The German Three Investigators
Stories
Many fans may have been as surprised as I
to discover that although the Three Investigators ended
their careers in the United States in the late 1980s (the
original series) and the early 1990s (the "Crimebusters"
series), they have continued to live on in Germany with
new stories being added to the series on a regular basis.
Not being fluent in German, I cannot
provide an authoritative look at the German series, but
there are several good Three Investigatorswebsites that
focus on the German series that are listed in the Webring
information on my links page.
One fan in Germany with whom I've had contact is Marcus
Meyer. He's an avid T3I fan and is willing to share all sorts of
information about the German version of the Three Investigators. Marcus graciously took the time to give
me some information via e-mail which I wanted to share on
my web site.
Although the German version of the Three
Investigators starts with "Terror Castle," it
continues through "Cranky Collector," then
picks up with the "Crimebusters" series and
continues on with German language originals from there.
The German language originals started in 1993 with books
by BRIGITTE JOHANNA HENKEL-WAIDHOFER. She wrote 16 books
for the KOSMOS-VERLAG (KOSMOS publishing). After her era
ended several other authors continued to write in the
series at the rate of two books per year. However, there
are three stories set to be released in August 2000! This
is inconceivable for those of us in the U.S. who were
used to a new story every year or so after Robert
Arthur's death.
The T3I series is so popular in Germany
that there are audioplays available of each episode,
which are even more popular than thebooks. There are CD-ROMS
in the making and there are all kinds of games (cardboard
games etc.). In Marcus's opinion, the series nowadays
appeals to the 20 to 30 old; the fans just grew with the
series!
For the "kids" there is the
much critizised "Die drei Fragezeichen Kids"-series
("The Three Investigators-Kids"), which is
written for the 6-12 year olds. Some of the German titles
were translated into other European languages like Czech,
Spanish or Italian.
Some characters have other names than the
original: Jupiter "Jupe" Jones is JUSTUS "JUST"
JONAS and Peter "Pete" Crenshaw mutated into
PETER SHAW. Worthington (The episode "DEADLY TRAIL"
is dedicated solely to
him!) changed his name into MORTON and the two bavarian
brothers Hans and Konrad are from Ireland and called
PATRICK and KENNETH!
There are three girls who frequent the
series as well and more or less act as the girlfriends of
the boys. They were all introduced in the "Crimebusters"
series.
According to Marcus, the german titles
are all written in the same tradition as the "old
stuff", there´s no break in the logical environment.
Contentwise some episodes can be compared to the
Crimebusters-era stories while others are similar to the
early stories and is largely dependent on the author.
Even though each new episodes brings new characters, some
old, known
characters are still "used", like for instance
the French art thief Hugenay in the Episode POLTERGEIST.
German books don´t have any internal
illustrations comparable to the originals. However,
Marcus's web site does have pictures of several of the
covers, and he's planning to add more illustrations as
time allows.
Below is a list of the German language
original stories provided by Marcus. The list includes
the German name followed by Marcus's rendition of the
title in English.
Die drei Fragezeichen - Tatort Zirkus (The
Three Investigators - Crimes at the Circus)
Die drei Fragezeichen und der verrueckte Maler (The Three
Investigators in the Case of the Mad Painter)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Giftiges Water (The Three
Investigators -Poisoned Water)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Doping Mixer (The Three
Investigators - Doping Mixer)
Die drei Fragezeichen und die Rache des Tigers (The three
investigatos -Revenge of the Tiger)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Spuk im Hotel (The Three
Investigators in the Case of the Haunted Hotel)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Fussball Gangster (The Three
Investigators -Soccer Gangsters)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Geisterstadt (The Three
Investigators -Ghost Town)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Diamantenschmuggel (The Three
Investigators in the Case of the Smuggled Diamonds)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Schattenmaenner (The Three
Investigators in the Case of the Shadowmen)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Geheimnis der Saerge (The Three
Investigators in the Case of the Mysterious Coffins)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Der Schatz im Bergsee (The Three
Investigators - Treasures in the Mountain Lake)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Dreckiger Deal (the Three
Investigators - Dirty Deal)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Schuesse aus dem Dunkeln (The
Three Investigators - Shots in the Dark)
Die drei Fragezeichen und die verschwundene Seglerin (The
Three Investigators in the Case of the Missing Sailor)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Späte Rache (The Three
Investigators - Late Revenge)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Poltergeist (The Three
Investigators - Poltergeist)
Die drei Fragezeichen und das brennende Schwert (the
Three Investigators in the Case of the Burning Sword)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Die Spur des Raben (The Three
Investigators - The Ravens´ Trail)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Stimmen aus dem Nichts (The Three
Investigators - Voices from the Void)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Pistenteufel (The Three
Investigators - The Devil on the Beaten Track)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Das leere Grab (The Three
Investigators - The Vacant Tomb)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Im Banne des Voodoo (The Three
Investigators - The Curse of Voodoo)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Geheimsache UFO (The Three
Investigators - UFO Confidential)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Verdeckte Fouls (The Three
Investigators - Hidden Foul Play)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Die Karten des Boesen (The Three
Investigators - The Cards of Evil)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Meuterei auf hoher See (The Three
Investigators - High Sea Muntiny)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Feuerturm (The Three
Investigators - The Tower of Fire)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Naght in Angst (The Three
Investigators - One Night in Fear)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Wolfsgesicht (The Three
Investigators - Wolf Face)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Vapir im Internet (The Three
Investigators - Vampire Online)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Tödliche Spur (The Three
Investigators - Deadly Trail)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Der Feuerteufel (The Three
Investigators - Fire Demon)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Todesflug (The Three
Investigators - Flight of Death)
Die drei Fragezeichen und das Geisterschiff (The Three
Investigators in the Case of the Ghost Ship)
Die drei Fragezeichen - Das Labyrinth der Goetter (The
Three Investigators - The Labyrinth of the Gods)
Ronny Schmidt, another fan of the German
series sent me some additional
information on the German books with yet more new titles.
They are as follows:
#094: The Three Investigators in the
Mystery of the Black Monster
#095: The Three Investigators in the Mystery of the Ghost
Hand's Message
#096: The Three Investigators and the Secret of the Red
Revenger
#097: The Three Investigators: Insect Prick
#098: The Three Investigators in the Case of Character
Assassination
#099: The Three Investigators in the Mystery of Terror
Valley
#100: The Three Investigators in the Mystery of the Isle
of the Deaths (Trilogy)
-----#100/1: The Three Investigators and the Secret of
the Sphinx
-----#100/2: The Three Investigators and the Mystery of
the Lost People
-----#100/3: The Three Investigators and the Curse of the
Graves
#101: The Three Investigators in the Mystery of the
Doubled Deception
#102: The Three Investigators in the Mystery of the Evil
Mobilephones / Haunted Mobilephones.
In 2007, I got more information from another German fan
of the series, Oliver Nekrep. Thanks to him for helping me update
my list again.
Das Erbe des Meisterdiebs (The Mystery of Hugenays last
Will) ((Hugenay fakes his death and puts Jupe to a test of will)
Der Nebelberg (The Secret of Fog Mountain)
Gift per e-Mail (Poisoned e-Mail)
Die sieben Tore (The Secret of the Seven Gates) ((This is a title in
which the german word for "Gates" also has another
meaning))
Der Schatz der Mönche (The Treasure of the Tibetean Monks)
Der Mann ohne Kopf (The Mystery of the Headless DJ)
Die Höhle des Grauens (The Cave of Horror)
Gefährlicher Quiz (The Dangerous Quiz- Show)
Panik im Park (Panic in the Park/ The Mystery of the Wild Running Dogs)
Die Villa der Toten (Mansion of the Dead/ The House that wasn't Haunted)
Schlucht der Dämonen (Gorge of the Demons/ Mystery of the Kidnapped
Horse)
Das Auge des Drachen (Eye of the Dragon)
Codename: Cobra (Codename: Cobra/ E-Mail from Beyond)
Der finstere Rivale (The dangerous Rival/ Mystery of the Mafia Money)
Auf tödlichem Kurs (On deadly Course/ Mystery of the Stolen Painting)
Das düstere Vermächtnis ( The Dark Legacy/ The Secret of the Queen of
Saba)
Der geheime Schlüssel (The Secret Key)
Der schwarze Skorpion (The black Scorpion/ Sting of the Scorpion)
Die Spur ins Nichts (Trail To Nowhere/ Jupiter Jones- Memory Lost)
Fußballfieber (Soccer Fever/ Myster of the Mendozza Curse)
Der Geisterzug (The Ghosttrain/ Myster of the Haunted Train Tunnel)
Geister- Canyon (Ghost canyon/ Mystery of the Kidnapped Violin)
Feuermond (Firemoon) ((This is the second Trilogy for the Number 125 in
the series))
Teil 1: Das Rätsel der Meister (Part 1: Riddle of the Artists)
Teil 2: Pfad der Täuschung (Part 2: Path of Deception)
Teil 3: Nacht der Schatten (Part 3: Night of Shadows) ((Hugenay returns
once more and is finally brought to
justice. Until next time. Who knows))
Schrecken aus dem Moor (Terror of the Moor/ Mystery of the Wandering
Moor Corps)
Schwarze Madonna ( The Black Madonna Statue/ Mystery of the Missing
Madonna Statue)
Schatten über Hollywood (Shadows over Hollywood/ Mystery of the
Hollywood Ghost) ((A Ghost appears at the Hollywood
sign))
SMS aus dem Grab (SMS out of the Grave/ Mystery of the Sphinx) (The
Investigators travel to Egypt))
Fluch des Drachen (Curse of the Dragon/ Mystery of the Dragon vase)
Haus des Schreckens (The House of Terror) ((Story is borrowed a little
from "House on Haunted Hill"))
Spuk im Netz (Ghosts on the Internet/ The Mystery of the Kidnapped
Librerian)
Fluch des Piraten (Curse of the Pirate/ Mystery of the Golden Animals)
Fels der Dämonen (Demons Rock/ Mystery of the Labyrinth of Caves)
Der tote Mönch (The Dead Monk/ Mystery of the Monk Graves)
The following three books will come in August 2007:
Das versunkene Dorf (Mystery of the Sunken Village)
Pfad der Angst (Path of Fear)
Die geheime Treppe (The Secret Stairs)
As you can see, there are some intriguing
titles. Four of the books have been translated into English.
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