Crime scene: murder in the ministry

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Episode of the series Tatort
Original title Murder in the Ministry
Country of production Austria
original language Austrian German
Production
company		 ORF
length 90 minutes
classification Episode 44 ( List )
First broadcast October 13, 1974 on ORF and ARD
Rod
Director Fritz Eckhardt
script Fritz Eckhardt
production Helmut Pascher
camera Peter Jasicek
cut Gerhard Hruby
occupation

Mord im Ministry is an Austrian television crime thriller by and with Fritz Eckhardt from 1974. It was created as the 44th episode of the crime series Tatort . This time Marek is dealing with the murder of two high-ranking ministerial officials.

action

During a celebratory reception in a ministry in Vienna, the section head Grahl is found dead in his office. He was poisoned by a cup of coffee. Marek and Wirz go to the Ministry, where Inspector Kramer and his colleague Swoboda are already questioning the witnesses. Councilor Gleiner pulls Kramer off the case because a state visit is pending, and Kramer is to take over the guarding of the state guest. His colleagues Swoboda and Gareis should continue the case, which would make Marek and Wirz superfluous. Ministerialrat Wiesiewicz reveals to Marek that it was he who asked not to entrust Marek with this case, as the case is very delicate and he also needs Marek for other tasks that are also related to the case. The murdered section head Grahl had recently had to do with foreign oil interests. The police went through all the Ministry's personnel files on the occasion of the murder and discovered that the wife of the Section Council Radler was under surveillance years ago because she was “well known” to a spy named Alfonse Dubois. He now lives in Berlin, so Marek should travel to Berlin and contact him unobtrusively.

His colleague Kasulke greets him in Berlin. Dubois lives in Berlin-Wilmersdorf and visits the Café des Westens on Kurfürstendamm every day. There Marek finally meets Dubois. Dubois already knows about Marek's identity. He asks Marek directly whether he is in Berlin because of the murder of Section Head Grahl. Dubois suggests that Grahl was also killed by one of his numerous lovers. He claims to have stopped acting as an agent. Dubois introduces his bride to Marek to demonstrate that he is now leading a civil life. Marek continues to ask him openly whether he has any more brides, which he affirms. He got to know the wife of the Section Councilor Radler because she had debts and he was a moneylender at the time. That is how he would have met her husband and even the minister. Coincidentally, files had disappeared from the ministry at the time and he was suspected. That's why he went to Beirut. Ms. Radler would have paid him back the money, including interest. Dubois says goodbye to Marek because he is seeing his daughter.

Back in Vienna, Marek learns from Wirz that the Chief Inspector Swoboda has called in sick, so Hofrat Greiner has now entrusted Marek with the case. Wirz reports to Marek that the murder victim lived alone, was 58 years old and had many women's stories going on. Ms. Zambusch, the secretary of Section Head Ehmann, visits Marek and would like to add to her statement. On the day of the death of Section Head Grahl, shortly before the party, her boss Ehmann gave a package for Section Head Grahl that contained a large sum of money that he had counted in front of her eyes. It was 100,000 schillings that he put in his desk drawer. No money was found after the murder. However, she does not know what the reason for the payment was. Marek asks Radler Section Councilor. The secretary Mantler had seen Radler go into Section Chief Grahl's office during the party and had heard from listening at the door that Radler wanted to borrow money from Grahl because of his financial worries. Because Grahl would have refused him the money, Radler would have insulted and threatened him. Radler denies everything. Marek confronts Radler that he had paid his debts to the bank shortly after the murder. Radler refuses to say where he got the money. Marek visits Ms. Wiesiewicz, Ms. Radler and Ms. Ehmann, who have met to play cards. Marek asks Ms. Radler about her financial difficulties, she admits that she is always in financial difficulties. Her husband would always straighten it out, including the debts her husband had repaid for her after the murder. When asked about Mr. Dubois, she says that she has no relationship with him and that she never cheated on her husband. Ehmann had meanwhile stated that the 100,000 Schilling was the payment for a property purchase. Ms. Wiesiewicz says that Ms. Radler has been away from the party for a while. Marek asks Ms. Wiesiewicz about the rat poison she bought for her garden. It was the same thing Grahl was killed with, but she would have used up everything in the garden.

The next day Mrs. Radler went to see Marek because she had received a letter from Dubois. He makes hints and demands money. In the letter he also mentions that Marek was with him in Berlin. Ms. Radler also doesn't want her husband to find out about Dubois' letter. Marek copies the letter and sends it to Kasulke in Berlin so that he can take on the blackmail case. Inspector Berntner informs Schilling that one of the 1000 Schilling notes appeared at a petrol station, which has disappeared from Grahl's drawer. The customer who paid with it was the secretary Mantler. At that moment, Councilor Gleiner called Marek and informed him that Councilor Radler was also murdered in the ministry by the same poison as Grahl. Marek delivers the bad news to Frau Radler, as it is still in his office. Marek and Wirz then go to the crime scene. The poison worked very quickly, Radler fell straight from his desk to the floor. Marek learns from Section Head Ehmann that Radler would have succeeded Grahl, now Ministerialrat Wiesiewicz will move up, i.e. by two steps. Ehmann notes that under normal circumstances, Wiesiewicz would probably not have had a chance to move up that high. Ms. Wiesiewicz comes into their room and looks for her husband, who is not in his office. Ehmann further reports that Radler and Wiesiewicz were with them today. Nothing unusual struck him. He had offered both of them cognac, Radler accepted, Wiesiewicz declined. Radler liked to drink alcohol, Marek notes that the killer must have known this. When Wirz read a review of a television game in which an officer became a murderer in order to be promoted, Marek realized that Wiesiewicz might be a suspect.

Marek and Wirz ask the secretary Mantler where she got the money for refueling the day before. Wirz confronts them with the fact that the note comes from Grahl's drawer. She denies this and says Grahl lent her 2,000 schillings because she was embarrassed. Wirz and Marek confront her with the fact that her subtenant is a marriage swindler known to the police and insinuate that she is exempted from him and therefore needed money, which is a good motive for the murder. Wiesiewicz arrives and asks if his wife was here. Marek says yes, then Mrs. Mantler interjects that his wife came to see him at three o'clock. However, he was not in his office. Ms. Wiesiewicz joins them and her husband asks her whether she was actually at the ministry at three o'clock, which she denies. She claims to have been looking for her husband, u. a. in the library, but it was actually there all the time. Since the couple contradict each other massively, Marek and Wirz question the two in more detail. Wiesiewicz was with Radler the hours before his death. Radler poured both of them a cognac, but Wiesiewicz didn't drink his. Frau Mantler brought the glasses and the cognac bottle. The examination showed that there was no poison in the bottle. Radler must have been given the poison in the glass. Wiesiewicz denies having poisoned Radler. Before Radler drank his cognac, the two of them went to see Section Head Ehmann. Both glasses initially remained full. One of the glasses was shaken onto the desk and Radler wiped it off with a handkerchief. Wiesiewicz admits he accidentally spilled his glass after Section Head Ehmann's return. Radler then drank his cognac on his own because he got a taste for the cognac from Section Head Ehmann. Then Wiesiewicz had to watch how Section Councilor Radler died in agony. The glass that he knocked over was his own and Radler drank his cognac. Wirz asks Wiesiewicz how long they'll stay as a ministerial advisor. That is different. Wiesiewicz admits to be ambitious. Marek asks Ms. Wiesiewicz about the poison she bought for her garden. The housekeeper showed the police the glass, but it was empty, Ms. Wiesiewicz has no explanation. Wirz confronts Wiesiewicz about the fact that he put poison in his own glass and then knocked Radler's glass over so that he could drink his cognac. Marek presents the poison that has disappeared from the Wiesiewicz house. It just lacks the amount needed to kill Radler. Mrs. Wiesiewicz admits that this is her poison. She starts crying because she can't help her husband. Mr. Wiesiewicz then confesses to both murders. The motive was ambition and that his wife always thought he was a weakling. Mr. Wiesiewicz is arrested.

The next morning Marek and his team get a call. Mr. Wiesiewicz hanged himself in custody. Marek goes to Frau Wiesiewicz to bring her the news of her death. Marek confronts her with the fact that he thinks she is the perpetrator, her husband confessed to the deeds only out of love for her, when he realized that she was the perpetrator. Marek explains that in his eyes it was murder because she knew that if he made a false confession he would kill himself. Marek had questioned the caretaker on the street Grahl had lived on. Ms. Wiesiewicz then admits that she was Grahl's lover, but that was over a year ago. Marek notices what an offended woman has been in a year. She admits she was offended. For years she was his secretary without his paying any attention to her. Then suddenly he would have approached her at a reception. She fell for him, then suddenly she became a nuisance to him. His sexual interest in her only results from the fact that he would have bet drunk that he would get this "good housewife and wife" around. The bet would have been with her husband, Mr Wiesiewicz, of all people. He would have paid his betting debt, and instead of throwing her out, he was humble towards her. That was even more disgusting for her than Grahl's behavior. Marek confronts her with the fact that she first killed Grahl and then wanted to kill Radler so that her husband is arrested as a murderer and kills himself in custody. When she saw the two glasses on the desk, she spontaneously decided to kill her husband, who otherwise does not drink alcohol, directly. By chance with the overturned glass, her original plan came about. She then did everything possible to make herself suspicious, so that her husband would take the deeds and commit suicide. She dismisses the whole thing as ridiculous. Since he cannot prove anything, he leaves her with the knowledge that he has seen through her. After Marek leaves, Ms. Wiesiewicz bursts into tears and writes a confession.

production

Murder in the Ministry was the fourth crime scene case involving Chief Inspector Marek. Fritz Eckhardt not only acted as the main actor, but also wrote the script and directed.

Web links

previous episode
September 29, 1974: Dangerous bedbugs 		Crime scene follow next episode
November 10, 1974: acquaintance in a bar