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A Case for Two
A case for two (German: Ein Fall für zwei) is a German television series, which premiered on 11 September 1981 on ZDF. The series, set in Frankfurt, features two main characters who solve crimes: a defense attorney and a private investigator.
Ein Fall für zwei follows the investigations of the Frankfurt private detective Josef Matula (played by Claus Theo Gärtner), who works not for the police but for changing defence lawyers. In the opening sequence of the early years, Matula is shown leaving custody, defended by attorney Dr. Dieter Renz; Renz then hires him as an external investigator. This establishes the basic idea of the series, formulated by ZDF in its 30-year press material: a lawyer represents a client before the authorities, while an unbound, street-smart investigator searches for the real perpetrator outside the official channels.
Matula is a former police officer who was forced out of the service and now earns his living case by case. He works alone, drives through Frankfurt am Main and the wider Rhine-Main region, and is prepared to bend rules to get information. He questions witnesses off the record, infiltrates bars, clubs and shady businesses, and in many episodes confronts suspects physically; the ZDF dossier notes explicitly that “the investigator is closer to the people than the police and therefore sometimes has to take risks.” Because of these methods he is himself occasionally arrested or suspected, but is cleared once the real culprit is found.
Every episode is built around the same core constellation. A crime – usually a murder, sometimes kidnapping, insurance fraud or an economic offence – leads to the arrest of a seemingly obvious suspect. This person hires the lawyer of the current era (Renz, then Franck, later Voss, finally Lessing; see Attorneys). The lawyer handles the formal defence, speaks to the public prosecutor and the police, and keeps the client out of pre-trial detention. In parallel, Matula reconstructs what really happened: he re-visits the crime scene, checks alibis, talks to neighbours, colleagues and relatives, and often uncovers a second motive (inheritance, jealousy, business rivalry) that the police overlooked. In the majority of episodes the arrested person turns out to be innocent, but not every story ends with a full acquittal — some conclude with a lesser charge or with the exposure of a cover-up.
A characteristic element of the series is the change of the lawyer figure while Matula stays the same. Dr. Dieter Renz (played by Günter Strack) embodies the classic Frankfurt attorney of the 1980s, cultivated and methodical. He is replaced in episode 60 by Dr. Rainer Franck (played by Rainer Hunold), who is more modern, socially engaged and often at odds with the authorities. When Franck leaves to teach law, his protégé Dr. Johannes Voss (played by Mathias Herrmann) takes over; his violent death in episode 182 (Morgen bist du tot) is one of the few tragic turning points of the entire run. Dr. Markus Lessing (played by Paul Frielinghaus), introduced immediately afterwards, brings the series into the 2000s with a more personal, music-loving, sometimes ironic lawyer figure. ZDF explained this long-term success in 2011 with the formula “same detective, new lawyer”: the constant of Matula plus a periodically renewed counterpart.
From the late 1990s into the Lessing era, the plot pattern became slightly broader. The episode lists show that recurring police characters such as Kommissar Allberg, Scharnow and Enders were introduced, so that Matula no longer faced an entirely anonymous police force but returning officers who knew his methods. This allowed for more stories in which Matula himself was under suspicion or had to clear his name.
The series also adapted to changing television habits. ZDF stated that the 60-minute length was deliberately chosen for the Friday-evening slot, but in the 2000s episodes were shortened by about five minutes for commercial breaks and edited with faster cuts. Around 2006–2007, nightlife and strip club scenes appeared more frequently, especially when Matula interrogated owners or guests, but these were later dropped when the show reverted to a more classical investigative tone.
In 2014 the format was rebooted with new characters: lawyer Benni Hornberg (portrayed by Antoine Monot Jr.) and private detective Leo Oswald (played by Wanja Mues) again operate in Frankfurt am Main, one inside the legal system, one outside. Both the media portal DWDL.de and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung underlined that the basic dynamic — “one fights, the other defends” — remained intact, but that staging, music and character-private-life elements were modernised for a younger audience.
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A Case for Two
A case for two (German: Ein Fall für zwei) is a German television series, which premiered on 11 September 1981 on ZDF. The series, set in Frankfurt, features two main characters who solve crimes: a defense attorney and a private investigator.
Ein Fall für zwei follows the investigations of the Frankfurt private detective Josef Matula (played by Claus Theo Gärtner), who works not for the police but for changing defence lawyers. In the opening sequence of the early years, Matula is shown leaving custody, defended by attorney Dr. Dieter Renz; Renz then hires him as an external investigator. This establishes the basic idea of the series, formulated by ZDF in its 30-year press material: a lawyer represents a client before the authorities, while an unbound, street-smart investigator searches for the real perpetrator outside the official channels.
Matula is a former police officer who was forced out of the service and now earns his living case by case. He works alone, drives through Frankfurt am Main and the wider Rhine-Main region, and is prepared to bend rules to get information. He questions witnesses off the record, infiltrates bars, clubs and shady businesses, and in many episodes confronts suspects physically; the ZDF dossier notes explicitly that “the investigator is closer to the people than the police and therefore sometimes has to take risks.” Because of these methods he is himself occasionally arrested or suspected, but is cleared once the real culprit is found.
Every episode is built around the same core constellation. A crime – usually a murder, sometimes kidnapping, insurance fraud or an economic offence – leads to the arrest of a seemingly obvious suspect. This person hires the lawyer of the current era (Renz, then Franck, later Voss, finally Lessing; see Attorneys). The lawyer handles the formal defence, speaks to the public prosecutor and the police, and keeps the client out of pre-trial detention. In parallel, Matula reconstructs what really happened: he re-visits the crime scene, checks alibis, talks to neighbours, colleagues and relatives, and often uncovers a second motive (inheritance, jealousy, business rivalry) that the police overlooked. In the majority of episodes the arrested person turns out to be innocent, but not every story ends with a full acquittal — some conclude with a lesser charge or with the exposure of a cover-up.
A characteristic element of the series is the change of the lawyer figure while Matula stays the same. Dr. Dieter Renz (played by Günter Strack) embodies the classic Frankfurt attorney of the 1980s, cultivated and methodical. He is replaced in episode 60 by Dr. Rainer Franck (played by Rainer Hunold), who is more modern, socially engaged and often at odds with the authorities. When Franck leaves to teach law, his protégé Dr. Johannes Voss (played by Mathias Herrmann) takes over; his violent death in episode 182 (Morgen bist du tot) is one of the few tragic turning points of the entire run. Dr. Markus Lessing (played by Paul Frielinghaus), introduced immediately afterwards, brings the series into the 2000s with a more personal, music-loving, sometimes ironic lawyer figure. ZDF explained this long-term success in 2011 with the formula “same detective, new lawyer”: the constant of Matula plus a periodically renewed counterpart.
From the late 1990s into the Lessing era, the plot pattern became slightly broader. The episode lists show that recurring police characters such as Kommissar Allberg, Scharnow and Enders were introduced, so that Matula no longer faced an entirely anonymous police force but returning officers who knew his methods. This allowed for more stories in which Matula himself was under suspicion or had to clear his name.
The series also adapted to changing television habits. ZDF stated that the 60-minute length was deliberately chosen for the Friday-evening slot, but in the 2000s episodes were shortened by about five minutes for commercial breaks and edited with faster cuts. Around 2006–2007, nightlife and strip club scenes appeared more frequently, especially when Matula interrogated owners or guests, but these were later dropped when the show reverted to a more classical investigative tone.
In 2014 the format was rebooted with new characters: lawyer Benni Hornberg (portrayed by Antoine Monot Jr.) and private detective Leo Oswald (played by Wanja Mues) again operate in Frankfurt am Main, one inside the legal system, one outside. Both the media portal DWDL.de and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung underlined that the basic dynamic — “one fights, the other defends” — remained intact, but that staging, music and character-private-life elements were modernised for a younger audience.