''Aktenzeichen XY... ungelöst'' ("Case number XY... unsolved") is a German interactive television programme first broadcast on 20 October 1967 on ZDF. Created by Eduard Zimmermann, it aims to combat and solve crimes. The programme is currently presented by

Rudi Cerne Rudi Cerne (born 26 September 1958) is a German TV presenter and former figure skater. He is the 1984 European silver medalist and a two-time West German national champion. He competed at two Winter Olympics, finishing fourth in 1984. Person ...

. It airs monthly, with 12 episodes in a year, on Wednesday at 8:15 PM. From March 1968 until December 2002, it was produced in cooperation with the Austrian public service broadcaster

ORF ORF or Orf may refer to: * Norfolk International Airport, IATA airport code ORF * Observer Research Foundation, an Indian research institute * One Race Films, a film production company founded by Vin Diesel * Open reading frame, a portion of t ...

and

Schweizer Fernsehen Schweizer Fernsehen (SF; "Swiss Television") is the German-language division of SRG SSR, in charge of production and distribution of television programmes in Switzerland for German-speaking Switzerland. It has its head office in Zürich. ...

, a division of the Swiss public broadcaster

SRG SSR The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (german: Schweizerische Radio- und Fernsehgesellschaft; french: Société suisse de radiodiffusion et télévision; it, Società svizzera di radiotelevisione; rm, Societad Svizra da Radio e Televisiun; SRG ...

, who joined in January 1969 and left in December 2003. The programme was adapted by the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

as ''

Crimewatch ''Crimewatch'' (formerly ''Crimewatch UK'') is a British television programme produced by the BBC, that reconstructs major unsolved crimes in order to gain information from the public which may assist in solving the case. The programme was o ...

'' and for the US market as ''

America's Most Wanted ''America's Most Wanted'' (often abbreviated as ''AMW'') is an American Television show, television program whose first run was produced by 20th Television, and second run is under the Fox Entertainment#Fox Alternative Entertainment, Fox Alter ...

''. Other adaptations of the format were aired in a number of countries including Ireland, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland and Sweden.

Format

The goal of the programme is to cast light on unsolved offences with the aid of viewers. Each episode contains three to five short films, each lasting about ten minutes, in which a real criminal case is reconstructed. The cases are mostly complex ones in which the criminals and chains of events are still unknown. In addition, cases are discussed in the studio in which, for example, the identities of criminals or unknown murder victims are sought with the aid of a photo. Viewers can use the telephone or internet to give information. According to a study by the programme's editorial department, about forty percent of cases shown on the programme are solved.

History

The creator and first presenter of the programme was Eduard Zimmermann. After the programme's 300th episode he passed the presentership onto Butz Peters, who fronted the show together with Zimmermann's daughter Sabine. Since 18 January 2002 ''Aktenzeichen XY'' has been presented by

. With ''Aktenzeichen XY'' Eduard Zimmermann and ZDF succeeded in starting a TV format that had not existed worldwide until 1967. Although news reports had often shown photofits, an actual independent show of this type was unknown at this time. The idea came to Zimmermann during his work with the programme ' (Eng: ''Beware, Trap!'') first broadcast in 1963, in which he warned the viewers of ''"Nepper, Schlepper und Bauernfänger"'' (Eng: '' Scammers, Hustlers and Conmen''). The viewers frequently sent him information regarding descriptions of the

fraudster In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compen ...

s on the programme. This gave him the idea to use the medium of TV to work with the police on unsolved crimes. In a biographical statement Zimmerman also admitted that his motivation for both programmes was partly a personal one; he himself is a victim of fraud. ''Aktenzeichen XY'' was initially produced in the ZDF studios in

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

, before moving to the FSM studios in

Unterföhring Unterföhring is a municipality in Upper Bavaria. It lies adjacent to the northeast side of Munich, and is one of the nearest suburbs to Munich's central district. History Before the establishment of Munich around 1158, an important crossing ex ...

from 1969. From 15 March 1968, the Austrian public broadcaster ORF became a joint producer of ''Aktenzeichen XY'', with a segment focusing on Austria hosted first by Thaddäus "Teddy" Podgorski ( de) from 1968 until 1971, then by Peter Nidetzky ( de) from 1971 until 2002; which from 24 January 1969 was also joined by Schweizer Fernsehen (SF), with a segment focused on Switzerland hosted firstly by Werner Vetterli from 1969 until 1976, then by Konrad Toenz ( de) from 1976 until 1998, and finally Stephan Schifferer from 1998 until 2002. An attempt to extend ''Aktenzeichen XY'' beyond West Germany first took place on 18 July 1969, when ZDF and the Dutch public broadcaster NOS produced a joint episode featuring Dutch journalist Johan van Minnen from a studio in Enschede, with NOS providing simultaneous translations from German to Dutch. That project was however unsuccessful due to

language barrier A language barrier is a figurative phrase used primarily to refer to linguistic barriers to communication, i.e. the difficulties in communication experienced by people or groups originally speaking different languages, or even dialects in som ...

s and was abandoned after said broadcast. A more successful attempt took place on 14 July 1972, when the West German branch of the

American Forces Network The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the U.S. military provides to those stationed or assigned overseas. Headquartered at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, AFN's broadcast operations, which i ...

(AFN) took part in a broadcast of ''Aktenzeichen XY'', with simultaneous interpretation into English on AFN TV. The first colour episode of ''Aktenzeichen XY'' aired on ZDF on 16 January 1975. On 8 November 2002, the broadcast of the 350th episode was celebrated, after ''Aktenzeichen XY'' had been on the air for 35 years. Eduard Zimmermann was the guest of Rudi Cerne on his own programme, which concerned a several-decades-old crime that had particularly touched him – the Ursula Herrmann kidnapping, about a young girl who was buried alive in a crate for extortion on 15 September 1981 (a case similar to the case of Barbara Jane Mackle. At the time 3,228 cases had been featured on the show, of which 1,182 had been solved. 1,880 people had been sought and 914 of them had been caught. This included 624 murder cases. In April 2012 the program received international public attention of a somewhat amusing nature when one of its case re-enactment performers, German actor , was erroneously arrested in Stuttgart following his portrayal of a jewel robber in the episode of 14 March 2012 and a call to the police by one of the program's viewers. This misunderstanding was, however, cleared very swiftly. A 2-hour special episode of ''Aktenzeichen XY'' aired on 16 October 2013, dealing with the case of Madeleine McCann, who disappeared in Portugal in 2007 at the age of three. McCann's parents and a Scotland Yard detective were also featured in the broadcast. A record 24.3% audience share was recorded in that episode alone. On 3 June 2020, the Criminal Police Office presented a new suspect on ''Aktenzeichen XY... ungelöst'' and made a public appeal again for information relating to the case. The police stated that they received useful information regarding the new suspect in 2013 after the case was first featured on ''Aktenzeichen XY'', but that it took years to find substantial evidence for prosecution, and that they still need more information. The programme is known for its high viewership across all age groups. In 2014, ''Aktenzeichen XY'' was watched by around six million viewers, with an audience share of 20%.

Similar formats

In Germany

The private broadcaster

Sat.1 Sat.1 is a German free-to-air television channel that is a part of the ProSiebenSat.1 Media Group. It is considered the first privately owned television network in Germany, having been launched in January 1984 as ''PKS'' ''(Programmgesellscha ...

and the public broadcaster

MDR MDR may refer to: Biology * MDR1, an ATP-dependent cellular efflux pump affording multiple drug resistance * Mammalian Diving reflex * Medical device reporting * Multiple drug resistance, when a microorganism has become resistant to multiple drugs ...

both produced similar programmes, known as ''Fahndungsakte'' (English: ''Manhunt Files'') and ''Kripo live'' respectively. Sat.1 cancelled ''Fahndungsakte'' in 2000 after three years' run due to low audience figures. MDR has had more success with ''

Kripo Live ''Kripo live'' is a German television series. Originally broadcast on DFF2 at irregular intervals and at different stations, it ran for the first time on May 19, 1990. After the shutdown of ''DFF2'', the MDR took over the show on January 5, 1 ...

'' on air since 1990, which concentrates on

Kriminalpolizei ''Kriminalpolizei'' (, "criminal police") is the standard term for the criminal investigation agency within the police forces of Germany, Austria, and the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. In Nazi Germany, the Kripo was the criminal poli ...

. Sat.1 briefly aired a revival of the format, titled ', in 2016. Others include ' ( ORB Fernsehen later RBB Fernsehen, since 1992), ''Crime! – Der Justizreport'' ( HR-Fernsehen, 2004), ''Ungeklärte Morde – Dem Täter auf der Spur zeigt'' (

RTL II RTL Zwei (stylised as RTLZWEI), formerly spelled RTL 2 and RTL II, is a German-language television channel that is operated by ''RTL2 Television GmbH & Co. KG''. RTL2 is a private television broadcaster with a full program ''(Vollprogramm)'' ...

, 2002–2003 and 2011–2013), ' ( NDR Fernsehen and

WDR Fernsehen WDR Fernsehen is a German free-to-air television network owned and operated by Westdeutscher Rundfunk and serving North Rhine-Westphalia. It is one of the seven regional "third programmes" television stations that are offered within the federal ...

, 2008–2011;

Das Erste Das Erste (; "The First") is the flagship national television channel of the ARD association of public broadcasting corporations in Germany. ''Das Erste'' is jointly operated by the nine regional public broadcasting corporations that are memb ...

, 2018 and its regional versions '' Maintower kriminalreport'' (HR, since 2014) and ''Kriminalreport Südwest'' ( SR Fernsehen, 2018–2019), which was replaced by ''Vorsicht Verbrechen'' (SR, since 2019).

Internationally

The format has been sold to several countries, including

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

where it has been known as ''

'' since 1984 and has spawned a number of spin-offs, one of which is still on air (the daytime version) alongside ''Crime NI'', a regional version broadcast monthly in Northern Ireland. ''Aktenzeichen XY'' is the first German television format to have entered the American market, where it is known as ''

'' and was originally broadcast from 1988 to 2013 before being revived in 2021. Other versions include: * Hong Kong ('' Police Report'', 1973–2020; ', 1985–1997) * Netherlands (', since 1975; ', 2021) * Israel (''Crime Investigation'', 1986) * Singapore (''

'', since 1986) * Poland (', 1986–2010, since 2017; ''997: Fajbusiewicz na tropie'', 2013–17) * New Zealand (''

'', 1987–1996; ''NZI Crimescene'', 1997–98) * Italy (', since 1989) * United Kingdom (''Crime Monthly'' (later ''Crime Weekly''), LWT, 1989–1998; ''Britain's Most Wanted'', ITV, 1998–2000; '' Manhunt – Solving Britain's Crimes'', 2006–2007) * Finland (' (originally ''PTV – suunta 931''), 1989–2013) * Brazil ('' Linha Direta'', 1990, 1999–2007) * Norway ('' I søkelyset'', 1990–1991; ', 1992–1997; ''Efterlyst'', 1998–2000, 2007–2008; ', since 2016) * Sweden ('' Efterlyst'', since 1990) * Hungary (''Az XY Akta Megoldatlan'', since 1992) * Ireland ('' Crimeline'', 1992–2003; '' Crimecall'', since 2004) * France (', 1993–1996) * India ('' India's Most Wanted'', 1999–2005) * Denmark (', since 2001) * Belgium (', 2008–2013; ', since 2013) * Austria (''Fahndung Österreich'', since 2021)

References

Literature

* Ummenhofer, Stefan and Thaidigsmann, Michael: ''Aktenzeichen XY... ungelöst – Kriminalität, Kontroverse, Kult''

External links