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Germans gripped by cult police drama since 1970
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GERMANY’S cult crime show “Tatort” may be almost unknown outside the country but the popular and realistic police series is about to celebrate its 1,000th episode.
The programe has kept millions of German viewers engrossed since 1970 with families breaking off from dinner at 8:15pm on Sundays and meeting friends at the pub to catch the latest episode of Germany’s most popular detective show.
At a time when Netflix and Amazon Prime are eroding the business of traditional television broadcasters, viewership for “Tatort” (Crime Scene) peaked at 13.7 million last November.
And 50 million Germans say they watch at least one episode a year, making it as much of a German TV staple as Bundesliga football matches.
But unlike many modern cop shows, “Tatort” largely avoids gun battles, car chases and skirt-chasing super cops.
Instead, the ARD public television show still stays mostly true to its original concept — that its cases and characters must be imaginable in real life.
The trickiest question about the whodunnit series therefore is the secret of its success.
“That’s a great mystery that no one seems to have an explanation for,” said Peter Doerfler, co-writer of a documentary on the show that is due to be broadcast after the 1,000th episode screens on Sunday.
TV pundits have espoused plenty of theories about the success of Germany’s longest-running crime series.
Some argue it has held up a mirror to a changing society, moving from crimes of passion and bank robberies to human trafficking, IT hackers and racist hate crimes.
But the key winning concept may be the show’s regional character — with plots rotating among 22 separate detective teams in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, each speaking local slangs and dialects.
“Germany is not just one big chunk,” said Gunther Witte, who dreamed up the series. “Each region brings something to Germany. That applies to the culture as well as for the television series.”
Witte himself had first expected the series to run over two years. But 46 years later, it is as popular as ever.
“I find it a great series because it addresses current subjects, and it’s also very German,” said Monika Kwiatkowski, 38, who was sitting in a Berlin bar with a friend to watch the latest episode.
The show “doesn’t just show the cities where the action is taking place, but also the reality,” she added.
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