Crime scene: the archive

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Episode of the series Tatort
Original title The archive
Country of production Austria
original language German
Production
company		 ORF
length 80 minutes
classification Episode 178a ( List )
First broadcast March 2, 1986 on ORF
Rod
Director Jochen Bauer
script Leo Frank
production Peter Müller
music Roland Baumgartner
camera Wolfgang Koch ,
Michael Ferk
cut Jochen Bauer ,
Monica Parisini
occupation

The archive is an Austrian television thriller from 1986. The script was written by Leo Frank based on the novel of the same name and directed by Jochen Bauer . As the fourth of 13 episodes in the crime series Tatort , it was produced by ORF outside of the official Tatort series without ARD and was only broadcast in Austria for the first time.

action

The former secret agent Herbert Winkler is visited by a killer in his garden shed, but manages to forestall him and shoot him. He moves the corpse aside and asks his old friend Johann “John” Berger in New York to return to him in Vienna, he needs him because “they” are after him. When Winkler came out of the post office he was calling from, he was gunned down from a passing car. Hirth and Fichtl find the killer's body in Winkler's trunk and determine that Winkler used to be an agent for several secret services and that he had asked his friend and former partner Johann Berger for help shortly before the shooting. Fichtl looks for the dying Winkler in the hospital, he can still testify that the perpetrators are after an archive of the deceased Ministerialrat Rosmanek, which Winkler apparently owns. Winkler writes down a message for Fichtl for his friend Johann that he should inherit the archive and go to a "Schneberg". Fichtl picks up Berger from the airport and brings him the news of his friend's death. In front of the officials, Berger testified that he had no background about his friend's difficulties. In the anteroom of the Ministerialrat, Berger recognizes the secretary Margarethe Scherbler, who had also worked for Rosmanek.

In a one-on-one conversation with Hirth, Berger said that he knew nothing about an archive and that he wanted to stay in Vienna to avenge his dead friend. Hirth then watches Margarethe Scherbler making a phone call from a phone booth in front of the Presidium; this seems suspicious to him. In Winkler's apartment, Berger discovered that his friend owned an allotment that he inherited from Ministerialrat Rosmanek and combined that the last message from his friend on his deathbed should not lead him to a “snow mountain”, but to that very allotment garden. He informs Hirth, but goes alone to the allotment garden, where Berger finds traces of the attack on his friend. When armed killers appear who now obviously also want to kill Berger, Hirth and his colleagues arrive, the killers flee. Berger informs Hirth and Fichtl that his friend killed the attacker in self-defense, but there is still no trace of the archive. Meanwhile, Hollocher was able to determine the owner of the killer’s car, it is Borislaw Sednitzky, and Berger explains to the officials that he initially worked for the Polish government in exile and later for the British secret service MI5. Together with Fichtl, the Ministerialrat interviewed Count Sednitzky, who stated that he had met with Winkler a month ago. Winkler wanted to sell him the archive that he had inherited from Rosmanek. It dates from the occupation of Vienna after the Second World War and contained many connections from secret agents of the various intelligence services that were active in Vienna, some of which are now in high positions, which makes the connections interesting and very expensive today. Sednitzky never claims to have seen the dead man in the trunk; his son had driven his car the day before.

Berger categorically rules out to Hirth that his friend wanted to do business with Sednitzky. In the meantime, Scherbler meets with her lover, the Soviet secret agent Miroslaw Slobodim, and gives him documents about the state of the investigation. Shortly afterwards, Berger found his friend's archive in his allotment garden. He takes it for his part in order to do the big business and then to leave Vienna again, he is able to fend off an assassination attempt on himself when leaving the allotment garden. US Counselor Cooper agreed to work with journalist John Bratt to get the archive. Berger contacts Cooper, whom he still knows from earlier times, and offers him the archive. Shortly afterwards, Berger is contacted by his old acquaintance, KGB agent Marscha Belzilowa, who also wants to buy the archive from him. At a meeting, Cooper warns Berger to do double business and tells him how his friend Winkler died. Sednitzky has hired a group of Lebanese civil war refugees as henchmen and they are not under control. One of them wanted to rob Winkler of the archive and was therefore shot by Winkler. The murder of Winkler the next day was an act of revenge by the dead man's brother, who also works for Sednitzky. Berger informs Fichtl about his friend's murderer by telephone. Fichtl knows that he only had to have received this information in return for the archive and warns Berger, but he ends the call.

Berger meets up with Marscha Belzilowa in the evening and resumes his old love affair with her, while the Viennese police arrest Winkler's murderer. While Hirth and Fichtl see the case as closed, Dr. Putner said that the archive also had to be found. Meanwhile, Berger meets with Cooper. Despite his night with Marscha, he has decided to sell to the Americans. In addition to the payment, Berger asks for an American passport, but gives Cooper to understand that he does not believe he will survive today. He also informs Cooper that Rosmanek's secretary Scherbler is a KGB spy. After the meeting, Berger calls Scherbler and tells him, ostensibly for the Ministerialrat, that he does not want to have anything to do with the archive he has found and that the police should collect it from Winkler's gazebo, which is not locked. Shortly afterwards he calls Sednitzky and tells him the same thing, then Berger writes his farewell letter. The next morning, Dr. Putner and Hirth were called to the burned-down allotment hut Winklers, there lies a male corpse, burned beyond recognition. As three farewell letters from Berger are found, Putner declares the investigation to be concluded despite Hirth's doubts. Meanwhile, Berger meets with Cooper in Venice and has his American passport handed over there. He tells Cooper how he started the shootout between the two agent parties in the hut. The KGB agent Miroslaw Slobodim, whose body was found by Berger, was left behind. Then he set fire to the hut, so that the authorities had to believe that the body was Berger and that the archive was also burned. With the money and the new identity of the Americans, Berger is now starting a new life as "John Brown".

Production and special features

The archive was the sixth crime scene case involving Chief Inspector Hirth. The episode Das Archiv was broadcast for the first time by Bayrischer Rundfunk in Germany three months after it was first broadcast on June 6, 1986; the second and last broadcast in Germany took place on November 18, 1986 on Hessischer Rundfunk. The episode was shot in Vienna, New York and Venice. Lieselotte Plauensteiner , who played Marek's longtime secretary Susi Wodak, makes a brief appearance as a telephone operator, the later murder victim alludes to the former role by noting that she would have worked elsewhere earlier.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 13 special ORF crime scenes at tatort-fundus.de, accessed on November 8, 2015.
  2. ↑ The archive on tatort-fundus.de
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March 31, 1986: body in the cellar