The mini series is based on real events, the so called "Göhrde-Morde", that caused a stir in summer 1989 in West Germany. Within a few weeks two couples were murdered in the same forest (die Göhrde), the second murder taking place while the police was nearby, about 800 meters away, investigating the first.
The actor Matthias Brandt who plays police commissioner Thomas Bethge, is the son of former german chancellor Willy Brandt. The actress Jenny Schily, playing his wife Marianne Bethge, is the daughter of german politician and former Home Secretary Otto Schily.
The real life case of the Göhrde-Murderers, on which the series is based, remained unsolved for about 30 years.
Wolfgang Sielaff, the real police commissioner in charge of the Göhrde-Morde, served as a consultant to the writers.
The scene in which mobster Randow, played by Roman Knizka, opens a shooting in a court room and commits suicide, resembles the case of Werner Pinzner. In 1986, while in police custody, Pinzner murdered the district attorney, his wife and committed suicide with a weapon that his lawyer had smuggled into the interrogation room.