruhrgebiet"), but I also heard that Munich was the basic idea of his precinct. Related to crime statistics, Frankfurt/Main would be the best guess.

Faber is a real workaholic. He loves his girlfriend, but didn`t care about anything that`s not that important, like his clothes, his rusty green car (a German Ford) or any stories that are not related to police work.

The serial comes close to the life situation in Germany at the end of the 1980s/beginning of the 1990s. It`s like a flashback when you have some personal memories of that time and you see this serial. This real-life basis and the incredible character of Faber made Wennemann and this serial a big hit in Germany.

When Wennemann left Der Fahnder in 1992, the new officers` faces changed often and the success was gone, too. Wennemann was Faber and Faber was him. Only Wennemann made this serial a success.

Now, Wennemann died only 59 years old. We will miss him and his unique style.

Goodbye, Klaus.