BERLIN DIARY:The death of iconic actor Horst Tappert has been a source of grief and introspection for Germans, writes Derek Scally
LIFE AS a Derek in Germany is never dull - it just takes some getting used to.
Mentioning that your name is Derek can elicit anything from a sly smirk to, in extreme cases, shouts of "Get the car, Harry!" followed by gales of laughter.
It turns out that we poor Dereks share a name, if not the spelling, with Germany's most famous television detective.
Beginning in 1974, the popular drama series Derrick related the adventures of Munich detective inspector Stephan Derrick for 24 years and 281 episodes.
News that Horst Tappert, the actor who brought Insp Derrick to life, had died this week aged 85 plunged Germany into mourning and introspection.
Nearly every newspaper in the country carried a picture of the actor, with his penetrating, heavy-lidded gaze, staring out from the front page. Just as distinctive as its lead actor was the show's penetrating, claustrophobic atmosphere and stories often set in the seedy Munich underworld.
Unusually, for a crime show, there was no violence and not so much as a raised voice.
Derrick solved the crimes without a gun or DNA scrapings, relying instead on reason and empathy to unravel motives in scripts that often addressed the social aspects of crime.
Equally compelling was the deliberate decision not to give the humourless detective a personal life.
The only personal touch was Derrick's interaction with his assistant, Harry Klein (played by Cabaret star Fritz Wepper).
Umberto Eco memorably described the series once as "electrifying mediocrity".
A huge hit at home and sold to 108 countries, the reaction to Tappert's death in Germany makes clear that Derrick was much more than just another television show: the detective was, for many, the best ambassador the country has known.
In the 1970s, as the scars of war began to heal, Derrick was a civilised investigator, a democrat and gentleman who gave villains a just punishment and viewers the closure they sought.
The lead character was a compelling new role model for European audiences who may have had another kind of German seared into their memories.
"Tappert represented the kind of person we could be proud of, and by 'we' I mean 'we Germans'," said Hans Janke, a former executive at public broadcaster ZDF.
"He was the fearless German one didn't have to fear." Sadly, like nearly all German television shows, Derrick never sold to Britain or the US.
Even if it had been shown, it's unlikely that Derrick alone could have neutralised the Nazi cliches kept alive in Allo Allo, Dad's Army and Hogan's Heroes, not to mention endless reruns of war films.
But perhaps the most important side-effect of Derrick was not its reception abroad, but attitudes at home to its international success.
Germans tell proudly of how the series was shown in 100 countries, 108 countries, 120 countries. How the late pope John Paul was a fan. How Italians kissed Tappert's feet on the streets of Rome or how funny it was to hear Insp Derrick speaking Mandarin during their holiday in China.
They tell of how Derrick had fan clubs in the Netherlands and Norway, despite deep-seated resentment to all things German.
Perhaps the most amusing Derrick effect is the polite but firm refusal of many Germans to accept that the series is an unknown quantity in most of the English-speaking world - except Australia, where it aired for a time, with subtitles.
Behind all this Derrick enthusiasm, of course, is a cautious pride and the hope that the welcome for the Munich police inspector could be extended to all Germans.
It was in recognition of this that Tappert was awarded Germany's highest civil honour, the Federal Cross of Merit.
Now, a decade after Derrick handed in his badge, Germany has a new generation of goodwill ambassadors, particularly since the 2006 World Cup introduced millions to modern Germany.
The millions of foreign visitors who descend on the country's Christmas markets this month are witness to that positive vibe.
But few of these visitors sipping their Glühwein will know that the goodwill groundwork was done three decades ago by Stephan Derrick, the good German.