The History

 The Start

cobra 11 history          Tuesday the 12th of march 1996 10,07 million people watched the pilot of "Alarm für Cobra 11 - Die Autobahnpolizei". Never in the history of the german commercial television that many viewers watched the pilot of a new serie. The following episodes were also watched by many people. So with "Cobra 11" RTL had found een new and succesfull serie.The idea behind "Cobra 11" is invented by action-specialist Hermann Joha in co-operation with RTL programme-director Marc Conrad. "With 'Alarm für Cobra 11' we performed pioneers-work in Germany and in Europe. The result is as good as the american examples. Others often tried to copy or to exceed 'Cobra 11', but they have never succeeded", said Conrad.

 The Concept

cobra 11 intro text          "Alarm für Cobra 11 - Die Autobahnpolizei" is about 2 police-cops of a "Autobahnpolizei"-station, codename "Cobra 11", who fight against the criminality on the german highways. They have to deal with car-thiefs, murderers and kidnappers. Day and night there is work for the men of "Cobra 11". Often they have to risk their lives to garantuee the safety of the motorists on the highway.

"Alarm für Cobra 11 - Die Autobahnpolizei" is a brand new type of serie. In the firts place it's a krimi, a popular german detective genre. But "Alarm für Cobra 11" contains a lot of action in contradistinction to other krimi-series. This action-element is mainly expressed on the highway. Almost in every episode a few cars are demolished. This combined with a exciting story makes from "Alarm für Cobra 11 - Die Autobahnpolizei" a very good serie.

Many Viewers

Mark Keller & Erdogan Atalay                 "Alarm für Cobra 11" has always had many viewers and a high appreciation in Germany since 1996. Stunt-specialist Hermann Joha of "Action Concept" says about this: "It is always difficult to keep fascinating the viewers. That's way we have to ivent new spectacular things in the actionscenes all the time." Especially the use of computers makes this possible. For this the knowledge is got from America.

With the computers of the firm "Dreamscape" in Hollywood impossible things become reality. The californian frim was also responsible for the special effects in the movies "Independence Day" and "Godzilla".

Also Hermann Joha says: "In the matter of car-stunts 'Cobra 11' broke all records: never a car flew so far through the air, never a car flew so high in the air by an explosion and never a car turned so often upside down after eachother.

Orginal Cast

Johannes Brandrup & Erdogan Atalay                 The original cast featured Johannes Brandrup as Frank Stolte and Rainer Strecker as Ingo Fischer. Fischer left the series just two episodes later and his replacement became Erdogan Atalay as Semir Gerkhan.Brandrup quit the series at the end of Season 1.

The television netwok RTL, which carries the series, contracted Mark Keller as André Fux in his place. Keller left the series at the end of Season 6 and was replaced by René Steinke as Tom Kranich. He played the role between the seasons 7-14, then decided to quit to try other roles.Atalay's new partner became Christian Oliver as Jan Richter in Seasons 14-16. When he left the series to build his career in the US, RTL turned to Steinke, who agreed to return at the beginning of Season 17. However, Steinke decided not to renew his contract, and left the series again at the end at Season 20. His replacement is actor Gedeon Burkhard as Chris Ritter. Burkhard is best known for his role in another German police show, Kommissar Rex.

 

Several New Partners

Christian Olivier & Erdogan Atalay       Atalay's new partner became Christian Oliver as Jan Richter in Seasons 14-16. Jan was Semir's partner before he left the force, he was introduced in the episode "Feuertaufe" shortly after Tom's emotional withdraw. He is cowardly at first, even too scared to make a proper lane change. But he later got the hang of it and brings semir out of many dangerous situations. He left the force shortly after and semir was forced to look for Tom again. Tom agreed to go back and he was killed in action shortly after. When he left the series to build his career in the US, RTL turned to Steinke, who agreed to return at the beginning of Season 17. However, Steinke decided not to renew his contract, and left the series again at the end at Season 20.

His replacement is actor Gedeon Burkhard as Chris Ritter. Burkhard is best known for his role in another German police show, Kommissar Rex. In 2008 Burkhard is replaced by Tom Beck. Semir is the main character and one of the cops who stayed on the force from the beginning to the end. He is best known for driving his silver BMW 3 series undercover car throughout his career. He also owns numerous exotic cars outside of work but had terrible things happen to them. (BMW crashed, Ferrari 355 spyder stolen). He is serious and will do whatever it takes to get the job done.

 

Rene Steinke & Erdogan Atalay            Tom is one of the more outgoing guys on the force, while Semir is serious. Together both of them gets the job done properly, sort of. He also have a forgiving personality due to the fact that he forgave a female driver despite that she wrecked his mountain bike on his first day commute to work.
He also owns a Mercedes-Benz CLK 320 coupe, which is wrecked a dozen times.


Chris, who was originally a backup officer for Semir and Tom, became Semir's partner after Tom died in the episode "Auf Leben Und Tod".

With the new partner the adventure continues, Chris drives a blue Mercedes-Benz CLK 320 which is the same one as Tom and in season 23 he started driving a gray Mercedes-Benz C350. His off work car is unknown.

Dida serves as the cobra team's backup officer throughout his career, his partner is an obese, bearded german, whose name is unknown. They drive a green and white "Polizei" porsche 911 turbo highway patrol car.

Two New Faces

Tom Beck & Erdogan Atalay                 In 2008 two new faces make their debut in Cobra 11. First there is the new colleague of Semir: Ben Jäger, a role played by actor Tom Beck. Ben's first police-job was by the LKA and sees his job at the Autobahnpolizei only as a short unimportant job: he wants to get a better job at the police. That's way Semir and Ben don't like eachother. In the first case their have to transport a crown-witness. This witness is the only person who wants to talk about the criminalistic actions of Sander Kalvus, the murderer of Semir's former colleague Chris Ritter. During the transport Ben, Semir and the crown-witness are attacked several times by gangsters who want to kill the witness: an extreme baptism of fire for the new detective-duo.

During the 13th season another new face appears in Cobra 11: boss Engelhardt quits her job after a case in which she discovers that she can't even trust a good colleague and friend. She is replaced by the new boss Kim Krüger, a role played by actress Katja Woywood. Kim has been informed about the manner of working of Ben en Semir en tries to get them to work in a different way, but if she succeeds....

The 13th season consists of a tv-movie and 14 epsiodes which were broadcasted in the autumn of 2008 and the spring of 2009 in Germany. A year later the 14th season is broadcasted in the same way. In the autumn of 2009 the first episode, also the 200st Cobra 11 episode, is broadcasted in Germany. This epsiode is the tv-movie "Das Ende der Welt" (The end of the world) in which Semir's gets to hear that he becomes father for the second time. But the joy about that is quick over when Semir and Ben are infected by a deadly virus. Will both find the anti-virus on time? As said the first episodes of the 14th season were broadcasted in Germany in the autumn of 2009. The other epsiodes followed in the spring of 2010.

 

In january 2010 the shootings for the 15th season have started. Also this season will start with a tv-movie. In "Der Anschlag" (The attempt) Ben and Semir are confronted with a criminal who wants to make attempts on cities in Germany with an explosiv new weapon. Can the detectives stop him on time? This tv-movie was broadcasted in Germany in september 2010 followed by six episodes. Six more epsides will be broadcasted in the spring of 2011 by the German tv-station RTL Television. The last episode of this season will broadcasted in the autumn of 2011.


 

Katrin Hess & Vinzenz Kiefer                In the TV movie of the sixteenth season an old-timer leaves the series. Actor Dietmar Huhn leaves Cobra 11: his character Horst Herzberger is shot.


His empty place left in the Cobra 11 team is filled by agent Jenny Dorn, a role played by actress Katrin Heß. Already at the end of the fifteenth season she joins the Cobra 11 team and now is together with Bonrath responsible for the support of Ben and Semir. In the TV movie "72 Stunden Angst", partly recorded in Istanbul, we also get to know the unknown daughter of Semir. It turns out that he has a child from a previous relationship. His daughter Dana is kidnapped and Semir is committed to free her from the arms of the kidnappers. The sixteenth season consists of the mentioned TV movie and 14 episodes. The season was broadcast in autumn 2011 and spring 2012 on RTL Television.

Also noteworthy is the temporary return of André Fux. At the end of the third season he drowned in the Atlantic Ocean. But nothing less is true: he seems to have survived and to have started a new life. He works as an undercover agent at the LKA and runs into Semir. Together they fight against the criminal Raoul Kronenberg. But it turns out that André plays another game, he has his own goals for which he even wants to murder Semir....

Halfway through the eighteenth season Ben Jäger leaves Cobra 11. He is succeeded by detective Alex Brandt played by actor Vinzenz Kiefer. Alex has just been innocent in prison for two years. His colleagues at the police had organizes an illicit drug trafficking. At the moment that they had been detected preperated evidence suggests that Alex was also involved in the drug trafficking. The three die during the action in which the police want to arrest them. In the second half of the eighteenth season Alex gets indications that there is something more about this case, he goes to investigate it.

The eighteenth season consists of two TV movies and 12 episodes. The nineteenth season starts in the fall of 2014. Also in this season the serious tone will be continued. Alex finally discovers the real truth about his innocent captivity, the third daughter of Semir, Dana, reappears in the series and Semir and Andrea come closer to each other again until fate strikes....Also, the viewer sees how Bonrath is killed before the eyes of Jenny, who then psychologically has a hard time. Prosecutor Schrankmann leaves and is replaced by the new prosecutor Sander. He soon wants to bring an end to the career of Semir and Alex. A exciting battle begins in which the new police psychologist Isabel Frings gets involved. in the last episode of the season this battle gets out of hand during a hostage in a restaurant where several Cobra 11 team members get life-threatening injured.