Embedded into the turbulent history of the 1980s with HIV epidemic, cocaine wave and Ronald Reagan’s fight against organized crime, five-episode true crime series REEPERBAHN SPECIAL UNIT 65 tells the story of Germany’s first police unit dedicated to fight organized crime – legendary Special Unit 65 – and its cat-and-mouse game with illustrious adversaries: the ‘Godfather of Reeperbahn’ Wilfrid Schulz, the US Mafia and corrupt police officers (episodes 1 & 2), rivaling pimp gangs (episode 3), Hells Angels and youth gangs (episode 4) as well as serial killer Werner Pinzner, whose murderous spree seems mind-blowing to this very day and who shoots directly into the heart of Special Unit 65 (episode 5).

The series is set in the 1980s amidst Hamburg’s notoriously famous Reeperbahn red-light-district, which has been coined “the planet’s most sinful mile” and second most famous street after Wall Street.

REEPERBAHN SPECIAL UNIT 65 was developed and produced by gebrueder beetz filmproduktion on behalf of German broadcasters NDR, WDR, SWR and RBB for ARD together with co-producer and international distribution partner STUDIO HAMBURG ENTERPRISES. It is the first documentary project to be supported by the prestigious German Motion Picture Fund (GMPF), which had previously exclusively funded high-profile fictional series such as “Babylon Berlin” and “The Queen’s Gambit”.