Joerg Winger (born 1969 in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

) is an

Executive Producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights ...

and Managing Director at Big Window Productions and a co-creator of the television drama ''

Deutschland 83 ''Deutschland 83'' is a 2015 German television series starring Jonas Nay as a 24-year-old native of East Germany who, in 1983, is sent to West Germany as an undercover spy for the HVA, the foreign intelligence agency of the Stasi. It is a co-p ...

''.

Early life and education

Winger was born in Cologne. He studied

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

and was trained to listen to intercepted Russian radio broadcasts during his

military service Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job ( volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft ( conscription). Some nations (e.g., Mexico) requ ...

in West Germany. Winger worked as a journalist and studied economics at the

University of Cologne The University of Cologne (german: Universität zu Köln) is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in the year 1388 and is one of the most prestigious and research intensive universities in Germany. It was the sixth university to ...

. In 1990 he met his wife

Anna Winger Anna Winger (née LeVine; born 1970) is an American writer, producer, screenwriter, and photographer who lives in Berlin, Germany. She is creator of the television dramas ''Deutschland 83,'' '' Deutschland 86,'' ''Deutschland 89,'' and '' Unortho ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

.Peter Zander
"Deutschland 83: „Vielleicht braucht es den fremden Blick“"

Career

In the early 2000s Winger moved from

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

to be the showrunner of

Leipzig Homicide ''Leipzig Homicide (SOKO Leipzig)'' is a German crime drama television series first broadcast on 31 January 2001 on ZDF. More than 400 episodes have been screened since. On 12 November 2008, the first of a two-part crossover between ''SOKO Leip ...

Winger has since produced more than 300 episodes of multi-award-nominated prime-time series

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

, including 14 feature-length episodes set in locations such as Moscow, Istanbul and Santo Domingo and a crossover episode with UK series ''

The Bill ''The Bill'' is a British police procedural television series, first broadcast on ITV from 16 August 1983 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, '' Woodentop'', broadcast in August 1983. The programme focused on ...

'' on ITV. In 2012, Winger created a YouTube channel "Trigger", where he co-created the animated series ''Serial Killers'' with Marie Meimberg. ''Serial Killers'' was sold to German TV network RTL Crime. With his wife,

, is co-creator and executive producer of ''

'', broadcast on

Sundance TV Sundance TV (formerly known as Sundance Channel) is an American pay television channel owned by AMC Networks that launched on February 1, 1996. The channel is named after Robert Redford's character in ''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'' and, w ...

(USA) in June 2015 and on RTL (Germany) in November and December 2015. The 8-episode series, is about a young East German spy on an undercover mission to West Germany in 1983 and was inspired by Winger's military service experiences. ''

'' had its world premiere when the first two episodes were shown at the 2015

Berlin Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...

and has gone on to win a number of awards including: The Grimmepreis,

Goldene Kamera The Goldene Kamera ("Golden Camera") is an annual German film and television award, awarded by the Funke Mediengruppe. The award show is usually held in early February in Hamburg, but has also taken place in Berlin in the past. The gold-plate ...

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

, and an

International Emmy The International Emmy Awards, or International Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based International Academy of Television Arts and ...

. Winger is co-creator and executive producer of ''

Hackerville ''Hackerville'' is an international co-produced Romanian and German language television drama series consisting of six episodes, which aired on HBO Europe and German TNT Serie channel in November–December 2018. Cast * Anna Schumacher * Andi ...

'', a six-part German-Romanian cybercrime drama for

HBO Europe HBO Europe is a premium television group of channels by HBO. It is available as a group of film channels and streaming television services in Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, ...

and

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reage ...

which was awarded the Grimmepreis in 2019. Winger regularly gives lectures on the development and production of television series at Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg in

Ludwigsburg Ludwigsburg (; Swabian: ''Ludisburg'') is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about north of Stuttgart city centre, near the river Neckar. It is the largest and primary city of the Ludwigsburg district with about 88,000 inhabitants. It is ...

.Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH
"Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH: Infotext Serien Producing"
.

Filmography (Producer)

* 2007-2008: ''Ein Fall für Nadja'' * 2008: ''

'' * 2011: '' World Express-Atemlos durch Mexiko'' * 2013: '' SOKO: Der Prozess'' * 2015: ''

'' * 2002–2018: ''

'' * 2018: ''

Deutschland 86 ''Deutschland 86'' () is a 2018 German television series starring Jonas Nay as an agent of East Germany in 1986, in relation to the Angolan Civil War. It is a sequel to the 2015 series ''Deutschland 83'' and precedes the 2020 series ''Deutsch ...

'' * 2020: ''

Deutschland 89 ''Deutschland 89'' is a German television series, starring Jonas Nay as Martin Rauch, an agent of East Germany following the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. It is a sequel to the 2015 series '' Deutschland 83'', and 2018 series '' Deutschla ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Winger, Joerg Television people from Cologne Living people 1969 births