This is the list of Alarm für Cobra 11 – Die Autobahnpolizei characters.
Preview Character Actor Position Seasons 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 252627 Semir Gerkhan Erdoğan Atalay Detective Chief Main Katharina Lamprecht Almut Eggert Detective Chief, Department Head Main Recurring Frank Stolte Johannes Brandrup Detective Main Guest Ingo Fischer Rainer Strecker Detective Main † Anna Engelhardt Charlotte Schwab Detective Chief,Department Head Recurring Recurring? Horst Herzberger Dietmar Huhn Officer III Recurring † Dieter Bonrath Gottfried Vollmer Officer III Recurring †Recurring†? Andrea Gerkhan (née Schäfer) Carina Wiese Secretary Recurring Recurring André Fux Mark Keller Detective Main Guest † Tom Kranich René Steinke Detective Main Main † Hartmut Freund Niels Kurvin CSU Recurring Jan Richter Christian Oliver Detective Main Chris Ritter Gedeon Burkhard Detective Main † Susanne König Daniela Wutte Secretary Recurring Kim Krüger Katja Woywood Detective Chief, Department Head Recurring Ben Jäger Tom Beck Detective Main Guest Jennifer Dorn Katrin Heß Detective Recurring Alexander "Alex" Brandt Vinzenz Kiefer Detective Main Dana Gerkhan Gizem Emre Officer III(Plainclothes) Recurring Main Paul Renner Daniel Roesner Detective Main Roman Kramer Patrick Kalupa Former Department Head (Reassigned 2025) Main Marc Schaffrath Christopher Patten Detective Main Vicky Reisinger Pia Stutzenstein Detective Main Max Tauber Nicolas Wolf Detective Chief, Department Head (as of 2025) Main
Characters
Semir Gerkhan
Senior Chief Inspector Semir Gerkhan (portrayed by Erdoğan Atalay) has been present since "The New Partner." Outside of his main role, he also held a position as Deputy Head of the Polizei Autobahn Station.
Growing up in Cologne-Kalk, Semir was a criminal in his youth; at the age of 13, he stole cars, but at one point, tried to save the life of a family that crashed into the Rhine, to no avail; the incident traumatized him since. This also destroyed the friendship of his former clique, which excluded juvenile imprisonment. When he went to the German police, he was on odd ends with his father, who would later die of a heart attack (later revealed in "Happy Birthday" to have been caused by poisoning). Semir has repressed his grief and has been estranged from his mother ever since. He has a brother named Kemal and a cousin named Aladdin.
After years of on/off relationship, in "Forever and Ever", Semir marries the secretary of the department Andrea Schäfer and now has two daughters with her, Ayda and Lily. Starting from "Resurrection," Andrea had an affair with a lover called Robert, moving away from Semir with the children, having found his work being much too dangerous for their family, and he was no longer himself for a while. The resignation of his partner at the time, Ben Jäger, further made him unpredictable for a long time. Only when Alex Brandt joins the Cobra 11 team and copes with the current fall with him after initial problems does he regain his self-confidence. In "1983", he and Andrea divorced, but still shared the concern for their children and kept in touch with each other on friendly terms. Since "The Last Night" in the Fall 2014 season, Semir has been reunited romantically with Andrea, finalized a second time by their marriage in "East of Eden". As of "The New," Andrea and their two daughters, Lily and Ayda, have moved to Copenhagen, leaving Semir in Cologne with his mother and illegitimate daughter Dana, who also works as a policewoman. Their relationship was long-distance and seemingly working. However, in three special 90 minutes episodes ("Unversöhnlich", "Machtlos", "Schutzlos"; 2022), it is revealed that the long-distance relationship failed, and Andrea and Semir are once again divorced, the pair splitting this time for good. At first Semir enjoys his single life, but soon finds a new love interest, doctor Bianca Kessler (portrayed by Yasmina Djaballah).
In "72 Hours of Anxiety" Semir learns that he has another daughter, Dana Wegner, from an affair over 11 years ago. Semir has once again more contact with his illegitimate daughter during "At One's Own Risk", through which she was abducted in Brussels and was to be sold as a sex slave, whereupon Semir went to Brussels to save her. With the death of her parents in the latter episode, Semir is all Dana has left; despite their somewhat rocky relationship in later episodes, Semir deeply cares for her and her future, especially after she aspires to become a police officer like her father. In the special three 90 minutes episodes (2022), Dana was in happy relationship with Max, delivering their first baby, making Semir a grandfather.
In "Angel of Death", Semir quits his job for private reasons and voluntarily moves into the LKA, which was formerly regarded by him as a punishment. When his colleague Ben Jäger is dependent on his help in a recent case, he returns to the Cobra 11 team.
"Legacy, Part 2" shows Semir trapped in Istanbul, four months after hearing word of his mother's incarceration; by unknown means, he returns to Cologne six months after in "The New," becoming quickly acquainted with the reformatting of the PAST after his reinstatement. Later episodes, however, reveal what he did in Istanbul: in order to infiltrate the city, he stole 50,000 euros in a deposit box to spend on heroin, having received word of the charges brought against his mother by the local police. While pinning the drugs on crime lord Ahmet Takim, Semir accidentally kills the man and is imprisoned for manslaughter as a result. Post-incarceration, Kiran, Takim's brother who bore witness to the murder, followed the then ex-cop back home only to exact retribution to the latter's mother; he is killed by Semir's most recent partner Vicky, who followed Semir with a gut-feeling, but manages to utter "...he's lying..." before slumping dead.
Max Tauber, Dana's boyfriend and co-worker, initially makes good terms with Semir, but both start to hold grudges at each other after a fight between the former two. This sparks Max's curiosity of the aforementioned skirmish in Istanbul, which he finds out himself through covertly recovered files from the BKA. This culminates in Semir's arrest by the higher agency, and only after evidence is discovered of Semir's actions being within legal restraint is he released. Although Max and Semir eventually make amends, the latter personally supporting the former's relationship with his daughter, Semir ultimately turns himself back in, deciding to come full circle with his actions and resigning from the Autobahn Police altogether; this would be temporary, however, as the case manager presiding over Semir reinstates him fully, leaving his rank otherwise intact. Dana and Max got engaged in 2022 and had their first child.
His iconic silver BMW 3 Series is driven in almost every episode to scrap, though despite all the daring maneuvers and accidents, Semir rarely carries serious injuries. In "Sabotage" and "Friends for Life," however, his car accidents lead to head injuries, both of which result in a several-day coma; in "Between Life and Death," his coma lasts for only several hours, during which he determines the location of a child abductor. "Das Team - Teil 2" reveals that he privately owns a BMW 330i F30, likely the one used prior to his partnership with Vicky.
His sidearm is a Walther P88, which has been his sidearm of choice since the second season; in the first season, and on rare occasions that his P88 is stolen, he makes use of a SIG P225.
Katharina Lamprecht Katharina Lamprecht (portrayed by Almut Eggert) was chief of police and former head of the highway police. She was commanding officer to Frank, Ingo, Semir and Andre. She stopped to appear in the series after the 6th episode of the 2nd season without an explanation.
Frank Stolte Chief inspector Frank Stolte (portrayed by Johannes Brandrup) was the partner of Ingo Fischer and, later, of Semir Gerkhan. He came from the GSG9, where he shot a terrorist without a gun command. The court said he was free, but the media scolded him. After his death, Frank had to fight hard against the differences with his subsequent partner Semir.
Since the end of the first season, he stopped to appear without explanation.
In "Risk" it came to the reunion with Semir when Frank tried elucidate back in Germany the supposed death of a colleague near Mostar, while uncovering criminal activity of his former employer. It is learned that he changed to the BKA and later into the private economy. He worked in various crisis areas, most recently for a private company in the clearing of landmines in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Ingo Fischer Chief inspector Ingo Fischer (portrayed by Rainer Strecker) was the first partner of Frank Stolte, with whom he is good friends with. This comes to the latter's grief in the second episode, as Ingo took a shotgun blast to the chest, making him the shortest serving character in the series.
André Fux In 1997, Chief Inspector André Fux (portrayed by Mark Keller) came to Frank Stolte's exit to the motorway police station. He had a black belt in Karate and exhibits especially outstanding skills in the unarmed combat. In 1999, André was wounded by a harpoon shot on Mallorca. He then falls out of the boat, goes underneath and was missing since then, deemed to have been killed.
In "Resurrection", it is revealed that Fux was found and tended to by a fisherman. He later began a new life and went undercover for the BKA. In the course of the episode, it is also revealed that his wife and his 5-year-old daughter died in a car bombing in 2009. Since then, he has been chasing the murderers of his family. However, it later turned out that Fux had been affiliated with a criminal organization as well, a fact that his former partner, Semir, could not comprehend. Later, following a car accident in the Alps, Semir grabbed his hand on the cliff to hold him, but could not hold him any longer, causing Fux to, following an emotional farewell, fall down a cliff and die. As Fux asked for Semir to further avenge his family in his place, this request perhaps fell on deaf ears.
Tom Kranich Chief Inspector Tom Kranich (portrayed by René Steinke) came to the Kripo motorway in 1999 and was the successor of Chief Inspector André Fux. He has a sister who appeared in "Between two stools". His father is a successful night club owner in Cologne.
After Semir Gerkhan had overcome the grief over the loss of his colleague André Fux, he and Tom Kranich developed a real friendliness of men. Later they were also best friends outside the profession. In "Resignation" Tom had to cope with a severe blow when his then pregnant girlfriend Elena Krüger, was killed by a car bomb, which was intended for him. Because of it, he resigned.
For those two years his replacement was Jan Richter.
After two years Tom Kranich, now working as a go-kart instructor, returned at the request of his colleague Semir Gerkhan in "Comeback", after Jan had left. At first, he only wanted to help with a case, but then decided to return to his old life and not to quit. In "Life & Death", Tom was killed when attempting to save a girl from human traffickers.
Jan Richter Inspector Jan Richter (portrayed by Christian Oliver) was originally a member of the theft decree. In "Baptism of Fire" he met Semir, when Semir was looking for a new partner, randomly apply to Jan. Since collaboration worked well, he chose Jan. Jan switched to the highway patrol and thus became Semir's new partner.