Cobra 11

Alarm für Cobra 11 - Die Autobahnpolizei (Alarm for Cobra 11 - The Motorway Police) is a long-running, popular German television series about a two-man team of highway police, originally set in Berlin and later in North Rhine-Westphalia. 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 replacem

ent became Erdoğan Atalay as Semir Gerkhan. Brandrup quit the series at the end of Season 1. The television network RTL, which carries the series, contracted Mark Keller as André F*x 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 of Season 20. His replacement is actor Gedeon Burkhard as Chris Ritter. Burkhard is best known as Alexander Brandtner in another Austrian-German police show, Inspector Rex. In 2008 Burkhard is replaced by Tom Beck as Ben Jäger. In 2013 Mark Keller returns for one 90 minutes Pilot episode. In 2014 Beck will be replaced by Vinzenz Kiefer as Alex Brandt, the new partner for Semir. The series is known for its extremely well performed stuntwork, which features the destruction of various vehicles in every episode. Almost every episode has a distinct structure, with at least one daring action sequence and the pre-title sequence usually consisting of the main event (i.e. a devastating crash on the Autobahn). The stuntwork is often so spectacular that it would not look out of place in a full-fledged movie, with cars commonly reaching implausible heights as they vault through the air. In two first episodes the main characters were Frank and Ingo. Frank drove an Audi 100 (C3), later a BMW E36 and Ingo drove a Ford Sierra. Ingo was killed in the second episode. Semir is the main character and one of the cops who stayed on the force from the beginning to the end. He became Frank's second partner. He is best known for driving his silver BMW 3 series undercover cars (E36, E46, E90 and F30) 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. In series 2 Semir's new partner became Andre. He had driven a BMW E36, a Mercedes-Benz W202 and later a Mercedes-Benz W208 CLK 320 coupe. He was killed in Maiorca after being shot in the chest with a harpoon gun. Tom is one of the more outgoing guys on the force, while Semir is serious. He also has 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 the Mercedes-Benz CLK 320, the same car that Andre used, which is wrecked a dozen times. Jan was Semir's partner before he left the force, he was introduced in the episode "Feuertaufe" shortly after Tom's emotional withdraw. Jan was the young equivalent to Semir's experience. He used Tom's Mercedes-Benz and later a W209 CLK. He left the force shortly after and Semir was forced to look for Tom again. Tom agreed to go back and he used Jan's car. He was killed in action shortly after. Chris, who was originally a police officer working undercover, 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 W209 CLK 320 which is the same one as Jan and Tom had used and in season 23 he started driving a gray Mercedes-Benz W204. His off-work car is unknown. Chris dies at the end of the episode "Unter Feinden", and he was killed by a mafia leader, and with his death, Semir chased him for months. Ben Jäger succeeded Chris and was introduced in the following episode. He is characterised as being an ambitious, often rebellic young officer and the counterpart to Semir's behaviour. He uses the same car that Chris used, but later, he swapped it for a gray Mercedes-Benz W212. He shows up just when Semir is going to bring the main witness in Berlin testify against the mafia leader who killed Chris. Semir is first distrustful of him, but then they soon grow up to be good friends. Dieter Bonrath serves as the cobra team's backup officer throughout his career; his partner is an obese, bearded officer named Horst "Hotte" Herzberger. In the episode "72 Stunden Angst" (72 Hours Of Fear) Hotte wanted to retire from the force, having served 43 years, but wanted to solve one last case. During this case Hotte, in an attempt to save Ben pushes him out of the sights of a drug dealer's assault rifle, only to be shot in the chest himself. He dies a few minutes later with Bonrath, Ben, Semir and Kim Krüger (their boss) at his side. They used to drive a green and white "Polizei" Porsche 911 turbo highway patrol car but later swapped it for a silver green police version of the recent Porsche Cayenne. The series has also spawned numerous game releases in Germany, primarily for PC, but they have generally met with mixed receptions. The latest title is Alarm für Cobra 11: The Syndicate, released on 23 December 2010. Crash Time was also dubbed into English and sold in many other markets worldwide. In 2002 started a spin-off named Alarm für Cobra 11 - Einsatz für Team 2 (Alarm für Cobra 11 - misson for team two). Because of its little success, only two seasons were produced.