Reeperbahn Special Unit 65

Story

In Hamburg’s red-light district, a special unit of the CID fights organized crime. This 5-part documentary series is set in St. Pauli, Hamburg’s red-light district, where in the 1980s brutal power struggles were carried out in the lucrative gambling, prostitution and drug businesses. From Wilfrid Schulz, the so-called “Godfather of St. Pauli” and his connections to the US Mafia, rival gangs of pimps to the Hells Angels, contract killers and South American drug barons: the “Kiez”, as the area is known, was a hotspot of criminal activity, a many-headed Hydra. Interviews, archive material and dramatized elements are conflated into a gripping true crime series, in which former detectives are interviewed, along with criminals they were investigating.

Director

GEORG TSCHURTSCHENTALER (*1974 in South Tyrol) has been producing, writing and making documentaries since 2003. CARSTEN GUTSCHMIDT (*1975) has shot over 100 music videos since 1998 and since 2013 has been making docudramas, including Leningrad Symphony (2017). INA KESSEBOHM has been making features and documentaries since 2013 for among others Arte, MDR, Spiegel TV and ZDF.