In 1993, ZDF began work on the crime comedy Gemischtes Doppel (German for: "mixed doubles"); a buddy cop film where Ossi and Wessi police officers got teamed up in the wake of the Peaceful Revolution.
The male lead character was still vacant when at the opening party of André Hennicke's pub, co-director Konrad Sabrautzky got talking to actor Florian Martens, whom he deemed perfect for the role.
Critics have noted that after two decades, the carefully crafted and contrasting biographies of the lead roles have faded and made way for a cast with less of a backstory, resulting in a more generic crime series.
[3] The series originally starred detective chief superintendents Verena Berthold (played by Maja Maranow) and Otto Garber (Florian Martens) as the main characters.
In August 2015, Maja Maranow announced to be leaving the series to focus on other movies,[4] but she died of breast cancer on 4 January 2016 at age 54,[5] five days before the air date of the last episode in which she starred.