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12 Episodes 2026 - 2026
Episode 1
48 mins
The well-known businesswoman Viktoria Fildermann doesn't seem particularly distressed when she reports her husband's disappearance to the Water Police. Jakob, in particular, can't believe the brazenness with which the influential woman repeatedly bluffs the investigators. Her assistant, Klara Bogner, and her lawyer, Dr. Sven Leitmeyer, are at her side. Viktoria Fildermann makes no secret of her contempt for her stepson, Maxim. He only ever saw his father when he needed money for himself and his girlfriend, Thessa. Julia, Jakob, and Paul are puzzled by Nele's hesitant approach to the case. But their boss's thoughts are with her daughter Johanna, who unexpectedly shows up after two years and is clearly carrying a secret that goes beyond her declaration of love for the New Zealander, Josh. It's Mechthild who, with her worldly wisdom, quickly figures it out. Then, completely unexpectedly, someone confesses to the murder of Viktoria's husband.
Episode 2
48 mins
Jakob loses his temper. He's convinced Klara sacrificed herself for her boss, Viktoria Fildermann. He promises Klara's mother, Theresa Bogner, that he'll find the real culprit and lets himself be carried away with an emotional outburst to the businesswoman. This has dire consequences for Jakob. But these pale in comparison to the bad news that now arrives: a suicide in prison, a murder in Fildermann's villa, and Maxim Gönder and his Thessa fleeing to Switzerland in a stolen boat-until they run out of fuel and are caught by the water police. Then lawyer Leitmeyer shows up at Theresa Bogner's and gives her a concert ticket. Nele can't focus on the investigation because she fears losing her pregnant daughter. Tears flow when she spots Johanna in front of the police station. Johanna has managed to reach her boyfriend, Josh, in New Zealand. But he doesn't react as hoped, while Mechthild wonders whether great-grandmother or Great Grandma will be the better title for her.
Episode 3
48 mins
The undertakers are astonished. In the middle of Lake Constance, they are ambushed while transporting the body of convict Charlie Maurer. The kidnappers disappear with the coffin and its contents. Jakob and Paul are quite baffled when they later find the boat with the coffin, but without the body. The question that Nele and Julia are also asking themselves: Who would kidnap a dead convict who had no social contacts or relatives? The responsible corrections officer, Franz Kormann, states that he gave Maurer his daily thrombosis injection and found him dead shortly afterward. Social worker Josephine Peschko describes the deceased as a sick, elderly man who had a difficult life and occasionally spoke of a cognac bomber who had crashed into Lake Constance during the final days of the war and was now slumbering there along with 2,000 bottles of the finest cognac. Even Maurer's former cellmate, the Swiss tattoo artist Ludovic Tschanz, who gave the deceased several tattoos during his incarceration, can't offer any further information. When Maurer's body is found in Lake Constance, the case takes a new turn. The autopsy reveals that he died of an overdose of an anesthetic, ruling out natural causes. But the deeper the Water Police dig into this murky case, the more inconsistencies emerge. What role does the enigmatic nurse Ricarda Moniz play? Why did Peschko conceal her relationship to Kormann? Nele solves the puzzle in her own way. When a diving robot is stolen, a race against time begins. A treasure hunter is pursuing murderous goals... It's a good thing that Mechthild reveals the whole truth about the cognac bomber to Nele back home.
Episode 4
48 mins
During their morning patrol, the Water Police receive a distress call: a body has been found at the beach with an arrow lodged in its chest. The deceased is Jan Kastner, who had been secretly spearfishing near the shore with his friend Tobias Lehner. It quickly becomes clear that the fatal shot wasn't fired from Lehner's spear. Nele and Julia are astonished to find Kastner's wife, Lara, at home. Lara is extremely agitated and refuses to let the officers inside. The widow had been embroiled in a bitter divorce battle with the deceased over custody of their daughter, Mira. Mira has now disappeared. Jakob and Paul discover the little girl hiding near the playground at the beach. Jakob's gentle approach helps Mira begin to trust him. Under Mechthild's care, she paints a mysterious picture. Beach concessionaire Markus Weber informs the Water Police that he has reported Jan Kastner and Tobias Lehner multiple times for repeated illegal spearfishing. But Weber has also appeared in the police files before. And why is little Mira so distant towards her mother? She seems to be the only witness. But she won't speak. By the time Paul and Nele slowly begin to understand, it's almost too late. The police officer who was supposed to protect Mechthild and Mira is incapacitated. A race against time to save Mira's life begins.
Episode 5
48 mins
Instead of the expected trash on the lakebed, Julia unearths a body during a dive, weighed down with a stone. The deceased is identified as Torsten Engelhard by his coat of arms. When Nele delivers the news of her husband's death to his widow, Patrizia Engelhard, she is already dressed in black. In fact, her husband was buried eight days earlier. The police open the grave. The coffin is empty. Who would steal a dead man from his grave to dump him in Lake Constance? The deceased's son, Lukas, who soon appears at the police station complaining about the police's actions, quickly becomes a suspect himself. His father did not die of natural causes. Torsten Engelhard had made no secret of his dissatisfaction with his unsuccessful son during his lifetime. And now an illegitimate daughter has also come to light: Sophie Polenz found the name of her real father among the papers of her mother, who died six months earlier. And he had apparently intended to make her the heir to the thriving boatyard. That's why Sophie Polenz wanted the body exhumed. Nele is dissatisfied with the progress of the investigation when it turns out that even the priest, Kilian Wiegand, didn't have a good relationship with the deceased, though he did with Sophie Polenz. To make matters worse, Paul now seems to be out of commission. First, he falters at the shooting range, then during a risky chase on the lake, Jakob has to take over his role because a sharp pain incapacitates Paul. Julia finds a strong painkiller in the police station's trash can.
Episode 6
48 mins
Paul Schott does everything right. With his weapon drawn, he approaches a gas station that has been robbed. Sure enough, a woman emerges from the building and knocks the defenseless Paul to the ground - because he is overcome by a sudden pain. When Julia and Jakob later review the security camera footage, the fugitive, Pia Giroud, has escaped Paul for the second time. Jakob and Julia find themselves torn between Paul, who asks them to keep quiet, and Nele, who is initially only worried about Paul because he has unilaterally returned to duty against medical advice. Pia Giroud is actually serving a four-year prison sentence for stealing medication. She never informed on a possible accomplice and has now used a hospital stay as an opportunity to escape. The Water Police are initially baffled. That is, until they come across a letter from surf instructor Steven Prell, in which he informs his ex-girlfriend Pia that he will soon be getting married. He doesn't reveal his fiancée Kiki Overrath's name in the letter. Nevertheless, she feels very uneasy as long as the escapee is at large. Nele first receives a worried call from Paul's wife, Christina, and then a crucial piece of advice from her mother, Mechthild, on how to deal with Paul, who refuses to admit his weakness and is in grave danger. The doctor overlooked one detail.
Episode 7
Screams alert Nele and Julia aboard the "Bodan" as they pass the Urweltmuseum (Prehistoric Museum) in Bodman. Line Felber is distraught. The daughter of museum director Manfred Felber has just found security guard Tom Geissler - dead under a heavy stone slab, its straps having been deliberately cut, as Nele quickly determines. This is the tragic culmination of numerous attacks on the museum, which Professor Felber suspects are the work of landowner Inge Salzmann. Ever since surveyor and collector Philipp Lux discovered the fossil of a baby besanosaur on her property, the heavily indebted woman has been facing ruin. The sale of the land to a hotel group has become impossible indefinitely because a court has given priority to the fossil excavation. Completely penniless, Inge Salzmann has to spend the night on a motorboat. On a friend's boat in the harbor, Nele also finds her colleague Paul, who is on sick leave and suffering from his separation from his wife Christina. Dr. Paul simply refuses to accept Shahyar. Completely distraught, Paul gratefully accepts Nele's offer to move temporarily into the Villa Fehrenbach. There, Mechthild proves to be a wise and helpful companion. Meanwhile, the Urweltmuseum (Prehistoric Museum) is broken into again. This time, the most important fossil is missing, and Line Felber is injured. Julia notices that Line's abdomen is being scanned in the ambulance. Line is pregnant. And this leads the WaPo (Water Police) to a new clue.
Episode 8
48 mins
The robbery at the yacht club goes wrong. While one of the perpetrators flees by car, the other, wounded, limps through a forest to the jetty. On the getaway boat, the "Novalis," Paul's wife Christina is waiting for her new boyfriend, Professor Tritan Langguth. Dennis Breitner takes her hostage. Paul is shocked and wants to act immediately to free her. He suspects Christina's new boyfriend, who vehemently protests his innocence. It's fortunate that Nele keeps a cool head and, with Julia and Jakob's help, tracks down Kalle März, Breitner's possible accomplice. However, he insists he had nothing to do with the robbery. An attempt to contact the fugitive robber through Franziska Weill, Dennis's ex and the mother of his daughter Matilda, also initially fails. Breitner has even switched boats with Christina. The police are baffled. Then Max discovers a secret message from Christina on the "Novalis." A race against time begins. Breitner is known for his violent tendencies and wants to flee. Then, unexpectedly, a new lead emerges that no one had anticipated.
Episode 9
48 mins
After a tryst in a hotel in Konstanz, Walter Tesker drives his car at high speed into the lake without braking. The Water Police (WaPo) manages to rescue him at the last second. While Tesker is placed in a medically induced coma at the hospital, the WaPo discovers that the car's software has been tampered with. The accident turns out to be an attempted murder. A receipt from a lingerie boutique leads Jakob to the woman from the hotel: Sandra Murau states that she had been intimate with Tesker for two months and now wants to save her marriage to her husband, Michael. The case takes a new turn when Nele receives a visit from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Germany's domestic intelligence agency), who inform her that Tesker was a former Polish spy who betrayed several colleagues after the fall of the Berlin Wall and lived in Switzerland with the knowledge of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. The case is none of the WaPo's business. But to Paul's great relief, Nele has no intention of relinquishing control of the investigation. She tracks down Oleg Gorski, a former colleague of Tesker's, who is currently undergoing cancer treatment at Lake Constance. Nika Murau surprises her parents with the news that she's dropping out of university. Only her father expresses understanding and blames himself for not having been there for her enough. But this is just the beginning of revelations that leave Nika speechless and demonstrate the WaPo's own powerlessness. In the finale on the lake, a dead body awaits Nele and Paul in the escape boat.
Episode 10
When even the newspapers are reporting on the "Phantom of Lake Constance" on their front pages, State Prosecutor Dr. Severin loses his temper. He barges into Nele's office and accuses her of not having her department under control. Meanwhile, the Water Police are even working night shifts to search for the man who has now broken into and robbed nine yachts along Lake Constance. Each time without leaving a trace or being caught on camera. Then a sailor, Max Gerber, comes forward, saying he saw the phantom in the dim light before being incapacitated. Based on his account, the police create a composite sketch, and shortly afterward, Julia and Paul arrest a burglar on a yacht. It's the homeless man Klaus Hellmann, whom Nele and her colleagues feel sorry for and who doesn't match the composite sketch at all, so they let him go. Right into the arms of Mechthild. Klaus and she were once a couple before he fled, afraid of Mechthild. Now the chemistry between the two is intense again, and Nele is shocked to find Hellmann at her villa dressed in her father's clothes. Even worse, however, is the return visit from State Prosecutor Severin, who threatens to ruin Nele's career because he's already the laughingstock of his friends at the yacht club. Then, of all things, Severin's boat is broken into, and Jakob discovers a pattern in the burglaries along the lake. Hope flickers at the Water Police station.
Episode 11
48 mins
A drifting boat, seemingly unmanned, holds a nasty surprise for Julia and Paul during their patrol on the lake. A dead man is found on board. The investigators suspect suicide, having discovered a weapon next to the body of Michael Schwab. This is the name on the documents found with the deceased, and it's also the name of the man Nora Fornoni reports missing to Nele at the station around the same time. Later, when Jakob tries to get more information from Nora, who is working at a beach bar, he finds her locked up and threatened by her boss, Oliver Baier. It quickly becomes clear that the deceased had a mountain of debt, a large portion of it owed to Baier. The investigators are taken aback when they realize that all the data on the dead man's cell phone has been deleted. Then Paul makes a discovery that turns everything on its head. The Water Police now need assistance from Switzerland. Meanwhile, Nele and her colleagues are unaware that Ursina, a friend of the victim, is in grave danger because she wants a fresh start. It's a good thing Jakob managed to hack a cell phone using semi-legal methods. But then the Water Police are once again in the dark. Now only intuition can help.
Episode 12
47 mins
The picnic on the lakeshore with the beautiful tour guide Alina Poll ends tragically for Max Rogall. The real estate agent collapses, bleeding, in front of other bathers. Nele and her team are baffled. Rogall was wealthy, had no enemies, and his wallet was full. Paul finds the dead man's car and a lead in the GPS to David Petrov. The businessman seems genuinely distraught over Rogall's death and, moreover, receives an alibi from his assistant, Mascha. Rogall died from a fatal blow to his heart. Was it a defensive act by Alina Poll, who felt threatened by the man who could be her father? At least, that's what Julia suspects. But what about Tobias Ritter, Alina's roommate and colleague? His alibi seems airtight. But then Jakob's online research uncovers the first inconsistencies. Contrary to her statements, Alina had a relationship with Petrov-and with Rogall. During the interrogation, the investigators realize that Alina is afraid of the Georgian businessman. Nevertheless, she has now moved in with him... Mechthild has also obtained a direct debit authorization for her friend Greta's camper van. The two plan to travel to Portugal for six months in it. Much to Nele's dismay. But first, her mother has to spend a test night in the camper van in front of the Fehrenbach villa.