"Tatort" in the check Can memories really be manipulated?
Lucy Osthofen (Luise von Stein, right) posed a puzzle for forensic scientist Professor Karl-Friedrich Boerne (Jan Josef Liefers) and his assistant Silke Haller (ChrisTine Urspruch) in "Tatort: Fiderallala".
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
After the death of a student, Inspector Thiel (Axel Prahl, left) and Professor Boerne (Jan Josef Liefers) investigate at the University of Münster in "Tatort: Fiderallala".
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
When investigating the cause of the student's death, Professor Boerne (Jan Josef Liefers, center) consulted his students.
Image: WDR/Taimas Ahangari
When Fraya Menke (Meira Durand, left) comes under suspicion of murder, her mother Solveig Menke (Adina Vetter) protects her.
Image: WDR/Martin Valentin Menke
"Tatort" fans will soon have to do without the dry humor of public prosecutor Wilhelmine Klemm (Mechthild Grossmann): The actress announced her departure in 2024.
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
Lucy Osthofen (Luise von Stein, right) posed a puzzle for forensic scientist Professor Karl-Friedrich Boerne (Jan Josef Liefers) and his assistant Silke Haller (ChrisTine Urspruch) in "Tatort: Fiderallala".
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
After the death of a student, Inspector Thiel (Axel Prahl, left) and Professor Boerne (Jan Josef Liefers) investigate at the University of Münster in "Tatort: Fiderallala".
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
When investigating the cause of the student's death, Professor Boerne (Jan Josef Liefers, center) consulted his students.
Image: WDR/Taimas Ahangari
When Fraya Menke (Meira Durand, left) comes under suspicion of murder, her mother Solveig Menke (Adina Vetter) protects her.
Image: WDR/Martin Valentin Menke
"Tatort" fans will soon have to do without the dry humor of public prosecutor Wilhelmine Klemm (Mechthild Grossmann): The actress announced her departure in 2024.
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
The death of a student posed a mystery for the Münster duo Thiel and Boerne: a fellow student was convinced that she was the perpetrator, but something was wrong. Can memories be manipulated?
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- A dead body at a student party confronted the Münster "Tatort" duo of Thiel (Axel Prahl) and Boerne(Jan Josef Liefers) with a curious case.
- Several suspects seemed to misremember the course of the crime, which led to suspicion: Were their memories deliberately manipulated?
- Meanwhile, things got heated between Thiel and Boerne: after a joint party excess, Boerne unceremoniously kicked his colleague out of his apartment - but not permanently.
A well-intentioned joke by forensic scientist Professor Karl-Friedrich Boerne(Jan Josef Liefers) put his relationship with Chief Inspector Frank Thiel (Axel Prahl) to the test in the 47th Münster"Tatort: Fiderallala" (script: Regine Bielefeldt).
At the same time, the death of a student puzzled the duo in the new "Tatort":
Although a fellow student seemed rock-solidly convinced that she was responsible, her account of the crime did not match the injuries to the corpse. It turned out that her memory had been manipulated.
But is that really possible?
What was "Tatort: Fiderallala" about?
In order to lure his frozen pizza-crazy colleague to a student party, Boerne invented a corpse without further ado in the crime thriller directed by Isa Prahl.
The plan worked: Thiel enjoyed himself at the party, while Boerne not only consumed plenty of THC and alcohol, but also landed a hit on the net with his intoxicated rendition of the "Bird Wedding".
Driven by offended pride, Boerne terminated Thiel' s tenancy as punishment for not intervening. A mistake, as it soon turned out, which the professor ultimately wanted to eradicate by blowing up Thiel's letterbox.
What was it actually about?
The bickering between the two main characters was just an entertaining side skirmish to the actual case to be solved:
Student Chris Haffmeister (Jonas Stenzel) died as a result of a mysterious stab wound. The estimated time of death coincided with the student council party, which Thiel and Boerne were also attending.
The circle of witnesses and potential perpetrators was correspondingly large, but none of them could remember much about the night of the party. It soon emerged that Chris Haffmeister managed the AStA's room exchange until his death.
Fraya Menke (Meira Durand), who had a criminal record, had initially applied in vain for one of these rooms and was consequently suspected of murder.
The inconspicuous student Lucy Osthofen (Luise von Stein), on the other hand, claimed to be responsible for Chris Haffmeister's death. She stabbed him in self-defense. But her statement did not match the facts.
Boerne wanted to get to the bottom of the matter with a "standard lie detector" - with the result: "Nothing she says can be true. But she's not lying either. It's as if she has internalized the lie like a truth."
Things got even crazier when a second body was found: Achim Probst was beaten to death in his villa. This time, the former professional footballer Erkan Gül (Surho Sugaipov) confessed to a robbery-murder. But this statement could not be true either.
How can memories be manipulated?
It is indeed possible to manipulate a person's memories, as an experiment by psychologist Aileen Oeberst proves:
"We invited students under the pretext of conducting a study on childhood memories," describes the scientist in an interview with "ZEIT Magazin".
She continues: "We spoke to their parents in advance and obtained real memories. We later mixed these with false claims and asked the test subjects about them. For example, a family vacation in Italy: here we claimed that the test subject had been lost as a child during a trip on this vacation - but that wasn't true."
The subject was initially taken aback, but the longer she thought about the alleged experience, the more details she added to the story herself, such as the warm weather: "In the interviews, we repeatedly support this false memory by reinforcing it and encouraging them to think further. And so, in the end, test subjects can be convinced that they remember it that way," explains Oeberst.
In addition to the ability and the motivation to take on board the false memory, what is needed above all are trustworthy people who keep telling the subject this story. This could be their own parents, but also police officers or therapists, as Oeberst emphasizes.
In some cases, however, this behavior can have fatal consequences: "If a therapist argues that the reason for an illness, for example depression, is a trauma from the past and wants to 'drill down' into it, but there was no such trauma, then this can lead to catastrophic, false memories."
How did "Tatort: Fiderallala" end?
It was similar in "Tatort: Fiderallala": therapist Solveig Menke (Adina Vetter) had implanted the false memory of the night of death in her patient Lucy Osthofen in order to protect her own daughter Fraya from being arrested.
Achim Probst, on the other hand, had been beaten to death by his own son-in-law Dennis Kollberg (Tom Radisch), who was also being treated by Solveig Menke. When he found out about her manipulative abilities, he blackmailed her into providing him with a false alibi, which the ex-footballer ultimately provided.
What's next for the Münster "Tatort"?
Thiel and Boerne managed to put their dispute aside at the end of the 90-minute episode. What's more, Boerne even promised his tenant a new apartment. It remains to be seen whether the audience will get to see this in the upcoming Münster "Tatort".
What is certain is that the upcoming 48th film will be the last with actress Mechthild Grossmann as public prosecutor Wilhelmine Klemm: The 76-year-old announced her retirement in August 2024.
Filming of her farewell episode "The Invention of the Wheel" is scheduled to take place in March and April 2025. Broadcast is planned for the end of 2025.
