One anniversary is chasing the next this year in the popular television series “Die Rosenheim Cops”. The first episode was broadcast 20 years ago, on January 9, 2002, and now the 500th episode, “A surprising reunion” (7:25 p.m., ZDF), is on the program on January 25. Of course, three fan favorites in particular should not be missing: Marisa Burger (48), Karin Thaler (56) and Max Müller (56) are celebrating their 20th anniversary in the series. You’ve been part of the series since episode one.
Fan favorites for 20 years
The Munich actress Marisa Burger, as police secretary Miriam Stockl, gives the starting signal for the investigation in every episode with her legendary sentence “There was a corpse!”. “When I started with the ‘Rosenheim Cops’, my daughter started school. And now she’s finished her studies with a master’s degree,” the actress recalls at the start of the series. “It’s incredible that I’ve been able to work in my profession in Munich for 20 years with a fixed income and have put a child through school at the same time.”
The Austrian actor and singer Max Müller has also been there from the start. In the course of the series he made a career: up to episode 230 he played police chief Michael “Michi” Mohr, now he is police chief. He has long been addressed by both names on the street. “I react to both, even to Mr. Müller,” he said with a laugh in an interview with the Linz “Tips” edition. “If you’re allowed to act in a series and it’s going to be a success, then of course you’re a little committed to the role. There are colleagues who think it’s terrible. I don’t think it’s terrible […] Being able to play something like this for so long and really enjoy it is a huge gift. You just have to say ‘thank you’. Everything else is whining at an outrageous level,” continued the native of Klagenfurt.
And the Deggendorf actress Karin Thaler has also been in the series since the first episode. She plays councilwoman Marie Hofer and the sister of the chief inspector Korbinian Hofer, who was played by actor Joseph Hannesschläger (1962-2020) from episode one until his death on January 20, 2020. The death of her fellow actor hit Thaler and the crew deeply. “After so many intensive years of shooting together, you can almost compare it to the loss of a family member,” she once explained to spot on news. “An era is coming to an end for us and we are incredibly sad. But we all stick together because we all like each other very, very much in our private lives too.”
That’s what the 500th episode is about
Bertram Neustädt is found stabbed to death on an alpaca farm leased to Annegret (Eva Wittenzellner, 50) and Hartmut Nerlinger (Georg Veitl, born 1969). Could they have witnessed the crime? As commissioners Anton Stadler (Dieter Fischer, 50) and Birte Andresen (Sophie Melbinger, 36) find out, Neustädt lived there temporarily.
His wife Nicole Neustädt (Simone Ascher, born 1980), who was at the scene of the crime at the time of the crime and had an argument with him, is one of the suspects. On the evening of the crime, Neustädt also had an appointment with Ilse Schmalhofer (Sabine Oberhorner, born 1971). Her husband and Neustädt’s childhood friend Gustav Schmalhofer (Michael Peter Fischer, 45) would also have a motive. When inspectors Stadler and Andresen take a closer look at the “Urbane Farben” company where Bertram Neustädt worked, they come across inconsistencies. Neustädt was a works council member and had received various privileges in the company. Can you find the motive for the crime here? And if that were the case, would Ludwig Urban (Peter Faerber, 68), owner of “Urbane Farben”, have anything to do with it? While the inspectors are investigating, Ms Stockl is busy finding accommodation for the Nerlingers. Their alpaca farm is the scene of the crime and has not yet been released by forensics…