"Tatort" in the check Where does hatred of the state come from?
Vienna's city center as a combat zone: Bibi Fellner (Adele Neuhauser) and Moritz Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer) get caught up in a social conflict as homicide investigators. The demonstrators reject the state and its authorities. Now one of them is dead. Killed by the police, who want to cover up their crime?
Image: ORF/Petro Domenigg
Things get political in "Tatort: Wir sind nicht zu fassen": Viennese Bibi Fellner (Adele Neuhauser) and Moritz Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer) investigate among people who reject the state. And there seem to be more and more of them - just like in reality.
Image: ORF/Petro Domenigg
There is street fighting in Vienna and a protester has been killed. Investigating in "Tatort: Wir sind nicht zu fassen" (from left): Christina Scherrer as Meret Schande, Harald Krassnitzer as Moritz Eisner and Adele Neuhauser as Bibi Fellner.
Image: ORF/Petro Domenigg
Moritz Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer) and Meret Schande (Christina Scherrer) have to use their service weapons. Have they caught the masterminds behind the Vienna riots?
Image: ORF/Petro Domenigg
Bibi Fellner (Adele Neuhauser) is the voice of reason in a "crime scene" where there is a lot of shouting. She simply wants to know what has happened and is less disturbed by the agitated atmosphere within the police force than her colleague Moritz Eisner.
Image: ORF/Petro Domenigg
Moritz Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer) finds the injured Katja Ralko (Julia Windischbauer). Is she the key to solving the case of the dead demonstrator?
Image: ORF/Petro Domenigg
Heiko Tauber (Gerald Votava) and activist Katja Ralko (Julia Windischbauer) exchange a bag. What goals are the demonstrators in Vienna working for?
Image: ORF/Petro Domenigg
Meret Schande (Christina Scherrer) is injured and actually belongs in hospital or at least at home. But the Viennese investigation fever doesn't leave her cold either. She simply has to keep working ...
Image: ORF/Petro Domenigg
Jessica Plattner (Julia Edtmeier) is a notorious critic of the system and a provocative regular at the Viennese demonstrations. But does she also have something to do with the death during a demonstration?
Image: ORF/Petro Domenigg
Jakob Volkmann (Tilman Tuppy) and Katja Ralko (Julia Windischbauer) are a couple who take a critical view of the state. But how far are they prepared to go? And who are their backers?
Image: ORF/Petro Domenigg
Moritz Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer) and Gerold Schubert (Dominik Warta) from the state security service both want to ensure law and order in Austria. However, their methods and values differ significantly.
Image: ORF/Petro Domenigg
Vienna's city center as a combat zone: Bibi Fellner (Adele Neuhauser) and Moritz Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer) get caught up in a social conflict as homicide investigators. The demonstrators reject the state and its authorities. Now one of them is dead. Killed by the police, who want to cover up their crime?
Image: ORF/Petro Domenigg
Things get political in "Tatort: Wir sind nicht zu fassen": Viennese Bibi Fellner (Adele Neuhauser) and Moritz Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer) investigate among people who reject the state. And there seem to be more and more of them - just like in reality.
Image: ORF/Petro Domenigg
There is street fighting in Vienna and a protester has been killed. Investigating in "Tatort: Wir sind nicht zu fassen" (from left): Christina Scherrer as Meret Schande, Harald Krassnitzer as Moritz Eisner and Adele Neuhauser as Bibi Fellner.
Image: ORF/Petro Domenigg
Moritz Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer) and Meret Schande (Christina Scherrer) have to use their service weapons. Have they caught the masterminds behind the Vienna riots?
Image: ORF/Petro Domenigg
Bibi Fellner (Adele Neuhauser) is the voice of reason in a "crime scene" where there is a lot of shouting. She simply wants to know what has happened and is less disturbed by the agitated atmosphere within the police force than her colleague Moritz Eisner.
Image: ORF/Petro Domenigg
Moritz Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer) finds the injured Katja Ralko (Julia Windischbauer). Is she the key to solving the case of the dead demonstrator?
Image: ORF/Petro Domenigg
Heiko Tauber (Gerald Votava) and activist Katja Ralko (Julia Windischbauer) exchange a bag. What goals are the demonstrators in Vienna working for?
Image: ORF/Petro Domenigg
Meret Schande (Christina Scherrer) is injured and actually belongs in hospital or at least at home. But the Viennese investigation fever doesn't leave her cold either. She simply has to keep working ...
Image: ORF/Petro Domenigg
Jessica Plattner (Julia Edtmeier) is a notorious critic of the system and a provocative regular at the Viennese demonstrations. But does she also have something to do with the death during a demonstration?
Image: ORF/Petro Domenigg
Jakob Volkmann (Tilman Tuppy) and Katja Ralko (Julia Windischbauer) are a couple who take a critical view of the state. But how far are they prepared to go? And who are their backers?
Image: ORF/Petro Domenigg
Moritz Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer) and Gerold Schubert (Dominik Warta) from the state security service both want to ensure law and order in Austria. However, their methods and values differ significantly.
Image: ORF/Petro Domenigg
After the death of a demonstrator, the detectives in Vienna's "Tatort" investigate circles critical of the state. Which social developments and political groups does the dystopian crime thriller allude to?
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer) and Fellner (Adele Neuhauser) investigate in " Tatort: Wir sind nicht zu fassen" because a protester died on the street.
- The Viennese investigators soon realize that all the protagonists in this social crime thriller are dissatisfied with the state.
- What political developments and crises did the thriller deal with?
The right-wing populists emerged victorious from the Austrian parliamentary elections in September 2024:
With 29.2 percent of the vote, the FPÖ became the strongest party in the country in which "Tatort: Wir sind nicht zu fassen" is set with investigators Fellner (Adele Neuhauser) and Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer). What does one have to do with the other?
The ORF crime thriller just before the summer break is one of the most political "Tatort" episodes of all time. It describes a new era of blurred boundaries between political camps and attitudes. Which social developments, attempted coups and political groups does the dystopian thriller allude to?
What is it about?
Vienna is a combat zone, the city center is sealed off due to heated demonstrations. Violent riots break out, cars burn, helicopters circle above the scene.
Jakob Volkmann (Tilman Tuppy), a dead demonstrator, lies on the pavement. Did police officers from the riot squad hit him too hard, which explains the victim's bleeding head wound? Or are others responsible for the death of the opponent of the system?
What is it really about?
Eisner and Fellner investigate among fed-up police officers who are tired of being whipping boys for the state. A state that some of the characters in this movie want to see dissolved or greatly changed. The Viennese investigate left-wing and right-wing zealots, secret service agents and state security officers - as well as people who are difficult to categorize into one camp.
Author and director Rupert Henning presents a system check of democracy disguised as a thriller. In Austria, but also in Germany, democracy is under greater threat than at any time since the end of the war in 1945. Who are the opponents of the state?
They are conspirators and conspiracy theorists who want to abolish "the system" in order to find the longed-for freedom of the individual. The state-haters can come from the right or the left.
The thriller deliberately plays with demonstrators who look more like left-wing extremists, but who ultimately follow more right-wing convictions. The difficulty in clearly naming and understanding such anti-democratic groups is the greatest strength of this "Tatort" episode.
What does the filmmaker say?
"In recent years, we have observed that the boundaries between the left and the right are becoming increasingly blurred," says writer and director Rupert Henning about his film.
"The protest scene is extremely heterogeneous. People come together who would have avoided appearing together in the past. They include freedom-loving citizens, people from the lateral thinking milieu, QAnon supporters, libertarians, esoterics, but also left-wing and right-wing extremists."
And further: "What unites them all is a big 'no' to state paternalism, to the mainstream media, to the sciences, to 'them up there'. Studies show that a third of the population now believes in conspiracy theories, at least to some extent."
Are Krassnitzer and Neuhauser worried about democracy?
Harald Krassnitzer, a very political actor, has repeatedly aligned himself with the left-liberal spectrum. He is worried about global democracy, but also sees opportunities in the new "diversity of opinion":
"We will have to do something for what we have always dreamed and hoped for. I don't see this situation as unpleasant. Even on the big stage, we can see that the European states are on the move and are looking for common strategies in the areas of defense, energy and mobility. We will see in the coming months how courageously we tackle this new departure."
Adele Neuhauser takes a somewhat gloomier view of the situation in her statement: "These are scary times. We have only just slipped past a far-right government in Austria. Sometimes I ask myself, what part do I play in what my son and my grandchildren now have to expect? I am not shirking my responsibility."
He continues: "Perhaps I was too naïve in my belief that things would turn out well. I hadn't yet reckoned with madmen like Trump, Putin and other autocrats that we have to protect ourselves from."
Was there an attempt at a coup d'état in Austria or Germany?
The cooperation between the two major parties, ÖVP and SPÖ, comparable to the CDU/CSU and SPD in Germany, ensured the stability of the Second Republic after the end of the Second World War and fascism and prevented radical political coup attempts.
However, Austria has been dealing with a successful right-wing populist party (FPÖ) for longer than the Germans have with the AfD. In the 2024 National Council elections, the FPÖ achieved its best result to date with 29.2% and became the strongest party in the Austrian parliament for the first time.
It surpassed the previous record result from 1999 under Jörg Haider. A coalition of other parties was the only way to prevent a right-wing populist-led government.
However, the finale of the thriller also alludes to a failed coup in Germany. In December 2022, conspirators with the name "Patriotic Union" were arrested by security authorities.
The group led by Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss, a former AfD member of the Bundestag, several ex-Bundeswehr soldiers and others had been planning to violently eliminate the state order of the Federal Republic of Germany and establish their own government since the end of 2021, according to the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office.
The plans included an armed storming of the Bundestag, the arrest of the Federal Chancellor, ministers and MPs as well as the declaration of a state of emergency and the installation of a transitional government. More than 20 people were arrested and numerous homes were searched.
What's next for the Vienna "crime scene"?
The next Viennese case is likely to have the dazzling name "The Electrician". The episode (script: Roland Hablesreiter and Petra Ladinigg, director: Harald Sicheritz) was filmed at the end of 2024. It is set in a nursing home.
The stressed staff there work at the limit every day. A pensioner with a walking disability has drowned in his bathtub. Outside influence cannot be ruled out. A broadcast date has not yet been set. However, the film could be shown before the turn of the year 2024.
