Crime scene: temple robbers

Episode of the series Tatort
Original title	Temple robbers
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Production ; company	Film pool for the WDR
length	88:29 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
classification	Episode 745 ( list )
First broadcast	October 25, 2009 on ARD
Rod
Director	Matthias Tiefenbacher
script	Magnus Vattrodt
production	Iris pine
music	Ulrich Reuter
camera	Holly Fink
cut	Ulrike Leipold
occupation
	Axel Prahl : KHK Frank Thiel ; Jan Josef Liefers : Prof. Karl-Friedrich Boerne ; Ulrich Noethen : Hans Wolff; Johanna Gastdorf : Karin Ellinghaus; Rosalie Thomass : Dorothea Lenz; Wolf-Niklas Schykowski : Steffen Ellinghaus; Christine Urspruch : Silke "Alberich" Haller ; Friederike Kempter : Nadeshda Krusenstern ; Mechthild Großmann : Public Prosecutor Wilhelmine Klemm ; Claus D. Clausnitzer : Herbert Thiel ; Marita Breuer : Sister Agathe; Andreas Potulski : Johannes Bott; Giselle Vesco : old lady; Sibylle Bertsch; Otto Junggeburth : Ludwig Mühlenberg;

Tempelräuber is a television film from the television crime series Tatort by ARD and ORF . The film was produced by WDR and broadcast for the first time on October 25, 2009. It is the 745th episode in the crime scene series and the 16th case with Axel Prahl and Jan Josef Liefers as Münster investigators Thiel and Boerne .

action

While father Thiel is carrying the luggage of an elderly lady, his taxi is kidnapped and run over by the rain from the seminary , Ludwig Mühlenberg. Prof. Karl-Friedrich Boerne observed this incident when he was collecting his violin from the restoration. He rushes to the injured man's aid and is run over himself when the driver of the taxi backs up to complete his deed. In the accident, Prof. Boerne sustained several fractures in his arms, so that these, including his hands, were put in a cast . He asks for the help he depends on in this situation in the usual form when he arrives at forensic medicine, where the public prosecutor Wilhelmine Klemm, his assistant Silke "Alberich" Haller and inspector Frank Thiel are already gathered. There, Klemm also identified the deceased as the rain and referred for the second time to the importance of investigating the murder of a church dignitary in the city of Münster.

The investigation leads the commissioner into the seminary, where he has to discover that on the night of the murder the rain office was broken into and searched. Meanwhile, Alberich has an argument with Boerne, which she wins without further ado by locking the professor in his office. Meanwhile, Thiel is constantly looking for a household help for the professor. During the interviews in the seminary, there were some indications of the possible successor Mr. Wolff, who at the time of the crime had been giving violin lessons in his apartment. When Thiel visits him there and questions him, he is teaching Steffen, a talented boy whose mother is looking for a job as a housekeeper. Back at the station, an elderly lady is already waiting for the inspector, who, on the advice of his father, speaks to him about a destroyed grave light. However, he then refers them to another place. As a further indication, Boerne discovered several bruises on the body of the rain, which it must have suffered well before the accident. When Thiel delivers Boerne at home, an unpleasant surprise awaits him in the form of Karin Ellinghaus and her son Steffen. The professor initially refuses to accept the help, but after the failed attempt to make his own dinner, he gives up and accepts the domestic help.

At night Thiel is woken up by a call and, assuming it is the professor, walks over to him to find out that it is Sister Agatha from the seminary who reports a break-in in the office of the rain. Thiel and Boerne surprise the seminarist Johannes Bott, who turns out to be a burglar. At night the inspector finally finds the letter Bott was looking for, in which Mühlenberg suggests that Bott be released. When he confronted him with it, Bott said that by chance he heard that Mühlenberg had died the night before and wanted to use this "happy" circumstance to make the incriminating letter disappear. The next day, Thiel receives the forensic medicine report, in which it is noted that there was grave soil on the victim's pants. From this he concludes a connection with the older lady, who then reports of a fight between a younger woman and the rain in the cemetery. A necklace is also found at the grave.

In order to replace Steffen's violin, which was damaged by a misunderstanding, and to apologize, Boerne lends him his freshly restored Wieselberger violin. When he rehearses with her at Mr. Wolff's - this time in the seminary - Thiel again bothers with a few questions. He confronts Wolff with the found chain, which Wolff denies recognizing. Sister Agatha, on the other hand, recognizes the chain and refers to a Lena Henning who used to work in the seminary. However, she was dismissed by Mühlenberg because she was disturbing the seminarians. At home, Boerne encountered a childhood trauma through Steffen : a bow resin that reminds him of the time when he was forced to play the violin. Meanwhile, the commissioner and Nadeshda discover that Lena Henning has been missing for twenty years. After Boerne accidentally sees a picture of her, he suddenly recognizes her because he had her on the dissection table nine weeks earlier as a drug addict and victim of an overdose . When he now also notices that she had a caesarean section, Thiel combines that Lena Henning was released at the time because she was impregnated by Mr. Wolff. He confronts this with the suicide and the accusation that Lena raises in her farewell letter against Mühlenberg and Wolff. Wolff recognizes his daughter in his secretary Dorothea in a photo. She can initially escape, but is later placed in the cemetery. During interrogation, she explains the confrontation in the cemetery, but denies the murder.

This can only be clarified when the taxi is found. Thanks to Alberich, Boerne recognizes the smell of the arch resin on the steering wheel. This redirects the trail to Wolff, whose arrest it turns out that he has a relationship with Karin Ellinghaus, but also an alibi for the night of the murder - but not their son Steffen. Since he still has a key to his father's apartment without permission, he had the opportunity to listen to a message from Dorothea on his father's answering machine in which she reported that Mühlenberg knew that Wolff had a child. In the end, Boerne and Thiel come up with the solution. In the interrogation, Steffen finally confesses to the murder he committed to save his family, which otherwise would have been destroyed through his fault.

Locations

The seminary shown is actually the Bankhaus Lampe on the corner of Domplatz and Michaelisplatz. The murder took place on Lambertikirchplatz (corner of Salzstrasse ).

reception

Audience ratings

The first broadcast of Tempelräuber on October 25, 2009 was seen by a total of 9.88 million viewers in Germany and achieved a market share of 26.5% for Das Erste ; In the group of 14- to 49-year-old viewers , 3.71 million viewers and a market share of 22.7% were achieved.

criticism

The reaction of the media to this crime scene was relatively strong, so the explosiveness of the topic is raised again and again. The judgment on the quality of the plot and the script is different.

“In fact, the topic that director Matthias Tiefenbacher takes up in his 'Tatort' with the title 'Tempelräuber' (ARD) is explosive. It's about children of priests, celibacy, the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church and the desperation of those affected. Not easy fare then. Axel Prahl and Jan Josef Liefers are primarily responsible for the fact that it is not too heavy in the stomach and - despite some badly constructed storylines - is entertaining in all seriousness. [...] Because here it becomes very clear: The unequal pair of investigators has long since blossomed into a 'crime scene' team that, with its bizarre, cynicism and wit, leaves most of the other investigator colleagues far behind in terms of entertainment value. "

- Melanie Brandl : merkur-online.de

“A 'crime scene' that dealt with a complex topic in an amusing, exciting and sensitive way. An outstanding Ulrich Noethen finally made 'Tempelräuber' the best 'Tatort' of the WDR series so far. "

- Christian Sieben : RP Online

“Where else in Münster's 'Tatort' the dictates of morbidity and monstrosity prevail, suddenly the art of suggestion and quiet sentiment is suddenly cultivated. Not least because of the episode actors, above all the furious Ulrich Noethen, a religious drama develops that has a profound effect without any speculative church horror. "

- Christian Buß : taz.de