"Tatort" in the check Which investigators are coming and going in the Dortmund crime series?
There's a lot going on in Dortmund: Peter Faber (Jörg Hartmann) and his colleague Rosa Herzog (Stefanie Reinsperger) experience a thrilling episode of "Tatort: Abstellgleis".
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
Return after seven years: Inspector Daniel Kossik (Stefan Konarske), formerly part of the Dortmund team, is back in Dortmund.
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
KTU boss Sebastian Haller (Tilman Strauss), Faber's intimate enemy, is allowed to provoke one last time in "Tatort: Abstellgleis".
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
Will the Dortmund investigation team get a new member? Inspector Otto Pösken (Malick Bauer) is delighted to be able to help Chief Inspector Rosa Herzog in this case.
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
Inspector Peter Faber (Jörg Hartmann) has to undergo a makeover in "Tatort: Abstellgleis" for reasons that must not be revealed.
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
Forensic pathologist Greta Leitner (Sybille J. Schedwill) explains to Inspector Peter Faber (Jörg Hartmann) what she has found out about the victim.
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
Dr. Magnus Gabor (Stefan Haschke) is the new man in forensic medicine.
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
Will Peter Faber (Jörg Hartmann) once again become Dortmund's psycho detective? The opening scene of "Tatort: Abstellgleis" suggests so.
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
The new head of the homicide squad Ira Klasnić (Alessija Lause, right) talks to forensic scientist Dr. Greta Leitner (Sybille J. Schedwill) about the case.
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
Operation at the Dortmund freight depot: Rosa Herzog (Stefanie Reinsperger) and Daniel Kossik (Stefan Konarske) have to catch a fugitive.
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
There's a lot going on in Dortmund: Peter Faber (Jörg Hartmann) and his colleague Rosa Herzog (Stefanie Reinsperger) experience a thrilling episode of "Tatort: Abstellgleis".
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
Return after seven years: Inspector Daniel Kossik (Stefan Konarske), formerly part of the Dortmund team, is back in Dortmund.
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
KTU boss Sebastian Haller (Tilman Strauss), Faber's intimate enemy, is allowed to provoke one last time in "Tatort: Abstellgleis".
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
Will the Dortmund investigation team get a new member? Inspector Otto Pösken (Malick Bauer) is delighted to be able to help Chief Inspector Rosa Herzog in this case.
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
Inspector Peter Faber (Jörg Hartmann) has to undergo a makeover in "Tatort: Abstellgleis" for reasons that must not be revealed.
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
Forensic pathologist Greta Leitner (Sybille J. Schedwill) explains to Inspector Peter Faber (Jörg Hartmann) what she has found out about the victim.
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
Dr. Magnus Gabor (Stefan Haschke) is the new man in forensic medicine.
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
Will Peter Faber (Jörg Hartmann) once again become Dortmund's psycho detective? The opening scene of "Tatort: Abstellgleis" suggests so.
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
The new head of the homicide squad Ira Klasnić (Alessija Lause, right) talks to forensic scientist Dr. Greta Leitner (Sybille J. Schedwill) about the case.
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
Operation at the Dortmund freight depot: Rosa Herzog (Stefanie Reinsperger) and Daniel Kossik (Stefan Konarske) have to catch a fugitive.
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
"Tatort: Abstellgleis" seemed like a big anniversary episode, that's how much is going on in the Pott. One annoying investigator dies. Another returns. And there are signs of a new addition.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Returners, farewells, new faces - and a lot of confusion: the new Dortmund "Tatort: Abstellgleis" demanded a lot from the TV audience.
- Inspector Faber (Jörg Hartmann) came under suspicion of having killed his hated KTU colleague Haller (Tilman Strauss).
- The investigation also brought an old acquaintance from the Dortmund "Tatort" to the scene: Daniel Kossik (Stefan Konarske), who now works for the Düsseldorf LKA.
The Dortmund "Tatort" precinct, started in 2012 as a team of four around Inspector Faber (Jörg Hartmann), is a place of constant unrest. And one with a lot of stress.
Peter Faber, who tragically lost his family, was portrayed from the start as a cynical border crosser with psychiatric experience. Then he also fell in love with his colleague Martina Bönisch(Anna Schudt), who in the episode "Liebe mich!" (2022), who was shot in the stomach. One of the most shocking "Tatort" departures of all time!
There are also astonishing personnel changes in the new episode "Tatort: Abstellgleis". One investigator leaves, another returns after eight years and a third seems to be waiting for a permanent position.
In addition, regular writer Jürgen Werner and director Torsten C. Fischer create a lot of confusion that may not be cleared up until much later. We provide (at least a little) clarity: who is coming, who is going - and who is different than you think?
What was it all about?
The "Tatort: Abstellgleis" began on the grounds of the Dortmund freight depot. There, Faber, pursued by the police, seemed to want to give himself over to the tracks. A long flashback showed how it could have come to this.
The inspector actually became a murder suspect because his intimate enemy, KTU head Haller (Tilman Strauss), had been murdered. Annoying Haller, once co-lover of Faber's great love Martina Bönisch, couldn't stop provoking. Now there seems to be peace!
However, Haller was the second victim in a crime thriller that started with an investigation into a traffic offense. A woman was run over by an SUV and the driver fled.
Because the victim was the ex-girlfriend of clan member Lorik Duka (Kasem Hoxha), the police investigated. Chief Ira Klasnic (Alessija Lause) sent Faber and his colleague Rosa Herzog (Stefanie Reinsperger) to the scene of the accident.
What was it really about?
Confusion at a high level. Author Jürgen Werner, who is responsible for this episode, invented the Dortmund "Tatort" in 2012.
Horizontally narrated series - i.e. those in which the plot builds on each other episode by episode - were the trend in German television at the time. A television country in which series or sequences had previously been seen more as individual pieces that you could join week after week or skip from time to time.
With the Dortmund "Tatort" in 2012, Werner set himself the goal of continuing to tell the story of the characters' private developments alongside one specific case per 90-minute episode. "It was always a great challenge to reconcile all of this dramaturgically," says the 61-year-old about 13 years of dramaturgy in Dortmund.
In "Tatort: Abstellgleis", Werner is now opening up a whole new barrel: Investigators come and go. And the existing staff could be very different from what was previously thought.
Dortmund personnel shake-up: who's coming, who's going?
Original investigator Daniel Kossik (Stefan Konarske), who took his hat off in 2017 in "Tatort: Sturm", had almost been forgotten. The actor ("Das Boot") left the format at his own request, moved to Paris and established himself as a theater actor in France.
Now Kossik, who conveniently did not die, but moved to the LKA in Düsseldorf in a dispute with Faber and after being injured, is back. As an LKA man from Düsseldorf - so far, so correct. He will also be in the next episode. What comes after that is still open.
Otto Pösken (Malick Bauer from "Sam - Ein Sachse") will also be in the next movie. He was assigned to Rosa Herzog by boss Ira Klasnic as support. Otto could be investigating for a longer period of time, but this has not yet been confirmed.
Rosa doesn't yet know whether she can trust the friendly giant. It looks like he is not only interested in the job, but also in Rosa - something she is anything but used to. Sounds like an exciting constellation for the future.
Which song was played at the end?
The very moving song at the end of the episode is quite old - and yet an insider tip among the saddest and most beautiful ballads in the world.
It is the song "From a Shell", which the American songwriter Lisa Germano released in 2003 on her album "Lullaby For A Liquid Pig".
The song tells - fittingly for the scene - of her own wounds and the complexity of relationships. Lisa Germano has sadly given up her music career. Most recently she worked in a bookshop in Los Angeles.
What's next for the Dortmund "Tatort"?
At the end of "Tatort: Abstellgleis", you feel a bit like you're on the siding, as there are many loose ends. Did Rosa really shoot the alleged perpetrator - and why?
Is Rosa playing a double game, just like new boss Ira Klasnic, who in one of the last scenes shows herself intimate with the alleged clan criminal Lorik Duka?
Questions upon questions that director Torsten C. Fischer wants to answer in an episode that he will shoot in summer 2025, as he reveals in an interview.
The problem: before this episode can be shown, two or three other Dortmund crime dramas are likely to be running. The "Tatort: Feuer" (screenplay: Markus Busch, director: Nana Neul), which deals with domestic violence, is still to be shown in 2025.
Also in the works: "Tatort: Der gute Mensch von Dortmund" (working title) and "Tatort: Blutkultur", which will be directed by the award-winning Ayse Polat ("Im toten Winkel").
