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The man behind »Kottan«: Peter Patzak
Photo: Georg Hochmuth / picture alliance / dpa / APA
"Inspector gives kaan!" Was one of the winged words of the series "Kottan investigated" - annoyed in the cranky Viennese humiliation countered those who once again addressed the investigating main character with the wrong title.
Kottan held the rank of major after all.
Like Peter Patzak's father.
The son took up another job, became a film director and was responsible for all 19 episodes of the television classic.
"Kottan determined" was Patzak's life's work, the series ran from 1976 to 1983 on Austrian television, in 1981 and 2010 Patzak also directed two films with the main character.
It was more and more about satire than tension, which initially caused irritation: after the first episode, hundreds of viewers called ORF in 1976 and complained.
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Patzak (r.) Shooting with one of the three »Kottan« actors, Lukas Resetarits
Photo: Votava / picture alliance / IMAGNO / Votava
"Kottan" liked to be surreal.
A man dressed in white who lived in the sewer system could appear several times.
And a television announcer regularly made strange announcements like this: "In response to popular requests from viewers, we are now repeating a ten-minute picture disturbance."
And Kottan himself, who has been played by three different actors over the years, was a not infrequently unsympathetic grumbler who didn't think much of foreigners.
To break up format television, to play with genre patterns, that was what Patzak anticipated early on in today's "Golden Age of Television".
And the director, who grew up in a working-class district in Vienna and studied art history, painting and psychology, dealt with racism further.
1979 in "Kassbach", an internationally acclaimed neo-Nazi portrait and declared favorite film by Martin Scorsese.
In 1987 Patzak shot his greatest success in Germany, the action crime thriller »Der Joker«, set in Hamburg and with plenty of film noir allusions, starring Peter Maffay.
Patzak later also staged in the theater and exhibited as a painter.
He was remembered especially in his homeland with his hearty sense of humor.
About the Austrian national holiday he said: "In Austria the national holiday was only called› Flag Day ‹because everyone was always concerned about it." Peter Patzak died on March 11th in Vienna after a heart operation.
He was 76 years old.
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kae / dpa