Gangbusfers, German-Style

There once was a con lady from the Ruhr called "Liquor Hilde" who made her living picking up elderly men in bars, going home with them, then drugging and robbing them. Not long ago, before getting down to work in a pigeon's apartment, she and he paused to watch West Germany's favorite TV show, Aktenzeichen: XY . . . Ungelost (Case: XY . . . Unsolved). Suddenly, to her horror, the program began to dramatize her own racket and displayed a mug shot of Hilde herself. She snapped off the set, but it was too late. Although her victim failed to recognize her, one of his neighbors did. The police were alerted, and she was immediately arrested.

That is precisely the purpose of the hour-long monthly series. Each show presents four to six such real-life, unsolved crimes. Ninety minutes later, Narrator Eduard Zimmermann returns to the air with a progress report that is often amazing. Two of the six cases depicted on the April show, for example, were cracked that same night. In its 21-year history, XY has solved 81 of the 164 crimes it has presented.

Because rewards are offered and the emphasis is on lurid cases exposing more sex and violence than is customary on fictional action shows, XY has risen to No. 1 in the ratings. A Spanish imitation of the show is also a hit and will go from bimonthly to weekly in July. A Danish version was canceled after three programs, no arrests and an accusation that the show had inspired a Copenhagen girl to attempt a bank robbery.

False Arrest. A Munich civil rights lawyer is now filing suit to bar XY. He charges that the show 1) creates the impression that the accused are guilty before they can receive a trial and 2) rouses a "chase fever because of the rewards. Zimmermann has made all Germans bounty hunters."

XY has in fact led to 15 false arrests. One man, jailed by mistake in Austria, committed suicide in his cell. Zimmermann still thinks the record of hits more than outweighs the errors. But he has another problem of his own. The show has now been running long enough that several fugitives have served their terms and have been released. Lest they look for vengeance, Zimmermann has installed an extra door on his Mainz home, deployed a huge sentry dog and bought a Walther automatic pistol for his night table.

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