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The logo of the RIAS Berlin on the roof of the Rundfunkhaus in the Schöneberg district.
© Chris Hoffmann/dpa/archive image
His RIAS radio thrillers from the 1970s to the 1990s still have countless fans today: The radio play scene mourns the gifted prolific writer Michael Koser.
Berlin/Bremen - The radio play author Michael Koser is dead. The radio play editorial team at Deutschlandfunk and Deutschlandfunk Kultur announced this on Wednesday in Berlin.
Koser died in Bremen on February 20th at the age of 85.
He was one of the most popular crime writers in Germany.
“As the author of a total of over 150 radio plays and, last but not least, as the inventor of the cult series about “The Thinking Machine” Professor van Dusen, Michael Koser shaped the German crime thriller radio play landscape for decades,” both radio waves paid tribute to the author.
“The trained historian Koser has repeatedly succeeded in integrating historical knowledge, contemporary history and anecdotal evidence into sophisticated crime plots.” Between 1978 and 1999, RIAS Berlin and Deutschlandradio produced 79 episodes of the Van Dusen series, which were among the most successful publicly -legal radio series can be counted at all.
In doing so, Koser not only struck a chord with the crime fiction audience of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s: “Even today, his mystery crime novels, many of which are available digitally, continue to inspire a constantly growing fan base,” the obituary continues.
His best-known series is loosely based on stories by the US writer Jacques Futrelle: The “Thinking Machine” Professor Dr.
Dr.
Dr.
Augustus van Dusen travels the world from New York and solves cold murders and sophisticated thefts in many exotic locations around the turn of the century.
Always at the side of the amateur criminologist: his chronicler, the reporter for the fictional newspaper “Daily New Yorker”, Hutchinson Hatch.
The two friends run into all sorts of royals and illustrious celebrities.
Funny moments, excitement and some history lessons are often balanced.
The series is now considered a gem among radio play fans because, in addition to intelligent plots, it also featured fabulous speakers: the voice of the arrogant and brilliant professor belonged to Friedrich W. Bauschulte (1923-2003), who was also Lieutenant Mike Stone alias Karl Malden in the US Dubbed TV series “The Streets of San Francisco”.
The somewhat idiotic journalist Hutchinson Hatch was portrayed by Klaus Herm (1925-2014), one of the busiest radio play announcers in Germany.
Over the years, the crème de la crème of the scene met as guest speakers in the recording studio.
Every month a Van Dusen episode appears in the Deutschlandradio audio library and in the “Krimi Hörspiel” podcast; 40 have been heard there so far.
The entire series will gradually be made digitally accessible.
The 41st episode “Professor van Dusen meets Kaiser Wilhelm” will be available in the audio library from March 14th.
dpa