Tatort

Tatort (Crime scene) is a German language police procedural television series that has been running continuously since 1970 with some 30 feature-length episodes per year, which makes it the longest-running German TV-drama. Developed by the German television channel ARD, it is unique in its approach, in that it is jointly produced by all of the station's regional public-service broadcasters whereby every regional station contributes a number of episodes to a common pool. Therefore, the series is a collection of different police stories where different police teams each solve crimes in their respective city. Uniqueness in architecture, customs and dialects of the cities is therefore a distinctive part of the series and often the city, not the police force is the real main character of an episode. The concept of local stations only producing a couple of shows per year has also enabled the shows to be longer (90 minutes) and more fleshed out psychologically than other weekly TV dramas.

The first episode was broadcast on 29 November 1970. Episodes are broadcast on ARD's main channel Das Erste on Sunday evening at the prime viewing time of 8.15 pm (just after the 8 o'clock Tagesschau news) around three times a month. Reruns are often shown by various regional ARD stations and on foreign broadcasters. Next to the member stations of the ARD, the National Austrian broadcasting corporation Österreichischer Rundfunk joined the production pool in 1971 and airs the program on its ORF 2 channel. Switzerland's Schweizer Fernsehen joined the pool from 1990 to 2001 and again in 2011 and distributes its episodes through its channel SRF 1.

The series Polizeiruf 110 by ARD's regional broadcasters Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR), Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB), Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) and Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) is closely related to the Tatort format and shares the same program slot on Das Erste.

Contents 1 Concept 2 History 3 Features 4 In East Germany 5 List of Tatort investigators (Kommissare) 6 Soundtracks (selection) 7 See also 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links

Concept
The main feature of Tatort is that it is jointly produced by all participating regional TV stations: Each of the eleven companies involved (the nine German regional TV channels or Landesrundfunkanstalten that together form ARD, plus ORF in Austria and SRF in Switzerland), produces its own episodes, starring its own police inspector or team of inspectors. The episodes are then fed into a common pool and shown through all participating stations as part of their common programming. This means that if one Tatort features one team of inspectors in one specific city, the next Tatort will play in another city and feature another set of inspectors. Combine this with the fact that the episodes are, with 90 minutes of length, almost the size of a movie and with the fact that, with rarely more than 30 episodes in one year, the series is broadcast only every other week and you come up with a cultural phenomenon that is closer to a string of made-for-TV movies then your typical run-of-the-mill police series.

This pooling concept was in great part due to the nature of the public broadcast television channel ARD which is jointly operated by all of Germany's public Landesrundfunkanstalten: Originally developed as radio stations, each 'Anstalt' produces its own radio channels, but cooperates on national programs such as the newscasts that are broadcast throughout all channels as a common block. With the advent of television, this was expanded further in that there was only one national channel jointly operated by all Anstalten with a regional block as well as a common programming. But unlike for instance in the USA with its Network affiliate system no single corporation would produce all common programming. Instead the different member stations would each contribute a number of programs to the common block to be shown by all other stations. As a result of this each of the member stations already had the capacity and experience to produce TV-programs, even feature films on their own although no Anstalt had the means and capacity to produce a complete series. Jointly producing one crime series with episodes contributed by each member station was thus a logical step.

Apart from the unique joint-pooling system, the series is also characterised by the relative length of an episode (90 minutes) which allows for more in-dept and psychological fleshing out of the characters. Although almost all episodes feature the investigation of an homicide, it is never just a simple case of whodunit. Often the time available allows for the crime to be shown in all its aspects with equal attention focused on the perpetrators and the victims as on the inspectors. On several occasions the actual police work is just a side note in the story as the main plot is the way one of the persons involved deals with the crime and its aftermath.

With the national broadcasting corporations of Austria and Switzerland joining in, the episodes of Tatort are set in various cities of Germany, Vienna and Lucerne. Originally each of the participating member stations limited their episodes to one team of investigators in one city, for ease of production this was mostly the city the broadcast station was in, but over the years some stations broadcasting over a large area have Tatorts playing in several cities. Notably the WDR has three teams of investigators playing respectively in Cologne, Münster and Dortmund. Episodes are either produced by the station's own production facilities or are filmed and often also written by outside production houses on behalf of the station. This sometimes leads to situations where for instance a Tatort playing in Thuringia is actually produced in Bavaria with only a handful of scenes shot 'on location' in the town the story is supposed to play in.

A similar concept of independently filming and then pooling episodes was used from 1988 to 1992 in the series Eurocops jointly produced by several national European TV stations.

History
Gunther Witte, dramaturge and TV boss at WDR (West German Broadcasting Cologne), developed the series against initial resistance.[1] Witte and his successors have ensured that one or two detectives are at the center of every story, and the cases are shown from their perspective; they are usually members of a team, and their lives are also included.[1]

The first Tatort radio drama was broadcast in January 2008.

In 2012, more than 100,000 people participated in the first and only online game linked to the SWR Tatort production, "Der Wald steht schwarz und schweiget".[2]

In January 2014, Tatort received the 50th Grimme Award from the Deutscher Volkshochschul-Verband.[3][4]

Features
The show is still aired on Sundays at 8:15 p.m. in Germany and Austria and 8:05 p.m. in Switzerland. About 30 episodes are made each year. By March 2016, 978 episodes had been produced, plus 13 made in Austria and shown only there.

The episodes of some series of Tatort, such as the discontinued series about Schimanski, played by Götz George, have become cultural icons.

The opening sequence of each episode has essentially remained the same throughout the decades except for slight changes. Klaus Doldinger composed the title music with Udo Lindenberg on drums.[5]

In East Germany
At the same time the ARD was starting its Tatort format, the DDR had its own police procedural/crime show called Polizeiruf 110 ("Police dial 1-1-0"). The series premiered in 1971, less than a year after the first Tatort. It too was a police procedural, with various teams of investigators in various cities of the DDR, but in contrast to the West, only a small part of their cases involved actual homicides. The psychology of the perpetrators and the victims was also more prevalent. The series continued through all of the 1970s and 80s and even survived the Wende, continuing until 1991.

In 1990 Polizeiruf practiced its own brand of German unification with episode 142, "Unter Brüdern" ("Amongst Brothers"), a crossover with the Tatort investigators Schimanski and Thanner (this was co-produced with ARD and a medley of the two series themes were used in the opening intro). Until 1991, the series continued more or less independently for 11 more episodes until episode 153 (22 December 1991), again a crossover, in which Kommissar Thanner becomes the team's superior. Also in 1991, as part of the unification, the DDR's television company DFF was split into the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) and Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg (ORB) while the television stations in the new state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern would be operated as part of the NDR.

As MDR, ORB and NDR were all partners in the ARD, it was expected that they would start producing Tatort episodes as well. However, seeing the popularity of Polizeiruf 110, it was decided that the stations would contribute to the Tatort pool, but that its episodes would keep the name of Polizeiruf 110 and their own title music and intro. Still, they would be broadcast over all ARD stations on Sunday evening just like (or instead of) the 'western' Tatort.

Reorganising took one and a half years, but on 13 June 1993, the now MDR restarted the series in Tatort format. This first episode played in Leipzig, just as in 1991. However, today's episodes produced by the MDR play in Magdeburg, while those produced by NDR play in Rostock. The ORB (and later ORB's successor, RBB) has its episodes headed by the same team of investigators, but take place in various cities of Brandenburg. In addition, Bavarian Broadcasting station BR produces its own Polizeiruf episodes playing in Munich next to its Tatort episodes playing in the same city. Like the original, the Bavarian Polizeiruf episodes focus more on the psychology of the crimes and more on crimes other than homicides. Over the years several other 'western' local broadcasts tried their hands at producing Polizeiruf episodes as a line of 'alternative Tatort' next to the regular ones. However, all of them stopped after a few episodes.

On 15 May 2015, RBB aired the 350th episode of Polizeiruf 110, the 197th episode of the new format.

In 2013, seeing that Thuringia was so far the only federal state in Germany that had neither a Tatort nor a Polizeiruf playing in one of its cities, the MDR ordered two new series under the Tatort header, playing in Erfurt and in Weimar respectively. Both are produced for the MDR by Bavarian companies.

As 1-1-0 is the speed dial code for police/emergency dispatch in Germany, but not in Austria, Polizeiruf 110 is broadcast in Austria as Polizeiruf 113.

List of Tatort investigators (Kommissare)
Year

Broadcast Station

Investigators

Actors

City

Number of Episodes

1970–1982 NDR Paul Trimmel Walter Richter Hamburg 11 1970–1973 SR Liersdahl and Schäfermann Dieter Eppler Saarbrücken 2 1971–1973 WDR Kressin Sieghardt Rupp Cologne 7 1971–1986 SDR Eugen Lutz Werner Schumacher 8 different towns in Baden-Württemberg 16 1971–1979 HR Konrad Klaus Höhne Frankfurt am Main 8 1971–1978 NDR Finke Klaus Schwarzkopf Kiel and other places in Schleswig-Holstein 7 1971–1987 ORF Viktor Marek Fritz Eckhardt Vienna 14 1971–1972 SFB Erwin Kasulke Paul Esser Berlin 2 1972–1981 BR Melchior Veigl Gustl Bayrhammer Munich 15 1972 SWF Horst Pflüger Ernst Jacobi Baden-Baden 1 1973 RB Walter Böck Hans Häckermann Bremen 1 1973–1977 SWF Franz Gerber Heinz Schimmelpfennig Baden-Baden 5 1974–1980 WDR Heinz Haferkamp Hansjörg Felmy Essen 20 1974–1977 NDR Heinz Brammer Knut Hinz Hanover 4 1975–1977 SFB Martin Schmidt Martin Hirthe Berlin 3 1977–1984 SR Schäfermann Manfred Heidmann Saarbrücken 4 1978–1980 SWF Marianne Buchmüller Nicole Heesters Mainz 3 1978–1983 HR Bergmann Heinz Treuke Frankfurt am Main 3 1978–1979 SFB Matthias Behnke Hans-Peter Korff Berlin 2 1979 NDR Nagel Diether Krebs Braunschweig 1 1979–1985 NDR Delius Horst Bollmann Hamburg 3 1980 HR Sander Volkert Kraeft Frankfurt am Main 1 1980 WDR Paul Enders Jörg Hube Essen, Frankfurt am Main 1 1980–1982 NDR Jochen Piper Bernd Seebacher Bremen 2 1980 WDR Willy Kreutzer Willy Semmelrogge Essen 1 1981 HR Bergmann Lutz Moik Frankfurt am Main 3 1981–1985 SFB Friedrich Walther Volker Brandt Berlin 6 1981–1988 SWF Hanne Wiegand Karin Anselm Baden-Baden, Karlsruhe, Mainz 8 1981 NDR Greve Erik Schumann small town in Schleswig-Holstein 1 1981 NDR Beck Hans Häckermann Lübeck 1 1981–1991 WDR Horst Schimanski and Christian Thanner Götz George and Eberhard Feik Duisburg 29 1981–1987 BR Ludwig Lenz Helmut Fischer Munich 7 1982 HR Werner Rolfs Klaus Löwitsch Frankfurt am Main 1 1982 NDR Nikolaus Schnoor Uwe Dallmeier Bremerhaven 1 1983 NDR Ronke Ulrich von Bock Hamburg 1 1984 HR Rullmann Hans-Werner Bussinger small towns in Hesse 1 1984–2001 NDR Paul Stoever and Peter Brockmöller Manfred Krug and Charles Brauer Hamburg and Neuwerk 41, Brockmöller: 38 1984–1986 ORF Hirth Kurt Jaggberg Vienna 3 (+ 7 only ORF) 1985 HR Reinhold Dietze Klaus Löwitsch Frankfurt am Main 1 1985–2001 HR Edgar Brinkmann Karl-Heinz von Hassel Frankfurt am Main 28 1985–1989 SFB Hans Georg Bülow Heinz Drache Berlin 6 1986 BR Siggi Riedmüller Günther Maria Halmer (de) Munich 1 1987–1988 SDR Georg Thomas Schreitle Horst Michael Neutze Stuttgart, Führstadt 3 1987 BR Karl Scherrer Hans Brenner Munich 1 1987 ORF Passini Christoph Waltz Vienna 1 1988 ORF Pfeifer Bruno Dallansky Vienna 1 (+4 only ORF) 1988–2005 SR Max Palu Jochen Senf Saarbrücken and other places in Saarland 17 1988–1989 BR Otto Brandenburg Horst Bollmann Munich 2 1989–1996 ORF Michael Fichtl Michael Janisch Vienna 8 (+1 only ORF) since 1989 SWF, SWR Lena Odenthal and Mario Kopper Ulrike Folkerts and Andreas Hoppe Ludwigshafen 61, Kopper: 52 1990 DRS Walter Howald Mathias Gnädinger Bern 1 since 1991 BR Ivo Batic, Franz Leitmayr (and Detective Sergeant Carlo Menzinger until 2007) Miroslav Nemec, Udo Wachtveitl and Michael Fitz Munich 69, Menzinger: 45 1991–1992 DRS Reto Carlucci Andrea Zogg Bern 2 1991–1995 SFB Franz Markowitz Günter Lamprecht Berlin 8 1992–2007 MDR Bruno Ehrlicher and Kain Peter Sodann and Bernd Michael Lade first Dresden, later Leipzig, one episode in Cologne as well 45, (two of them together with Ballauf and Schenk) 1992–1997 WDR Bernd Flemming, Detective Constable Max Ballauf and Detective Constable Miriam Koch Martin Lüttge, Klaus J. Behrendt and Roswitha Schreiner Düsseldorf 15, Ballauf: 9 1992–2007 SDR, SWR Ernst Bienzle and Detective Sergeant Günter Gächter Dietz Werner Steck and Rüdiger Wandel Stuttgart 25 1993–2002 DRS Philipp von Burg and Markus Gertsch L.I. Kisch and E.C. Sigrist Bern 9 1995 HR Leo Felber Heinz Schubert Frankfurt am Main 1 1996–1998 SFB Ernst Roiter and Detective Constable Michael Zorrowski Winfried Glatzeder and Robinson Reichel Berlin 12 1996 ORF Max Becker Klaus Wildbolz Vienna 1 1997 ORF Paul Kant and Jakob Varanasi Wolfgang Hübsch and Johannes Nikolussi Vienna 2 1997 NDR Lea Sommer Hannelore Elsner Hamburg 2 since 1997 WDR Max Ballauf and Freddy Schenk Klaus J. Behrendt and Dietmar Bär Cologne, two Episodes in Leipzig as well 62, (respectively two of them together with Ehrlicher/Kain and Saalfeld/Keppler) since 1997 RB Inga Lürsen and Detective Constable Nils Stedefreund Sabine Postel and Oliver Mommsen Bremen, Bremerhaven 30 (with Stedefreund: 25) 1999–2014 SFB, RBB Till Ritter and Robert Hellmann, later Felix Stark Dominic Raacke and Stefan Jürgens, later Boris Aljinovic Berlin 37, (with Hellmann: 6, with Stark: 31, the last episode only with Stark) since 1999 ORF Moritz Eisner and Bibi Fellner Harald Krassnitzer and Adele Neuhauser Vienna and other places in Austria 34 (with Fellner: 10) 2001–2008 NDR Jan Casstorff and Detective Sergeant Eduard Holicek Robert Atzorn, Tilo Prückner Hamburg 15 2002–2010 HR Detective Sergeant Charlotte Sänger and Fritz Dellwo Andrea Sawatzki and Jörg Schüttauf Frankfurt am Main 18 since 2002 NDR Charlotte Lindholm Maria Furtwängler Hanover and small towns in Lower Saxony 22 since 2002 SWR Klara Blum and Kai Perlmann Eva Mattes and Sebastian Bezzel Konstanz and other places at the Lake Constance 28 (with Perlmann: 24) since 2002 WDR Frank Thiel and forensic doctor Prof. Karl-Friedrich Boerne Axel Prahl and Jan Josef Liefers Münster (Westfalia) and around 26 since 2003 NDR Klaus Borowski, Frieda Jung (2003-2010) and Sarah Brandt (since 2010) Axel Milberg, Maren Eggert (2003-2010) and Sibel Kekilli (since 2010) Kiel 24 (with Jung: 14, with Brandt: 8) 2006-2012 SR Franz Kappl and Stephan Deininger Maximilian Brückner and Gregor Weber Saarbrücken 7 since 2008 SWR Sebastian Bootz and Thorsten Lannert Felix Klare and Richy Müller Stuttgart 15 since 2008 MDR Eva Saalfeld and Andreas Keppler Simone Thomalla and Martin Wuttke Leipzig 20 (two of them together with Ballauf and Schenk) 2008-2012 NDR Cenk Batu Mehmet Kurtuluş Hamburg 6 since 2010 HR Felix Murot Ulrich Tukur Wiesbaden 4 2011–2015 HR Conny Mey and Frank Steier Nina Kunzendorf und Joachim Król Frankfurt 7 (with Mey: 5) since 2011 SRF Reto Flückiger and Liz Ritschard Stefan Gubser and Delia Mayer Lucerne 7 (with Ritschard: 6) since 2012 WDR Peter Faber, Martina Bönisch, Nora Dalay and Daniel Kossik Jörg Hartmann, Anna Schudt, Aylin Tezel and Stefan Konarske Dortmund 5 since 2013 SR Jens Stellbrink and Lisa Marx Devid Striesow and Elisabeth Brück Saarbrücken 4 since 2013 NDR Nick Tschiller and Yalcin Gümer Til Schweiger and Fahri Ogün Yardım Hamburg 2 since 2013 NDR Thorsten Falke and Katharina Lorenz Wotan Wilke Möhring and Petra Schmidt-Schaller Hamburg and other places in Northern Germany 3 2013–2014 MDR Henry Funck, Maik Schaffert and Aline Grewel Friedrich Mücke, Benjamin Kramme and Alina Levshin Erfurt 2 since 2013 MDR Lessing and Kira Dorn Christian Ulmen and Nora Tschirner Weimar 2 since 2015 RBB Nina Rubin und Robert Karow Meret Becker, Mark Waschke Berlin 3 since 2015 HR Anna Janneke und Paul Brix Margarita Broich, Wolfram Koch Frankfurt am Main 3 since 2016 SWR Ellen Berlinger Heike Makatsch Freiburg 1

Last update: February 28, 2015

Soundtracks (selection)
Some Tatort episodes from the 1980s and 1990s included songs that subsequently became quite well known, and two of them reached the top of the charts: "Faust auf Faust (Schimanski)" by Klaus Lage from the Tatort movie Zahn um Zahn, and "Midnight Lady" by Chris Norman, written by Dieter Bohlen, which appears on the episode "Der Tausch". Some random selected soundtracks:

Artist

Title song

Episode

Year

TV station

Can "Vitamin C" Tote Taube in der Beethovenstraße 1973 WDR Tangerine Dream "Das Mädchen auf der Treppe" "Das Mädchen auf der Treppe" 1981 WDR Warning "Why Can The Bodies Fly" "Peggy hat Angst" 1982 SWF Tangerine Dream "Daydream – Moorland" "Miriam" 1983 Jil Anderson "Without You (Baby, Baby)" "Haie vor Helgoland" 1984 NDR Mark Spiro "Winds Of Change" "Das Haus im Wald" 1985 WDR Patricia Simpson "Dreams In The City" "Nachtstreife" 1985 ORF Die Toten Hosen "Verschwende deine Zeit" "Voll auf Haß" 1986 NDR Sandra "Stop For A Minute" "Salü Palu" 1987 SR Roger Chapman "Slap Bang in the Middle" "Einzelhaft" 1988 WDR Bonnie Tyler "Against The Wind" "Der Fall Schimanski" 1991 WDR Wolf Maahn "Cool" "Der Mörder und der Prinz" 1992 WDR Markus Küpper "Sie hat Schluß gemacht" "Ein ehrenwertes Haus" 1994 MDR Ben Becker "Alter Mann" "Falsches Alibi" 1995 MDR