- Horst Schimanski
Horst Schimanski is a fictional policeman who appears in the German "
Tatort " crime series. Portrayed byGötz George , he made his debut in the 1981 episode "Duisburg-Ruhrort" and appeared in 29 episodes until 1997. All the Schimanski episodes were produced by theWDR .Schimanski was consistently written as the prototypical
proletarian . Coming from the mining city ofDuisburg in the so-called "Ruhrpott"-Area, George portrayed him as a rugged, often unkempt simpleton (uneducated, but not unintelligent) who often swore, but never backed out of a fight and kept a sense of honour for minorities. He was perennially accompanied by "Thanner" (portrayed by the late Eberhard Feik), a smart, well-dressed policeman who often served as a foil for the proletarian Schimanski.Reception
From the beginning, Schimanski's character polarised the public: the WDR stated that his opponents saw him as a disgrace for the police and for German TV, his admirers as a new breed of more realistic, streetwise characters ("für die einen war er der Kämpfer für Gerechtigkeit und wurde schließlich zur Kultfigur, für die anderen war er eher ein Gesetzesbrecher, dem etwas Schmuddeliges anhaftete"); [http://www.wdr.de/tv/fernsehfilm/0500_schimanski.phtml Schimanski – Der markante Ermittler vom WDR-Fernsehfilm] ] but in time, he became a cult figure in German culture and the most popular "Tatort" character.
Notes
External links
* [http://horstschimanski.info/ Horst Schimanski fanpage]
* [http://www.wdr.de/tv/fernsehfilm/0500_schimanski.phtml Schimanski – Der markante Ermittler vom WDR-Fernsehfilm (German)]
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