Crime scene: birthday greetings

Episode of the series Tatort
Original title	birthday greetings
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Production company	SR
length	88 minutes
classification	Episode 162
First broadcast	November 4, 1984 on German television
Rod
Director	Georg Tressler
script	Herbert Lichtenfeld
production	Telefilm Saar GmbH
music	Hans Hammerschmid
camera	Klaus Peter Weber
cut	Elke Niemietzek
occupation
Manfred Heidmann : Chief Detective Horst Schäfermann Amadeus August : Kurt Sander Gabriella Sheer : Michèle Rudolf Waldemar Brem : Bruno Heintze Nate Seids : Jutta Heintze Uta-Maria Schütze : Lilo Wolf Nicolas Lansky : Gerhard Wolf Henry Stolow : Kattner Henning Gissel : Assistant Plaat Gunter Ziegler : Assistant Struwe Thorwald Loessl : criminal director Dorn Michel Pierrat : Paul Frederic Battiston : Robert Oliver Debliquis : Michel Henrich Dolo Michael Ammann Marcel Grandidier

Birthday greetings is the 162nd television film in the crime series Tatort and the sixth Tatort produced by Saarland Radio . It was first broadcast on November 4, 1984. It is the fourth case with Commissioner Schäfermann as the sole investigator, after he had investigated with his colleague Liersdahl in his first two episodes. Schäfermann is dealing with the assassination attempt on one of his assistants.

action

Kurt Sander, an assistant to Chief Detective Schäfermann, is leaving on his birthday to see his new girlfriend, the Lorraine landlady's daughter Michèle, to spend the day with her. He just misses the postman, who is therefore handing over a birthday package for Sander to his neighboring family, the Wolf. While Sander is enjoying the hours with his girlfriend, the package addressed to him explodes in the Wolf's apartment and seriously injures five-year-old daughter Sabine Wolf. Schäfermann and assistant Struwe take up the investigation and immediately discover that the victim is the daughter of their colleague Sander. The first traces quickly reveal that the explosion was triggered by a package bomb. Schäfermann also soon found out that the package was addressed to his assistant Sander. Kurt Sander is immediately ordered back from vacation, meanwhile Schäfermann remembers a case three years ago. Sander, who was still on patrol at the time, tried to stop Bruno Heintze's car, but it drove away at the routine inspection at far excessive speed, so that Sander shot into the tires. Arthur Heintze, Bruno's brother, did not survive the accident, it turned out that Heintze drove so fast only because of an appendicitis of his sister-in-law Jutta to bring her to the hospital. Since Heintze was wanted for various property crimes, he was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison, in prison he swore revenge on Sander.

Horst Schäfermann is ultimately identified as the sender of the parcel, and Schäfermann and his colleagues make it clear that the perpetrator proceeded very carefully and obviously knows Sander's surroundings well. The package was posted at a post office near Heintze's apartment. While Bruno Heintze and his sister-in-law Jutta are being observed by the police in their car workshop, Sander arrives at his boss Schäfermann's and is immediately placed under personal protection. Incited by reports in the tabloid press, which Heintze condemned for the bomb attack, Sabine's father Gerhard Wolf, whose daughter is not doing well, seeks Heintze to confront him, but Heintze denies any connection to the bomb attack. Sander and his colleague Plaat then ask Wolf what he wanted from Heintze and implore him to leave the investigation to the police. Shortly afterwards, Heintze's employee Kattner found traces on the vehicle yard that indicated that Heintze could actually have built the bomb. He then goes to Wolf and offers him his help to convict his boss. Since the two men are being watched by police officers, Schäfermann later asks Wolf about the meeting and again implores him to leave the investigation to the police. Wolf looks desperate. Struwe and Plaat shadow Heintze, but the latter mocks the officials by sending a joke packet to Sander in front of the officials, Schäfermann then no longer believes that Heintze was the sender of the bomb.

When Schäfermann and Sander found out that Wolf had visited Heintze again, Sander asked Heintze about this visit. Heintze claims that Wolf wanted to apologize for his accusation. Sander then reveals to Heintze that his employee Kattner had secretly met with Wolf. While Sander is forging future plans with Michèle, little Sabine succumbs to her injuries. Shortly afterwards, Heintze goes to Schäfermann and announces that he is going to custody for a traffic offense. He has the officials take him to the detention center to prove his innocence in the death of the girl. When Schäfermann and his team investigate an anonymous tip that Kattner was seen in an old sand pit, Sander was shot at from an ambush, the officers managed to escape and learned that Kattner was seen in a pub at the same time. Schäfermann and Sander go to see Kattner, who is clueless and claims that Wolf gave him money on his own so that he could ask around, the officers take Kattner with them to the station. However, Schäfermann no longer believes that Heintze or Kattner have anything to do with the attacks on Sander, but instead suspects Michèle's ex-boyfriend of jealousy after Sander's life, as Sander always reacts with hostility to Sander's visits to France. While walking through the woods with Michèle, Sander is shot, and the police who suddenly rush to the scene can shoot and catch Wolf as the attacker. Wolf explains that he accidentally discovered a one-time relationship between Sander and his wife, and he also confesses to the package bomb attack through which he accidentally killed his own daughter. Back in Saarbrücken, Sander learns that Schäfermann had sent the police after him, who suspected that Sander would be in danger in France and had notified his French colleagues as a precaution.

Wolf had waited until Heintze came out of prison to cast suspicion on him, Kattner testifies that Wolf left traces of a bomb construction in the garbage on his first visit to Heintze so that the police could find them. Kattner had found the wires and showed Heintze, who immediately understood that Wolf was the real culprit and, because of his own thirst for revenge against Sander, put him under pressure to commit another murder attempt on Sander. Heintze Wolf had obtained the rifle. Kattner and Heintze, who has just been released from prison, are arrested for aiding and abetting or inciting murder.

Audience and production

When it was first broadcast on November 4, 1984, an audience of 12.23 million was achieved, which corresponds to an audience rate of 33%. The episode was filmed between September 20 and October 31, 1983 in Saarbrücken and Lorraine.

particularities

The time span of four years and 44 days between Schäfermann's third and his fourth and last case is the longest time span that a chief investigator ever had between two of his cases in the history of the crime scene.

criticism

The critics of the television magazine TV-Spielfilm rate this crime scene positively with "A real cracker, this" crime scene "...".

Web links

• Birthday greetings in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Birthday greetings in the online film database
• Summary of the plot of birthday greetings on the ARD website
• Birthday greetings from the Tatort fund
• Birthday greetings at Tatort-Fans.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ tatort-fundus.de: audience share and production
2. ↑ Short review on tvspielfilm.de, accessed on December 11, 2015.

previous episode September 9, 1984: Hot snow

Crime scene follow

next episode November 25, 1984: The Man with the Roses