"Tatort" in the check What the crime thriller had to do with one of the world's most famous fairy tales
In "Tatort: Das jüngste Geisslein", Eliza (Hanna Heckt), who barely speaks and was found alone in a lonely house, gains the trust of Inspector Friedemann Berg (Hans-Jochen Wagner).
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
In keeping with the season, "Tatort: Das jüngste Geisslein" with Tobler (Eva Löbau) and Berg (Hans-Jochen Wagner) presents a blanket of snow.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Child psychologist Dr. Kaltenstein (Mina Tander, left) has known Eliza (Hanna Heckt) for a long time and wants to protect her from outside influences.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Eliza (Hanna Heckt) shows investigators Friedemann Berg (Hans-Jochen Wagner) and Franziska Tobler (Eva Löbau) around her house.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder,
Franziska Tobler (Eva Löbau) is surprised when her suspended partner Friedemann Berg (Hans-Jochen Wagner) turns up at the crime scene.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder,
Child psychologist Dr. Kaltenstein (Mina Tander) searches for Eliza in the forest.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder,
Partner, friends - all over? Tobler (Eva Löbau) and Berg (Hans-Jochen Wagner) are going through a difficult time together in "Tatort: Das jüngste Geisslein".
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder,
Eliza, the nine-year-old main character of this crime thriller, particularly enjoys listening to the radio play "The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats". She imagines herself to be the youngest of seven sisters, all of whom populate her dream world.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder,
In "Tatort: Das jüngste Geisslein", Eliza (Hanna Heckt), who barely speaks and was found alone in a lonely house, gains the trust of Inspector Friedemann Berg (Hans-Jochen Wagner).
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
In keeping with the season, "Tatort: Das jüngste Geisslein" with Tobler (Eva Löbau) and Berg (Hans-Jochen Wagner) presents a blanket of snow.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Child psychologist Dr. Kaltenstein (Mina Tander, left) has known Eliza (Hanna Heckt) for a long time and wants to protect her from outside influences.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Eliza (Hanna Heckt) shows investigators Friedemann Berg (Hans-Jochen Wagner) and Franziska Tobler (Eva Löbau) around her house.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder,
Franziska Tobler (Eva Löbau) is surprised when her suspended partner Friedemann Berg (Hans-Jochen Wagner) turns up at the crime scene.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder,
Child psychologist Dr. Kaltenstein (Mina Tander) searches for Eliza in the forest.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder,
Partner, friends - all over? Tobler (Eva Löbau) and Berg (Hans-Jochen Wagner) are going through a difficult time together in "Tatort: Das jüngste Geisslein".
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder,
Eliza, the nine-year-old main character of this crime thriller, particularly enjoys listening to the radio play "The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats". She imagines herself to be the youngest of seven sisters, all of whom populate her dream world.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder,
The "Tatort: Das jüngste Geisslein" with Tobler (Eva Löbau) and Berg (Hans-Jochen Wagner) is a modern version of the Grimm fairy tale "The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats". What have the "Tatort" makers changed? And why was this fairy tale of all things so successful?
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- A disturbed little girl was at the center of the first "Tatort" of the year - just like the Grimm's fairy tale "The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats".
- Because Black Forest detective Berg (Hans-Jochen Wagner) had been suspended, his colleague Tobler (Eva Löbau) had to search for the girl's parents largely on her own.
- "The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats" is considered one of the most famous fairy tales in the world and was cleverly adapted in a modern way for the "Tatort" episode.
The story "The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats" was first published in 1812 in the book "Children's and Household Tales" by the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. As with almost all stories attributed to the fairy tale collectors from Hanau in Hesse, it is an oral folk tradition from the German-speaking world.
In "Tatort: Das jüngste Geisslein", author and director Rudi Gaul cleverly plays with the original and transforms it into a modern yet fairytale-like crime story. But what does the fairytale plot stand for? And did you know that the child actress also plays the leading role in a currently acclaimed feature film from Germany?
What was it about?
Inspector Berg (Hans-Jochen Wagner), who was suspended after the events of the last case "Der Reini", was asked by the village baker to look for her missing employee. The private detective found the exiled Romanian's frightened daughter Eliza (Hanna Heckt) in her lonely Black Forest house - hidden in a wall clock.
The girl did not speak, her father and mother had disappeared, and traces of blood in the house indicated foul play. Berg then called his colleague Franziska Tobler (Eva Löbau), who investigated the alleged crime scene with a team.
Nine-year-old Eliza, who was listening to the fairy tale "The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats" on her Walkman on a continuous loop, was taken to a youth home - closely supervised, almost isolated, by her child psychologist Dr. Kaltenstein (Mina Tander). What happened in the girl's home?
What was it really about?
"The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats" was a central motif of the first "Tatort" of the new year. The story is one of the most successful fairy tales in the world and is known far beyond the borders of the German-speaking world. In the story, the mother has gone out and seven children are left alone at home.
Naturally, the little goats are not supposed to open the door to anyone. A wolf tries various tricks anyway. Once he pretends to be the mother with a white-colored paw. Then it eats chalk - hence the saying - and adopts the higher voice of the mother.
Finally, the (evil) wolf outwits the children, enters the house and eats six of the seven siblings. Only the youngest has found such a good hiding place in the wall clock that the wolf cannot find it. Later, the youngest goat is able to tell its mother what has happened. This eventually leads to all the siblings being rescued from the sleeping robber's belly.
What does the fairy tale mean?
In principle, a dialog between Inspector Tobler and a colleague answers the question in the film itself. When Tobler wants to know whether the fairy tale - which the child is listening to on his Walkman in a continuous loop - means anything, the colleague says: "Fairy tales always mean the same thing: Don't go out alone. Don't go with strangers. Don't stray from the path. Otherwise you'll be raped or beaten to death. Or both."
The fairy tale "The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats" was written at a time when education through deterrence was the norm. The dangers of everyday life - deceit, violence, strangers - were depicted in symbolic form at the time.
In almost all fairy tales, the wolf symbolizes danger, deceit and violence. It embodies evil, but also manipulation and deception. Then as now, it can be interpreted not only as a strange adult with evil intentions, but also as a seducer or a social threat.
The tale is not only memorable because of its drastic and brutal nature, it also plays on the fascination with evil, which can be found in a similar way in today's true crime enthusiasm.
Who is the child protagonist?
Ten-year-old Hanna Heckt from Hamburg plays the initially mute, traumatized girl Eliza in "Tatort". She plays the leading role impressively authentically and with a lot of charisma. This is probably one of the most talented German child actresses of recent years.
Hanna Heckt's talent was already noticed by others before "Tatort". In the German Oscar candidate "Looking into the Sun", an unusual art film about the psychological "legacy" of a farm for several generations of people, Hanna Heckt not only adorns the movie poster, she also plays the childlike main character of the ensemble film.
Director Mascha Schilinski obviously has a knack for outstanding child actresses, as she worked with "Systemsprenger" actress Helena Zengel in her first feature film "The Daughter" in 2017. Hanna Heckt could have a similar, perhaps even international career in her teenage years.
What's next for "Tatort" from the Black Forest?
Two more Black Forest episodes have been filmed, but no broadcast date has yet been set for them.
Like "Der Reini", "Tatort: Innere Angelegenheiten" was written by Bernd Lange and directed by Robert Thalheim from April 2025: after a manslaughter in the next room of a club, the alleged perpetrator is arrested and interrogated by Berg in the police station. At the same time, Tobler keeps the victim's rocker gang at bay in the club, who are only too happy to go after the perpetrator's friends, and gathers evidence about the course of the crime.
In the summer of 2025, "Angel Faces" was produced under the direction of "Tatort" debutante Marijana Verhoef. In it, Tobler and Berg have to deal with family influencers: a murdered woman had had the ambition to be successful as a single mother of two with her own channel and to involve her children in it. However, parts of the family apparently suffered from the media publicity. However, this case will not run until 2027.
