Crime scene: songbird

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Episode of the series Tatort
Original title Songbird
Country of production Germany
original language German
Production
company		 NDR
length 88 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
classification Episode 292 ( List )
First broadcast May 23, 1994 on Das Erste
Rod
Director Michael Knof
script Willi Voss
production Studio Hamburg film production
music Christoph Schambach
camera Klaus Brix ,
Sönke Hansen
cut Georgia Holss
occupation

Singvogel is a television film from the crime series Tatort by ARD and ORF . The film was produced by Norddeutscher Rundfunk and broadcast for the first time on May 23, 1994. It is the crime scene episode 292. It is the 22nd case for Chief Detective Paul Stoever ( Manfred Krug ). For his colleague Peter Brockmöller ( Charles Brauer ) it is the 19th case in which he is investigating.

action

Inge Holland's body is found in the port area. Her husband is the criminal Harald Holland, who robbed a bank a year ago and is currently in prison. The loot could not be found until today and that is a reason for Holland's fellow prisoners to harass him again and again. If he betrayed the hiding place to them, they would leave him alone. The commissioners Stoever and Brockmöller go to the penal system in order to obtain information about the perpetrator or perpetrators via Holland. The news of his wife's death hits him hard, especially since she had just visited him the day before. Stoever suspects that the perpetrator is after Holland's loot of millions. But Holland does not dare to suspect anyone specifically, as there are mafia-like structures here in the prison. Should Stoever make it possible for him to be transferred to another prison, he would testify. Holland is put under massive pressure by his fellow inmate, Ronny Schneider, and doesn't dare to say anything as long as Schneider is in charge.

The investigators speak to the prison administration to have Holland moved, but they encounter incomprehension. So the decision matures in Stoever to smuggle his new colleague Lukas Thorwald into prison as an undercover agent. He no longer has to worry about Ronny Schneider, because he has now been released from prison and is enjoying his freedom again. But now Rambo Hergeth is the new "King" in jail. He, too, is interested in finding out from Holland the hiding place of his stolen loot and attacks him together with his allies, whereby Holland is ultimately killed.

Stoever and Brockmöller now lead to Herbert Tiefenthal and his family. Tiefenthal looks after the needs of prisoners and works as a social worker. The investigators hope he will provide clues to the possible perpetrator and learn that Holland actually no longer has the booty. The commissioners found out very quickly that Tiefenthal's care not only applies to the offenders, but also to their wives who were left alone. The social worker does not know, however, that Schneider was informed by his girlfriend, Jeanette Heuer, that she is still meeting with Tiefenthal. He even wants her to continue working with the “selfless” social worker, since he assumes that he may have had a relationship with Inge Holland and therefore could know where the money is.

The police manage to find the weapon with which Inge Holland was killed in a parked car. In addition, in the car that belonged to the victim is a bag with banderoles of banknotes. Since the corpse was obviously not transported to the place of discovery in this car, the investigators search for the second car. The first thing they do is examine Ronny Schneider's car and that of his girlfriend, albeit without success.

Lukas Thorwald succeeds in getting into the circle of allies of Rambo Hergeth. Hergeth openly admits that he can live well here too and that he hardly has to do without anything. In his opinion, everyone can be bought so that they can have whatever they want smuggled into prison. But Thorwald's disguise threatens to be blown when Tiefenthal recognizes him. Hergeth immediately calls his people together to punish the traitor. Before they succeed in killing Thorwald, Stoever comes, who has found out about Tiefenthal's visit to the prison and is able to save his colleague. Since he catches the prisoners in the act, he finally has legal recourse against this prison mafia. So it will only be a matter of time before he can prove the murder of Harald Holland. For the murder of his wife, however, Stoever does not find any concrete clues among the prisoners, so they want to deal with Ronny Schneider again. Meanwhile, he finds out that his girlfriend wants to go abroad with Tiefenthal. Out of anger, he kills her and goes to the airport to stop Tiefenthal. He wants to prevent Holland's money from disappearing from Germany with him. He is now surprised that Jeanette Heuer is not coming and drives to her. When he finds her dead on the floor, he is desperate and can just hand over the suitcase with the money to his son, who was looking for him, before Schneider comes back. He wants to accuse him of the murder of his girlfriend and demands the money from him, because he is sure that this is why he killed Inge Holland. But Tiefenthal prefers to be shot because he thinks that his life no longer has any meaning. Stoever and Brockmöller appear in time and arrest both of them. They can also secure the money when they catch Thorsten Tiefenthal with the suitcase.

background

After the crime scene was first broadcast, the youth protection agency criticized the fact that the film was broadcast at 8:15 p.m. because the film contains very revealing scenes in which the prisoners' genital area can be seen. Furthermore, the presentation of the penitentiary system in Germany at that time sparked a heated debate, which later also contributed to reforms.

reception

Audience ratings

When it was first broadcast on May 23, 1994, Singvogel had 8.82 million viewers, which corresponds to a market share of 28.60 percent.

Reviews

Rainer Tittelbach from tittelbach.tv says about this crime scene from Hamburg: “As a serious crime thriller, 'Singvogel' (1994) is too woodcut-like; Michael Knof's film has a certain charm for nostalgic people. […] There are no surprises, the cliché casting does the rest: Rüdiger Vogler, tortured and shaken by midlife crisis as usual, Claude-Oliver Rudolph with a brutal grin that fills the screen and Claudia Messner, who is once again allowed to exhibit her sexy-hexy image. What remains are 90 minutes of clichés in the story and cast, crime fiction conventions that nip any tension in the bud. It was no different in the last Stoever-Brockmöller 'Tatort' cases. So nothing new in the north! "

The critics of the television magazine TV Spielfilm think that this crime scene is a: "Well-filled prison thriller from Hamburg."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for crime scene: Singvogel . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ↑ Background information at tatort-fans.de, accessed on November 2, 2014.
  3. ↑ Data on the crime scene: Singvogel at fundus.de, accessed on November 2, 2014.
  4. ^ Rainer Tittelbach : Film review at tittelbach.tv, accessed on November 2, 2014.
  5. ↑ Short review at tvspielfilm.de, accessed on November 2, 2014.
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