ZDF reportage series "XY history"
XY history: The first homicide detective - Ernst Gennat Broadcasting on 17th of March 2025 at 06.45pm on ZDFinfo
Germany's first homicide detective, Ernst Gennat, investigates spectacular cases in 1920s Berlin and revolutionizes criminalistics - with methods that are still tried and tested today.
December 1927: Shortly before Christmas, the well-off 21-year-old butcher's daughter Dora Perske sets off to visit relatives. When the train reaches Friedrichshagen on time an hour later, she is found lying seriously injured in a pool of blood. An ambulance takes her to the Charité hospital, but she dies shortly afterwards.
Ernst Gennat (played by Stephan Grossmann), Germany's first homicide detective, takes up the investigation - always at his side: secretary Trudchen Steiner (played by Marina Lötschert). The ingenious investigator will later convict the perpetrator through his special form of interrogation.
Gennat is still considered a luminary in German criminal history today. Until the 1920s, there was no homicide department, no interrogation protocols and no autopsy reports in police work. As an inspector, the so-called Buddha of Alex, who was not only a real heavyweight in his profession, streamlined and structured the investigation methods and achieved an above-average clearance rate.
Music in all both series by POPVIRUS Library