Best German crime series

To win back his ex-girlfriend, a nerdy teen starts selling ecstasy online out of his bedroom -- and becomes one of Europe's biggest dealers.

A mysterious woman's escape from her harrowing captivity points investigators toward the dark truth behind an unsolved disappearance 13 years earlier.

Beneath the decadence of 1929 Berlin, lies an underworld city of sin. Police investigator Gereon Rath has been transferred from Cologne to the epicenter of political and social changes in the Golden Twenties.

Through globalization, many countries have been opened and barriers removed to ensure easy trade, travel and cultural diversity. However, this openness has given opportunities to criminals looking to exploit the system and ultimately threaten our global safety. As Europe has become a "safe house" for criminals eluding law enforcers, a special kind of law enforcement team is needed to handle specific ongoing crimes on a global level. "Crossing Lines" is the story of one such team, made up of five international cops, headed by Captain Daniel. The team - comprised of individuals who have little in common - must learn to live and work under the most dangerous and potentially deadly conditions. Housed in an unused storage section underneath the ICC, this mismatched team faces bureaucratic, jurisdictional and cultural obstacles while traversing continents in pursuit of justice.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, a former East German spy resolves to find out who betrayed her and why — and use her lethal skills to exact revenge.

When mafia lawyer Björn attends a mindfulness class to find a better work-life balance, he discovers surprising new coping strategies — including murder.

Heiko Schotte (Schotty) works for a cleaning company, cleaning all kind of crime scenes. There he sometimes meets weird people and tries to solve difficult situations.

Based in Neukölln, Berlin Toni manages the daily business of dealing with the Arabic gangs and ends up wanting to leave his old life behind for his family, but as expected, its never that simple.

A politically sensitive murder forces two disparate detectives into a battle with the Berlin underworld and a confrontation with their own corruption.

When a singer is found murdered, with her scent glands excised from her body, detectives probe a group of friends who attended boarding school with her.

In the interview room, detectives go head-to-head with suspects and try to get to the truth—even if it means breaking the rules and risking it all.

Max Liebermann, a student of Sigmund Freud, helps Detective Rheinhardt in the investigation of a series of disturbing murders around the grand cafes and opera houses of 1900s Vienna.

Ambitious Jana is confronted with the unscrupulous machinations of the world of finance. Her working life is determined by egotism, the pressure to succeed and machismo. She soon has to decide how far she is prepared to go for her career.

A priceless coin puts rival gangs across Europe at odds, forcing a retired safecracker to team up with a two-bit gangster for one last heist.

New York, USA. Stockholm, Sweden. Over the past twelve months young, blonde, blue-eyed women have been found dead in a meadow where Asphodel flowers grow. New York Detective Tommy Conley gets a special dispensation from the NYPD to go observe and act as an adviser to the Stockholm Police Department in order to help solve these crimes.

A former detective now living on the streets searches for the truth after a new death raises unnerving doubts about a supposedly settled murder case.

After Birgit Meier vanishes in 1989, police missteps plague the case for years. But her brother never wavers in his tireless quest to find the truth.

A chain reaction in the European power grid plunges the continent into darkness. Hacker Pierre Manzano realizes that a code he wrote is to blame. In Germany Frauke Michelsen heads the country’s crisis response team. Disaster looms.

A German BKA agent and a Spanish Civil Guard sergeant reluctantly team up to investigate a crime in the Canary Islands' German community, navigating cultural differences.

After a number of murders of prostitutes at a motorway stop near Berlin, in a rear courtyard in Antwerp, and in a brothel in Copenhagen, Europol decides to form a taskforce to tackle the case. Harald, a Dane, Jackie, a German, and Alice from Belgium embark on the hunt for the killer. As the case unfolds, the killings prove to be just the tip of the iceberg, the iceberg itself being a large, pan-European criminal organization involved in everything from drugs and financial crime to corruption, hired killings and not least people trafficking , illegal labor and prostitution.

Mord mit Aussicht is a German satirical crime comedy television series, produced by ARD, following the adventures of Sophie Haas, a detective from the city that takes a job in the fictional country village of Hengasch. Much of the humour of the series derives from the clichés of both city and provincial lives, in a similar manner to the English comedy crime series Midsomer Murders.

Zen is a British television mini series produced by Left Bank Pictures for the BBC, co-produced with WGBH Boston for its Masterpiece anthology series, Mediaset and ZDF. It stars Rufus Sewell and Caterina Murino and is based on the Aurelio Zen detective novels by Michael Dibdin. The series was filmed on location in Italy, but the dialogue is in English. The series, which comprises three 90-minute films, was broadcast in the United Kingdom on Sunday evenings from 2 January 2011 on BBC One. The three films were based on the books Vendetta, Cabal and Ratking.

A hip-hop producer gets tangled in organized crime when the gangster brother of his record label's owner returns from exile to claim his share.

Desperate for startup stardom, an overly ambitious finance mastermind lies, cheats and schemes his less-than-authentic company up the ladder to success.

An overwhelmed family man (Bastian Pastewka) starts to produce counterfeit money in his own run down print shop.

When a grisly murder brings Detective Maik Briegand back to his small hometown, he finds himself dredging up bodies, clues and his own past traumas.

Der letzte Bulle is a German television series that was first aired in 2010. The series is about a cop from the 1980s put into a modern police department in Essen.

In 2012, a string of grisly murders sent shock waves through the Berlin party scene. The killer remained at large — until one of his targets survived.

The survivor of a famous child-abduction case joins a special task force dedicated to solving abductions and missing person cases.

In late 1920s Berlin, Franz Biberkopf is released from prison and vows to go straight. However, he soon finds himself embroiled in the city’s criminal underworld.

Felix Winterberg is the great-great-grandson of the famous Albert Einstein and himself a recognized physics genius. Because of a deadly hereditary disease, the brilliant researcher only has a few years left - which he wants to make as labor-intensive as possible thanks to various illegal stimulants.

Im Angesicht des Verbrechens is a German television series about the Russian mafia in Berlin. It received high critical acclaim, but the viewer figures were disappointing. It was broadcast by ARTE and Das Erste.

Acclaimed series based on the true story of an unprecedented hostage crisis which shocked Germany in the summer of 1988.

A show about two Bavarian police officers, Franz Hubert and Johannes Staller, who sometimes work a bit differently. Where Franz wants to follow regulations, Johannes likes to do things his own way.

In the summer of 1989, the sister of Hamburg's LKA chief Thomas Bethge disappears without a trace. For almost three decades, he investigates the mysterious criminal case, before he gets on the trail of a serial killer.

The city of Schwerin is melting – it is the hottest summer in years. Detectives Lona Mendt and Frank Elling are on the trail of a serial murderer, who seems to choose his victims randomly. But nothing is as it seems. The detectives have apparently made some powerful enemies that will do everything in their power to keep the truth from coming to light. The further along with their investigation Frank Elling, a devoted husband and father, and the aloof Lona Mendt get, the bigger the obstacles become.

Nela Langenbeck is a commissioner with the Hamburg police and not only fights against crime, but also against the misogynist structures of the police apparatus of the 1990s. She and her colleagues are not really taken seriously and are often treated more like secretaries. You can make coffee and sort files. Langenbeck is investigating the case of the acid barrel murderer Raik Doormann, who absolutely needs to be under lock and key because she is the only one who takes an escaped victim seriously. Doorman abducts, tortures and kills women in his own nuclear bunker and throws body parts into acid barrels. His goal is to extort money to make his dream of living in Costa Rica possible. The commissioner gets on the trail of the woman killer and uncovers incredibly brutal machinations that keep the whole country in suspense...

Police officer Luise Berg heads for an inevitable catastrophe after her daughter’s murderer is released early from prison. A psychologically complex game of confusion begins in which the boundaries of guilt and innocence, perpetrators and victims, law and justice are constantly blurred.

While attending a Hollywood premiere with a famous action star, a crazed fan pulls a gun—but her movie hunk turns into a coward, and it's Vallery who becomes the hero. Suddenly, she's thrown into a world of action and danger as owner of a Hollywood protection agency, Vallery Irons Protection (V.I.P.), taking risks to protect others at a price few are willing to pay.

Derrick was a German TV series produced by Telenova Film und Fernsehproduktion in association with ZDF, ORF and SRG between 1974 and 1998 about Detective Chief Inspector Stephan Derrick and his loyal assistant Inspector Harry Klein, who solve murder cases in Munich and surroundings.

The focus is on the psychologist Stefan Schwab, who after overwork, burnout and divorce is actually just looking for the proverbial “Boarische Rua” ("Bavarian peace") in the tranquil foothills of the Alps. However, this wish is not fulfilled; instead, he is reluctantly drawn into the bloody awakening of ancient legends: children disappear, “sinners” are murdered and archaic legends suddenly take on a deadly relevance.

The sinister discovery of numerous murder victims shocks the Oderbruch region. The serial murder case brings Detective Roland Voit to his hometown to work with Polish police officer Stanislaw Zajak. Voit’s former colleague and childhood sweetheart, Maggie Kring, is also called in to join the police investigation when her family comes under immediate suspicion. In their investigation, Maggie and Voit delve deep into their own past to finally uncover the true circumstances of the death of Maggie’s brother and the sinister truth of this case, which lies beyond human imagination.

Georg Wilsberg is an antiquarian in Münster. He used to be a lawyer but lost his license. Since then he has been working as a private detective. The always clammy Wilsberg urgently needs this income. In addition, he depends on the support of his friends, especially because of the car.

As Havana slowly revolves through the year, wistful detective Mario Conde probes the sultry heart of the city to investigate dark and deadly crimes.

After German reunification, the neo-Nazi National Socialist Underground begins a killing spree while cops fight an uphill battle to catch them.

After being raped, young police detective Sunny Becker returns to work and tries to catch the fugitive killer André Haffner before he strikes again. In a race against time, the biggest thing holding Sunny back are her own demons.

Jasper Teerlinck, an eccentric professor, is an adviser to the police.

The clock is ticking... When a woman is bludgeoned to death, detectives face mounting pressure to crack the case and catch a killer. Intense crime drama inspired by real-life cases.

Momo, a young soccer player who ends up innocently behind bars. In Berlin jail he now has to assert himself and is put under pressure by his uncle, the clan leader Amar.

A tough detective is kidnapped shortly before the delivery of her child. Afterwards she can't remember anything. The search for the missing child begins.

In the final analysis, it all comes down to guilt, different shades of guilt that one assumes in a single moment of thoughtlessness or in months of premeditated planning. Defence Attorney Friedrich Kronberg knows he must tip legal scales of justice in favour of his client for crimes that are never black and white and what they may seem. In German with subtitles.

5 prisoners, a bank robbery, 6 hostages, adrenaline, chaos, unfinished business. Fast, unpredictable, merciless.

Shows the interaction between Hamburg police officers and paramedics.

Der Bulle von Tolz is an Austrian-German television series which has been produced and broadcast by SAT.1 and the ORF since 1996. As of January 2009, 69 self-contained feature-length episodes have been made. (wikipedia)

When 10 year old girl is kidnapped from the natural history museum, the police questions eight key witnesses to uncover the truth and find the child before it's too late.

20-year-old Janine Grabowski disappears in a small Bavarian town near the Czech border. While all evidence indicates that Janine secretly wanted to leave the backcountry, her mother, Michelle, becomes increasingly convinced that there's something amiss. Michelle's missing person's report is quickly filed away by the police. So the single mother is forced to investigate at her own risk. The longer she hunts for an answer to Janine's disappearance, the more she discovers about her daughter and the people with whom she kept company. She begins to doubt whether Janine even wants to be found.

Police investigator Irene Huss lives in Gothenburg, Sweden, and tries to balance between murder investigations and family life.

An incorruptible judge has spent his career fighting organized crime. However, the tables are turned when his son is guilty of a hit-and-run case.

Two schoolboys who have just discovered a mutual attraction are witnesses to the murder of three gang members. Although Jan and Lukas are seen, they are able to flee, but the fear of being found by the murderer starts to weigh heavily on them. The local police chief Helen (Nicolette Krebitz) is investigating the case, along with her Munich colleague Corinna and her new boss Roman Berg. In a mix of fear and embarrassment, the teenagers hope that staying silent will keep them alive.

A police department, lead by an older, experienced detective solve crimes together.

Die Pfefferkörner is a German television series produced by Der Kinderkanal. The peppercorns are five friends from Hamburg: Jana Holstein Coutre, Natasha "Tascha" Jaonzäns, Philip "Fiete" Overbeck, Cem Gülec and Vivien "Vivi" Overbeck, Fiete's eight year old sister. After school, the young detectives meet at a high level of a spice warehouse of the company Overbeck & Associates, which belongs to Fiete and Vivi's parents in the first part, but is later given to Fiete and Vivi to look after. Here, in the historic warehouse district, the five friends have their headquarters. With smarts, combined delivery and support of the Internet, they find their cases here. The detectives convict polluters, animal dealers and drug smugglers. They also help each other with personal problems they encounter. Cem has lost his parents in a car accident and sometimes feels sad and lonely. Jana lives with her divorcee mother, a lawyer who is rarely at home. Natasha comes from Latvia. Her parents initially have very strict rules in terms of her education, that make Natasha unhappy. Fiete has problems showing his feelings and hides them behind grumpiness and hostility towards girls, until he falls in love with Natasha. Vivi is suffering from her role of the youngest member of the group. She believes that she must constantly struggle for recognition.

A team of inspectors investigates murders in and around the small Upper Bavarian town of Rosenheim, and they still have plenty of time to see idyllic landscapes and luxurious pre-alpine villas and enjoy sumptuous Bavarian fare with beer.

Der Clown was a German television series that ran between 21 April 1998 and 11 October 2001. It ran for 46 episodes, and starred Sven Martinek, Diana Frank, Thomas Anzenhofer and Volkmar Kleinert. Der Clown was also a 2005 film.