Alarm for Cobra 11 – The Highway Police
Alarm für Cobra 11 – Die Autobahnpolizei is a long-running, popular German television series about a two-man team of highway police, originally set in Berlin and since 1999 in the area of Cologne. The series is internationally distributed by Fremantle and has been broadcast in 120 countries worldwide.
The last regular episode "Das Team" aired on 12 August 2021. In an interview, main star Erdoğan Atalay blamed the stoppage on the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, the series returned in the form of 90-minute TV movies.
Plot
The tasks of the Cobra 11 team consist primarily in solving crimes and catching the perpetrators. Typical elements of the action genre are mixed, so that there are regular car crashes, shootouts, explosions and fistfights. These action scenes are elaborately produced in most cases, and appropriately presented in a spectacular way. The high number of unrealistic scenes is a common criticism of the series; for example, large explosions often happen after small collisions while people emerge unharmed out of cars which have sustained catastrophic damage.Stunts
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. 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.Production locations
From 1996 to 1998, the series was produced jointly by Polyphon Film- und Fernsehgesellschaft GmbH and ActionConcept. Those episodes were shot in Berlin, notably in the site of the former Checkpoint Bravo and in the surrounding state of Brandenburg. In 1998, Action Concept took over as the sole production company and shifted all filming/production work to its headquarters in Hürth just south of Cologne. Since then, episodes have been shot in and around Cologne and Düsseldorf as well as on several major Autobahnen between Cologne and Düsseldorf in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.Cast
Main
- Johannes Brandrup as Detective Chief Inspector Frank Stolte
- Rainer Strecker as Detective Chief Inspector Ingo Fischer
- Erdoğan Atalay as Detective Chief Superintendent Semir Gerkhan
- Almut Eggert as Police Chief Katharina Lamprecht
- Mark Keller as Detective Chief Inspector André Fux
- René Steinke as Detective Chief Inspector Tom Kranich
- Christian Oliver as Detective Inspector Jan Richter
- Gedeon Burkhard as Detective Chief Inspector Chris Ritter
- Tom Beck as Detective Chief Inspector Ben Jäger
- Vinzenz Kiefer as Detective Chief Inspector Alex Brandt
- Daniel Roesner as Detective Chief Inspector Paul Renner
- Katja Woywood as Police Chief Kim Krüger
- Katrin Heß as Detective Sergeant Jenny Dorn
- Niels Kurvin as CSU Hartmud Freund
- Daniela Wutte as Secretary Susanne König
- Pia Stutzenstein as Detective Inspector Vicky Reisinger
- Patrick Kalupa as Police Chief Roman Kramer
- Christopher Patten as Detective Marc Schaffrath
- Gizem Emre as Dana Gerkhan, a police officer and Semir's illegitimate daughter. Tesha Moon Krieg played her as a child in season 16.
- Nicolas Wolf as Officer Max Tauber
Recurring
- Dietmar Huhn as Officer III Horst Herzberger. An older police officer and good friend of Semir's, until he was killed in the line of duty.
- Gottfried Vollmer as Officer III Dieter Bonrath. Horst's partner with a teenage son. Also killed in the line of duty.
- Carina Wiese as Andrea Gerkhan. She was the precinct's secretary before becoming Semir's wife and the mother of his two younger daughters.
Preamble
- The opening titles of the first 158 episodes had the following preamble:
Ihr Tempo ist mörderisch
Ihre Gegner: Autoschieber, Mörder und Erpresser
Einsatz rund um die Uhr für die Männer von Cobra 11
Unsere Sicherheit ist ihr Job.
- During episodes 159–243, the preamble was:
Ihr Einsatz heißt: volles Tempo
Ihre Gegner von heute: extrem schnell und gefährlich
Verbrechen ohne Limit – Jeder Einsatz volles Risiko
für die Männer von Cobra 11.
- Since episode 244, the preamble was:
Ihre Gegner: extrem schnell und gefährlich.
Verbrechen ohne Limit.
Jeder Einsatz – volles Risiko
für die Männer von Cobra 11.
- From 2014 to 2019, the preamble was:
Ihre Gegner: extrem schnell und gefährlich.
Volles Risiko
für die Männer von Cobra 11.
Episodes 365 to 381 features an all-new variation of the theme song, but lacks any opening preamble.
Legacy
Game adaptations
The series has also spawned numerous game releases in Europe, primarily for PC, but they have generally met with mixed receptions. The latest title is Crash Time 5: Undercover. ''Crash Time'' was also dubbed into English and sold in many other markets worldwide.Spin-off
In 2002, a spin-off named was started. Because of its limited success, only two seasons were produced.Parodies
- Alarm für Cobra 11 – Die Autobahnpolizei was regularly parodied as "Alarm für Kebap 11 – Die Dönerpölizei" by , a German comedy sketch program. The segments feature the team talking in exaggerated Turkish accents and many references to Döner Kebab. Erdoğan Atalay and René Steinke themselves have made cameo appearances in some episodes.
- The series has also been parodied on Switch TV and Switch reloaded.
- Alarm für Cobra 11 – Die Autobahnpolizei was also parodied in the Latvian comedy show Savādi gan.