"Crime scene" in the check Did Germany abandon its local Afghan forces in 2021?

Afghanistan is one of the world's forgotten trouble spots. With investigators Bonard (Corinna Harfouch) and Karow (Mark Waschke), Berlin's "Tatort: Vier Leben" puts its finger in the wound. Was Germany guilty back then in Kabul?

From 2001 to 2021, Afghanistan was supported by an international coalition led by NATO - to promote security, stability and the reconstruction of the country. However, when the protection forces pulled down their tents, the Islamist Taliban fighters recaptured the country at record speed.

Hardly any Western country covered itself in glory when assessing the situation. Everything happened much faster than expected. Local Afghan forces, who supported Germany during those years of attempted democracy-building in the country, were and still are in mortal danger.

"Tatort: Four Lives" combines this dark moral stain on Germany with the hunt for a sniper killer in the political center of Berlin. Investigators Bonard (Corinna Harfouch) and Karow (Mark Waschke) rush through 90 exciting but also very packed minutes of thriller.

What was it about?

The former up-and-coming political star and lobbyist Jürgen Weghorst (Philipp Lind) was shot dead by a sniper in the middle of Berlin. The trail soon led Susanne Bonard (Corinna Harfouch) and Robert Karow (Mark Waschke) to political Berlin: to lobbyists, human rights activists and the planned evacuation of Kabul by Bundeswehr aircraft between August 16 and 26, 2021.

Activist Soraya Barakzay (Pegah Ferydoni) had accused Weghorst of serious moral failings before his death. Weghorst was in Kabul when the city collapsed. Many of the local German authorities stayed behind and fell into the hands of the new rulers.

Obscene acts possibleTaliban ban windows with views of "women's places"

Did Mrs. Barakzay want to take revenge on Weghorst for his actions? The sniper-murderer soon found more victims in the middle of Berlin. And on a day when King Charles was due to visit the German capital ...

What was it really about?

To answer the question: How guilty was Germany in Kabul in 2021? Screenwriter Thomas André Szabó and director Mark Monheim reflect on whether institutions such as the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), the German government and the Bundeswehr failed. Could they have acted faster and better back then? The Bundeswehr evacuated a total of 5,347 people from Kabul. These included German citizens, local Afghan forces and members of other nations.

In August 2021, then Chancellor Angela Merkel estimated that between 10,000 and 40,000 people - local staff and their family members - might have to be evacuated. A good two years later, the Bundestag announced that a total of 4,122 Afghan local staff had entered Germany by October 2023.

Together with their family members, the number amounted to 19,345 people. At that time, 1,388 local staff (5,975 people with family members) were still waiting to leave the country.

Why weren't more local Germans rescued?

First of all, almost all Western intelligence services failed, because the Taliban takeover of the country and the fall of the capital took place at record speed in just a few days. The evacuations via Kabul airport were correspondingly hectic.

This was also because the situation on the ground was chaotic, with refugees blocking the runway and Taliban fighters trying to stop them. The first Bundeswehr plane flew back with only seven people on board because so few people had managed to get to the airport.

Plane full of criminalsGermany deports to Afghanistan again - despite the Taliban

The Bundestag's Afghanistan Committee of Inquiry has uncovered further important findings on the evacuation: In addition to the late warning of the collapse of the Western-backed government, there were significant shortcomings in the communication and preparation for the evacuation.

There are also political accusations. For example, "Der Tagesspiegel" and other media accused the Merkel government of apparently having acted out of fear of a domestic immigration debate shortly before the general election. This would have meant that bureaucratic obstacles to entry would not have been removed in time.

Who played the human rights activist?

Pegah Ferydoni plays the human rights activist and former Afghan judge Soraya Barakzay, who was high on the Taliban's hit list. A woman who had to pay for her escape from her homeland with the death of her children. A deeply sad and touching story that could probably be found in reality in one way or another.

Pegah Ferydoni (41) comes from a family of Iranian artists. Her parents fled from the Khomeini regime to Germany with Pegah, who was two years old at the time. Ferydoni grew up in Berlin, taught herself to act and became famous as Yağmur Öztürk in the successful series "Türkisch für Anfänger".

She won a German Television Award for this in 2006 and the Grimme Prize in 2007. From 2019 to 2022, she played the role of detective chief Sarah Khan in "SOKO Hamburg" for three seasons. She became the mother of a child at the end of 2013 or beginning of 2014. The actress and presenter ("zdf.kulturpalast", "Berlinale-Studio") has been married to actor Florian Anderer since February 2022.

What's next for the Berlin "Tatort"?

Two new "Tatort" films with Karow and Bonard are in the making. Filming took place in October and November 2024 based on a script and directed by Mira Thiel, who also directed the penultimate case "Tag der wandernden Seelen". "Der Letzte macht das Licht aus" and "Homo Homini Lupus" are two working titles for this case, which is expected to be shown in the second half of 2025.

Another screenplay by the "Vier Leben" writers' room around André Szabó is to be realized after that. The working title is "Erika Mustermann". After that, the Susanne Bonard chapter of the Berlin "Tatort" could be closed again. The 70-year-old actress Corinna Harfouch has announced that she wants to leave the series after six films because she is too old for her role.

More videos from the department