Current
Semir Gerkhan
Semir Gerkhan
Played By: Erdogan Atalay
Senior Detective Commissioner and deputy-head of the NRW Autobahn Police.- Action Dad: A father to three daughters.
- Ax-Crazy: His informal separation from Andrea began to drive him over the edge by the time of Ben Jäger's departure. By "Revolution," he's refused any and every candidate for a new partner, has been written up for misconduct in an interrogation room, and is noticeably more irate and aggressive. It takes an unlikely heart-to-heart with then-to-be partner Alex Brandt to gradually snap him back to his senses.
- Blackmail:
- Bullying a Dragon:
- Convicted by Public Opinion: And by "public opinion," we mean District Attorney Isolde-Maria Schrankmann, who is commonly seen barring Semir and his partner from their job. Outside of work, they share a passive-aggressive relationship.
- Cool Car: Seen often driving a BMW 3 Series.
- Cowboy Cop:
- Crazy-Prepared:
- Dark and Troubled Past: The falling out with his fellow delinquents in his teenage years came from this. A car with a family of three careens off a bridge; Semir (who is being chased by the police at the time) jumps out of his car and dives in to try and save them, to no avail. Until he joined the police, and before his past came back to haunt him in "1983," he saw her face almost every night he slept afterwards.
- Death Glare: Saved for when he stares/beats down the worst of the worst, but he's had one instance with his old clique-mate Ali, with whom he is on very estranged terms. Semir shows a rather impressive one, at that.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- Experienced Protagonist: As of Season 21, he has been in the force for over 20 years.
- A Father to His Men: Being a father and having veteran status backs this up very much.
- Friend to All Children:
- Get Out!:
- With Vicky, this happens more often than it should.
- The Gunslinger: Most prominently in the Ben Jäger era, he is often the one to disable a fleeing suspect vehicle. Most of the time when he does this, he hold his service weapon in one hand (and has done so since Season 11).
- Hand Wave:
- Happily Married: To Andrea Schäfer. Twice.
- Hot-Blooded:
- If I Want Your Opinion:
- It's Personal: Many times.
- "Auf Leben und Tod" has him hunting down the people who offed Tom Kranich and left him for dead.
- "Auf eigene Faust" he is in charge of escorting Sander Kalvus, the man responsible for killing Chris Ritter.
- "72 Stunden Angst" and "Auf eigene Gefahr" both put his illegitimate daughter Dana in danger.
- Is on the receiving end of this trope in Tödliche Wahl as he kills a pregnant wife of a criminal who was shooting at him with a shotgun. The brother of criminal kidnaps his family and threatens to kill them unless Semir kills Ben.
- "Auferstehung" squares him off against André.
- "1983" has him helplessly find half of his old clique murdered.
- "Vendetta" squares him off against an Albanian mafia boss, after the former kills his recently-married son.
- "Happy Birthday" finds him diving deeper into his father's death.
- Demons from Istanbul come crawling back for Semir in "Kollision," when the son of a Turkish drug lord he allegedly murdered hunts him down and threatens to kill his mother to make things even.
- "Das Team" catapults him into an impasse between the BKA trying to incarcerate him for the aforementioned events, keeping Vicky away from danger while she anticipates a kidney implant (and eventually having to rescue her), and his grudge with Max, the latter of which comes to a head.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: See Truth Serums below.
- Just a Flesh Wound: A few instances.
- In "Die dunkle Seite," Semir is shot in the ear, ignores that, and promptly offs the criminal responsible.
- "Auf eigene Gefahr" shows him ignoring a shot to his leg while rescuing his daughter.
- "Die besten letzte Tage" has him stabbed in that same leg, and he still manages to get the criminal attacking him to stab himself.
- Old-Fashioned Copper: Probably the best way to describe Semir is that he is a Turkish-German version of this trope.
- Reinforced as of the 24th season when he returns to work after ten months, only to find out how technologically dependent his career has become.
- Oh, Crap!: Realizing how he screwed up in "Vendetta" (see It's Personal).
- Papa Wolf: In "Auf eigene Gefahr", when his illegitimate daughter Dana is kidnapped in Brussels. With total disregard for all international laws, Semir travels to Belgium all by himself and gets occasionally in trouble with the Belgian police to rescue his daughter.
- Parental Substitute: He is this to Dana, the latter having been raised by Semir's second ex-girlfriend for most of her life. Until said ex and her husband are killed by a trafficking ring.
- Pay Evil unto Evil:
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He's surprisingly short, at 5'3", but has held his own against...well, every other bad guy, really.
- Properly Paranoid: Becomes this after rescuing his mother in Istanbul.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge:
- Screw The Rules I'mDoingWhat'sRight: Many cases have this instance, but "Schutzlos" stands out.
- Standard Cop Backstory: Much of it is elaborated upon in episodes "1983" and "Happy Birthday." Semir's father was in debt to the Turkish mafia, so he often stayed away from the latter's affairs. He eventually fell in with a group of fellow Turkish-born delinquents and stole cars from age 13. The falling out of the latter and the resolve that would eventually come of both would fortify his dedication of becoming a policeman.
- Team Dad: Even before he became deputy head of the Autobahn Police, he's very fiercely protective of his station.
- Token Minority: Semir is Turkish-born, elaborated upon in real-life with Erdogan Atalay being half-Turkish.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Much of the 18th and 19th seasons elaborate upon this, but who can blame the guy? Semir had just separated from his wife, lost his best friend and then-partner Ben Jäger the same year, and he still has to stay on the job to feed his children. By the time of [[his divorce]], however, he's calmed himself down and even exchanges good words with his then-ex.
- Returns to this with Dana's current boyfriend and fellow colleague Max Tauber, after he walks into a fight between the two. More so because Max doesn't trust Semir, and the latter knows it.
- Torture Technician: As an amnesiac while undercover in "Die falsche Seite," he borders along this point.
- Tough Love: Justly so with his eldest daughter, Dana, who aspires to follow in her father's footsteps.
- Tranquil Fury: In "Revolution," when he meets Andrea's boyfriend in person; later, when he's at work, he becomes easily agitated with everyone asking if he's okay.
- Trauma Conga Line: Lost his father, three of his partners, Sturmi, and was estranged from his mother for 50 years. He's also been divorced with Andrea at one point, which hardly helps.
- True Companions: With every one of his partners, but especially André Fux, Tom Kranich, Ben Jäger, and Paul Renner.
- Truth Serums: In "Auf eigene Gefahr", in Brussels, Semir and Alex hijack an ambulance carrying a man involved in kidnapping of Semir's daughter Dana. Alex then proceeds to drive the ambulance through Brussels, while Semir injects the suspect with adrenaline, to make him confess where Dana is. All that while they're pursued by the Belgian police.
- Unflinching Walk: Semir does this in "1983," after saving Tannert from repeating history.
- Again in "Bombenstimmung," when he uses the magnetic landmines against the very same people who hunted him down with them.
- Would Hit a Girl: Partially subverted, as he normally doesn't; he has three daughters, after all.
- Semir: Normally I don't hit little girls...
Criminal: I'm a woman!
Semir: ...but for you, I'll make a clear exception.
Vicky Reisinger
Roman Kramer
Marc Schaffrath
Dana Gerkhan née Wegner
Vicky Reisinger
Played By: Gizem Emre
Plainclothes officer in the NRW Autobahn Police. Daughter of Semir Gerkhan. Max Tauber
