("Crime Scene") is a German-language

police procedural The police procedural, police show, or police crime drama is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasises the investigative procedure of police officers, police detectives, or law enforcement agency, law enforcement agencies ...

television series that has been running continuously since 1970 with 30 feature-length episodes per year, making it the longest-running German TV drama. Developed by the German public-service broadcasting organization ARD for their channel

Das Erste Das Erste (; "The First") is the flagship national television channel of the ARD (broadcaster), ARD association of public broadcasting corporations in Germany. ''Das Erste'' is jointly operated by the ARD (broadcaster)#Institutions and member org ...

, it is unique in its approach in that it is jointly produced by all of the organization's regional members as well as its partnering

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ** Austria-Hungary ** Austria ...

and

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

national public-service broadcasters, whereby every regional station contributes several episodes to a common pool. As a result of this, Tatort is a collection of different police stories where different police teams solve crimes in their own cities, with uniqueness in architecture, customs, and dialects of the cities being a distinctive part of the series. Often, the city, not the police force, is the real main character of an episode. The fact that local stations each produce a small number of episodes per year has enabled longer episodes (approximately 90 minutes), which in turn allows each episode to exhibit greater characterisation than other weekly TV dramas. The first episode was broadcast on 29 November 1970. Episodes are broadcast on ARD's main channel

, on Sunday evenings at the prime viewing time of 8:15 pm (just after the 8 pm ''

Tagesschau (German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, se ...

'' news) around three times a month. Reruns are often shown by various regional ARD stations and on foreign broadcasters. Alongside the member stations of the ARD, the national Austrian broadcasting corporation

Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF ; , ) is the national public broadcaster of Austria. Funded from a combination of television licence fee revenue and limited on-air advertising, ORF is the dominant player in the Austrian broadcast media. Austria was the last country in ...

joined the production pool in 1971 and aired the program on its

ORF 2 ORF 2 (''ORF zwei'', ''Österreichischer Rundfunk 2'') is an Austrian public television channel owned by ORF. It was launched on 11 September 1961 as a technical test programme. Today it is one of the four public TV channels in Austria. ORF& ...

channel. Switzerland's

Schweizer Fernsehen Schweizer Fernsehen (SF; "Swiss Television") was the German-language division of SRG SSR, in charge of production and distribution of television programmes in Switzerland for German-speaking Switzerland. It had its head office in Zürich.

joined the collection from 1990 to 2001 and again in 2011. It distributes its episodes through its channel

SRF 1 SRF 1 (''SRF eins'') is a German-language Swiss television channel, one of three produced by the SRG SSR public-service broadcasting group (the others being SRF zwei and SRF info). The channel, formerly known as SF1, was renamed on 16 Decemb ...

and Play SRF streaming app. The series ''

Polizeiruf 110 ''Polizeiruf 110'' ("Police call 110") is a long-running German-language detective television series. The name refers to the emergency telephone number of the ''Volkspolizei''. The first episode was broadcast 27 June 1971 in the German Democratic ...

'', which was produced by

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

's state TV broadcaster as a counterpart to the West German and has a similar regional production approach, is still produced by ARD's regional broadcasters Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR), Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB), Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) and Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR). ''Polizeiruf 110'' shares the Sunday night prime time slot on ''Das Erste'' with .

Concept

The main feature of is that all participating regional TV stations jointly produce it. Each of the eleven companies involved (the nine German regional TV channels or ''Landesrundfunkanstalten'' that together form ARD, plus

ORF ORF or Orf may refer to: * Norfolk International Airport, IATA airport code ORF * Observer Research Foundation, an Indian research institute * One Race Films, a film production company founded by Vin Diesel * Open reading frame, a portion of the g ...

in Austria and SRF in Switzerland) produces its episodes. Each station usually features more than one team of inspectors in different cities in its region, depending on the size of the producing broadcaster. Each of the roughly 20 active teams appears one to three times each year. Nearly every Sunday, a new episode from a different city premieres on ''Das Erste''; old episodes are often shown through all participating stations as part of their standard programming. The series shares this concept with its former East German counterpart ''Polizeiruf 110'', which is produced as four additional investigator teams aired under a different series name and opening credits by some regional broadcasters, primarily those that evolved from East German state television. Every episode features a different team of inspectors in another city. Combined with the fact that the episodes are 90 minutes long, almost movie-length, and rarely more than 30 episodes in one year, this makes for a cultural phenomenon closer to a string of

made-for-TV movies A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie, telefilm, telemovie or TV film/movie, is a film with a running time similar to a feature film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a terrestr ...

than a typical police series. This pooling concept was mainly due to the nature of the

public broadcast Public broadcasting (or public service broadcasting) is radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service with a commitment to avoiding political and commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive ...

television channel ARD, which is jointly operated by all of Germany's regional public ''Landesrundfunkanstalten''. The 9 regional public broadcasters collect broadcasting fees in their region of Germany (each region comprising one or more federal states), each with multiple radio stations and a regional TV station. ''Das Erste'' is produced as a joint national channel with standard national programming. Each regional broadcaster is responsible for parts of the programming, unlike in the US with its

network affiliate In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or a ...

system. Usually, one to three broadcasters produce one TV programme in cooperation. When was developed as a series of weekly feature film-long local crime stories, the stated concept was used to distribute financial and organizational efforts. Apart from the unique joint-pooling system, the series is also characterized by the episode length of around 90 minutes, which allows for more in-depth and psychological fleshing out of the characters. Although almost all episodes feature the investigation of a

homicide Homicide is an act in which a person causes the death of another person. A homicide requires only a Volition (psychology), volitional act, or an omission, that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from Accident, accidenta ...

, it is never just a simple case of

whodunit A ''whodunit'' (less commonly spelled as ''whodunnit''; a colloquial elision of "Who asdone it?") is a complex plot-driven variety of detective fiction Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an criminal ...

. Often the episode length 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 might focus on how one of the persons involved deals with the crime and its aftermath. Episodes also deal with social and political issues. With the national broadcasting corporations of Austria and Switzerland participating, the episodes of are currently set in various cities of Germany,

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, and

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

. Initially, 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 regional area have s playing in several cities. Notably, the

WDR WDR may refer to: * Waddell & Reed (stock ticker: WDR), an American asset management and financial planning company * Walt Disney Records, an American record label of the Disney Music Group * WDR neuron, a type of neuron involved in pain signalli ...

(based in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

) has three teams of investigators each playing in Cologne,

Münster Münster (; ) is an independent city#Germany, independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a ...

, and

Dortmund Dortmund (; ; ) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the List of cities in Germany by population, ninth-largest city in Germany. With a population of 614,495 inhabitants, it is the largest city ...

. Episodes are either produced by the station's production facilities or filmed and often written by outside production houses on behalf of the station. This sometimes leads to situations where, for instance, a set in

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

is produced in

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, with only a handful of scenes shot 'on location' in the town in which the story is supposed to be set in. Consequently, minor roles are sometimes played by actors or extras that do not have a matching regional accent. A similar concept of independently filming and then pooling episodes was used from 1988 to 1992 in the series ''

Eurocops ''Eurocops'' is a European television crime TV-series produced between 1988 and 1992. It is a co-production between seven European TV stations in which each station produced a number of episodes which were then pooled, dubbed and otherwise adapte ...

'', jointly produced by several national European TV stations. has not found wide distribution in non-German speaking countries, but some episodes were distributed as stand-alone mini-series. Notable examples were the

Horst Schimanski Horst Schimanski is a fictional homicide detective with a leading role in the German crime television series ''Tatort'', as well as the spin-off ''Schimanski''. Portrayed by Götz George, the character made his debut in the 1981 episode and ap ...

episodes which were shown in Finland in the late-1980s and on TV4 in Sweden in 1992, and the 2013 series starring

Til Schweiger Tilman Valentin Schweiger (; born 19 December 1963) is a German actor and filmmaker. He became known in the 1990s for films such as '' Manta, Manta'', '' Der bewegte Mann'' and '' Knockin' on Heaven's Door''. He went on to star in international ...

and

Fahri Yardım Fahri Ogün Yardım (born 7 August 1980) is a German actor. Biography Yardım was born in Hamburg, West Germany, where his parents moved from Turkey. He is best known for his portrayal of Hüseyin in ''Almanya – Welcome to Germany'' and a ...

in Hamburg was shown on the British

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

under the title ''Nick's Law''. In 2023, the American-based international television streaming service

MHz Choice MHz Networks is an American broadcaster that specializes in international television programming. Washington, D.C., broadcast operations MHz (pronounced "M-H-Z") Networks began as a project of the VPM Media Corporation, Commonwealth Public Broa ...

signed a deal with

and

Radio Bremen Radio Bremen (), shortened to RB () is Germany's smallest Public broadcasting, public radio and television broadcaster and the legally mandated broadcaster for the city-state Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (which includes Bremerha ...

for the rights to 250 of their episodes. English-subtitled versions of the current Dortmund (2012–present) and previous Bremen (2001–2019) teams' episodes are currently in production. That streaming service also has a selection of subtitled older episodes of the current Berlin, Cologne,

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

, Munich, and

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state (Germany), German state of Thuringia, in Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany between Erfurt to the west and Jena to the east, southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together w ...

teams from previous deals.

History

Gunther Witte, dramatist and TV head at

(West German Broadcasting Cologne) developed the series against initial resistance. 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. In January 2008, a similarly produced series of radio dramas called ''ARD Radio Tatort'' was introduced; new episodes are aired monthly by regional radio stations, but not simultaneously. In 2012, more than 100,000 people participated in the first and only online game linked to the SWR production, "Der Wald steht schwarz und schweiget." In January 2014, received the 50th

Grimme Award The Grimme-Preis (Grimme Award), formerly known as the Adolf-Grimme-Preis, is one of the most prestigious German television awards. It is named after the first general director of Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk, Adolf Grimme. The Grimme Institute ...

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 May 2018, 1055 episodes had been produced, plus 13 made in Austria and shown only there. Episode nr. 1000 was broadcast on Sunday, 13 November 2016. The episodes of some series of , such as the discontinued series about

Schimanski Horst Schimanski is a fictional homicide detective with a leading role in the German crime television series ''Tatort'', as well as the spin-off ''Schimanski''. Portrayed by Götz George, the character made his debut in the 1981 episode and ap ...

, played by

Götz George Götz George (; 23 July 1938 – 19 June 2016) was a German actor, the son of actor couple Berta Drews and Heinrich George. His arguably best-known role is that of Duisburg detective Horst Schimanski in the TV crime series ''Tatort''. Early lif ...

, have become cultural icons. The opening sequence of each episode has essentially remained the same throughout the decades except for slight changes.

Klaus Doldinger Klaus Doldinger (; born 12 May 1936) is a German saxophonist known for his work in jazz and as a film music composer. He was the recipient of the 1997's Bavarian Film Awards. He is also a frequent collaborator of German filmmaker Wolfgang Pet ...

composed the title music with

Udo Lindenberg Udo Lindenberg (born 17 May 1946) is a German singer, composer, and painter. Career Lindenberg started his musical career as a drummer. In 1969, he founded his first band Free Orbit, and also appeared as a studio and guest musician (with Micha ...

on drums.

In East Germany

At the same time the ARD was starting its format, the DDR had its own police procedural/crime show called ''

'' ("Police dial 1-1-0"). The series premiered in 1971, less than a year after the first . It, too, was a

with various teams of investigators in different cities of the DDR. Still, in contrast to the West, only a tiny part of their cases involved actual homicides. The psychology of the perpetrators and the victims was also more prevalent. The series continued through the 1970s and 80s and even survived the Wende, continuing until 1991. In 1990, ''Polizeiruf'' practiced its brand of

German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...

with episode 142, ("Amongst Brothers"), a crossover with the investigators

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 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; ), also known by its Anglicisation, anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a Federated state, state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's States of Germany, sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpom ...

would be operated as part of the NDR. As MDR, ORB, and NDR were all partners in the ARD, they were expected to start producing episodes as well. However, seeing the popularity of ''Polizeiruf 110'', it was decided that the stations would contribute to the 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' . Reorganising took one and a half years, but on 13 June 1993, the now MDR restarted the series in format. This first episode was set in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

, just as in 1991. However, today's episodes produced by the MDR are specified in

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; ) is the Capital city, capital of the Germany, German States of Germany, state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is on the Elbe river. Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archbishopric of Mag ...

, while those produced by NDR are set in

Rostock Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (), is the largest city in the German States of Germany, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the sta ...

. The ORB (and later ORB's successor, RBB) has its episodes headed by the same team of investigators but take place in various cities in

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

. In addition, Bavarian Broadcasting BR produces both ''Polizeiruf'' and episodes, both set in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. 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 broadcasters tried to produce ''Polizeiruf'' episodes as a sort of 'alternative Tatort' alongside 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

was so far the only federal state in Germany that had neither a nor a ''Polizeiruf'' set in one of its cities, the MDR ordered two new series, set in

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Central Germany (cultural area), Central German state of Thuringia, with a population of around 216,000. It lies in the wide valley of the Gera (river), River Gera, in the so ...

and

, respectively.

n companies produce both for the MDR. 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 133''.

Table of broadcasters

There have been over 1100 episodes of Tatort, from November 1970 up to the beginning of January 2020 these have been the product of a dozen broadcasters, based around various lead investigators. While some (about 30) have been featured only once or twice, several investigators have featured in multiple episodes. There are 22 current investigative strands,Current investigators
at daerste.de (German) and three have been the subject of over 70 episodes. Last update: 22 Jul 2023

Soundtracks (selection)

Some 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 Klaus Lage (born 16 June 1950) is a German musician from Soltau, Lower Saxony. He is known for his 1984 single "1000 und 1 Nacht (Zoom!)". Life Klaus Lage spent his childhood in Soltau before the family moved to Düsseldorf. Whilst living in ...

from the movie ', and "

Midnight Lady "Midnight Lady" is a song by English soft rock musician Chris Norman, released as a single in 1986. The song, produced and written by Dieter Bohlen, one half of Modern Talking, reached number one on the German singles chart in May 1986. Norman i ...

" by

Chris Norman Christopher Ward Norman (born 25 October 1950) is an English soft rock singer. Norman was the original lead singer of the English rock band Smokie (band), Smokie (1964–1986), which found success in Europe in the 1970s. "Stumblin' In", a 1978 ...

, written by

Dieter Bohlen Dieter Bohlen (; born Dieter Günter Bohlen on 7 February 1954) is a German songwriter, producer, singer and television personality. He first achieved fame as a member of the pop duo Modern Talking in the 1980s, and has since produced numerous G ...

, which appears on the episode . Some random selected soundtracks:

References

External links