Police Call 110: The Crossword Puzzle Case

Episode of the series Polizeiruf 110
Original title	The crossword case
Country of production	GDR
original language	German
Production company	Television of the GDR
length	84 minutes
classification	Episode 123 ( List )
First broadcast	November 6, 1988 on GDR 1
Rod
Director	Thomas Jacob
script	Gabriele Gabriel
production	Erich Biedermann
music	Arnold Fritzsch
camera	Horst Klewe
cut	Marion Fiedler
occupation
Günter Naumann : Captain Günter Beck Andreas Schmidt-Schaller : Lieutenant Thomas Grawe Werner Godemann : Major Jäger Harry Merkel : Eberhard Aust Wilfried Pucher : Public Prosecutor Ebert Peter Borgelt : Captain Peter Fuchs Torsten Ranft : Stefan Winkelmeyer Annette Gleichmann : Katrin Schröder Karin Düwel : Simone Herzog Günter Junghans : Siegfried Herzog Rene Mittag : Marko Herzog Anja Rost : Ivon Herzog Annelene Hischer : Mrs. Winkelmeyer Rudolf Ulrich : Mr. Winkelmeyer Waltraut Kramm : Mrs. Schröder Marina Erdmann : Mrs. Grawe Ingrid Rentsch : Ms. Aust Ernst-Georg Schwill : distance runner Victor Deiß : psychologist Manfred Müller : Pathologist Erik Veldre : ABV Schmidts Axel Werner : Hunchback Rudolf Arnim Mühlstädt : Master Achim Petry : textile director Manuel Schacht : Child Oliver Greisbach : Child Mandy Herguth : Kati Grawe

The Crossword Puzzle Case is a German crime film by Thomas Jacob from 1988. The television film based on the crossword puzzle was released as the 123rd episode of the Polizeiruf 110 film series .

action

It's a cold January day in Berlin: the seven-year-old Marko Herzog wants to go to the cinema with a friend and see Ronja the robber's daughter. His mother insists on lunch and homework, then the boy can go out with his sister. Both should collect glasses from the optician beforehand. However, Marko takes too long to wait and goes to the cinema alone. The ticket office isn't open yet, so he goes to a nearby park to play. Here he meets 19-year-old Stefan Winkelmeyer, with whom he is going. A little later, Stefan carries a heavy suitcase to the train station. Shortly afterwards you can see the suitcase lying on a railway line.

When Marko doesn't come home from the cinema in the evening, the parents start looking for their son. They find out that Marko wasn't there either and report him missing to the police. A large-scale search begins, but remains unsuccessful because of heavy snowfall, among other things. Only when the snow melts does a train attendant find the suitcase. In it lies the frozen corpse of Marko. Captain Günter Beck and Lieutenant Thomas Grawe learn from forensic medicine that Marko was sexually abused before he was murdered. The evidence suggests that it is a perpetrator who could strike again at any time. There are few traces, including fibers from an often-sold blanket. The investigators attach importance to numerous magazine pages with completed crossword puzzles. The perpetrator used them to pad the suitcase. All previously convicted sex offenders are questioned, but no possible offender can be found. Their typeface samples also show no resemblance to the characteristic typeface of the crossword puzzles.

Because the investigators get stuck, they concentrate on their last clue: the crossword puzzle. Thomas Grawe decides to extend the script samples to focal points in Berlin. He brings the font expert Eberhard Aust into the team, who is ready to lead the font checks shortly before his retirement. Captain Günter Beck is also finally ready to lead the action. The investigators call a crossword puzzle competition, received around 12,000 entries. Children help collect neighborhood newspapers for crossword puzzles to be checked. At the same time, ABV is continuously checking out the apartments in Berlin and asking tenants for written samples. The months go by. Marko was buried in February, and in the autumn the investigators searched newspapers and received written samples in vain.

Meanwhile, Stefan has arrived at his girlfriend Katrin Schröder's in Oberhain, where he starts to work as a caretaker. The sexual relationship with Katrin is disturbed, so Stefan forces her to have sexual intercourse and is dominant, but at the same time needs Katrin's stories about little boys in order to be sexually aroused. He actively seeks contact with boys in Oberhain, but does not abuse them. When Katrin goes to her mother in Heiligenborn in December, he does not accompany her because Katrin's mother refuses him. He looks for a potential new victim in a holiday resort.

On December 8th, Eberhard Aust came across the identical font while analyzing the handwriting. The text comes from Ms. Schröder - Katrin's mother. The investigators immediately fly to Heiligenborn and question Ms. Schröder and Katrin. Ms. Schröder has an apartment in Berlin that was already noted when the residents were checked because the tenant did not open it. Soon the focus shifts to Katrin's friend, who had access to the apartment with a duplicate key without the knowledge of Ms. Schröder. There is a blanket in the apartment, the fibers of which could have been found on the victim. In addition, traces of blood are secured in the carpet. Katrin finally tells the investigators of Stefan's obsession with young boys. She thought he was fond of children and couldn't properly classify other quirks because Stefan was her first friend. She didn't reveal herself to friends out of shame. A manhunt for Stefan is initiated. A little later, accompanied by a little boy, he was found at a Christmas market and arrested.

For his success in the investigation, Thomas Grave is promoted to first lieutenant. Marko's parents, in turn, can finally really mourn their son.

production

The crossword puzzle case was filmed from December 15, 1987 to February 1988 in Berlin , Buckow and on the Baltic Sea in Kühlungsborn . The Hotel Neptun in Rostock-Warnemünde can be seen from the helicopter during the flyby. The costumes of the film created Ute Rossberg , the Filmbauten submitted by Maria Rodewald . The film premiered on November 6, 1988 in the first program of East German television. The audience participation was 54.7 percent.

It was the 123rd episode in the film series Polizeiruf 110 . Lieutenant Thomas Grawe investigated in his 15th case, Captain Günter Beck in his first case and Major Jäger also in his first case.

In retrospect, the critics called the film the "first film in the series in which the police investigation was shown so meticulously". At the same time, prior to this police call, which is based on the real crossword puzzle murder, but was relocated to Berlin, "instinctual behavior has never been portrayed so ruthlessly."

reception

In the episode "The Monster" of the SOKO Leipzig series , a fictional sequel was filmed in which Andreas Schmidt-Schaller is one of the investigating police officers, Torsten Ranft as the perpetrator, Annette Gleichmann as his former girlfriend and Günter Junghans and Karin Düwel as the parents of the then murdered victim occur. However, the roles have different names.

literature

• Peter Hoff: Police call 110. Films, facts, cases. Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-360-00958-4 , pp. 170-173.

Web links

• Police 110: The crossword case in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Police call 110: The crossword puzzle case at filmportal.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Presentation according to http://www.polizeiruf110-lexikon.de/filme.php?Nummer=123 (link only available to a limited extent)
2. ^ Peter Hoff: Police call 110. Films, facts, cases . Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 2001, p. 131.
3. ^ Peter Hoff: Police call 110. Films, facts, cases . Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 2001, p. 171.
4. ^ Peter Hoff: Police call 110. Films, facts, cases . Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 2001, p. 173.

previous episode October 2, 1988: A restless night

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next episode December 18, 1988: Liquid weapon