Crime scene: Taxi to Leipzig (1970)

Episode of the series Tatort
Original title	Taxi to Leipzig
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Production company	NDR
length	90 minutes
Age rating	FSK 6
classification	Episode 1 ( list )
First broadcast	November 29, 1970 8:20 p.m. on German television
Rod
Director	Peter Schulze-Rohr
script	Friedhelm Werremeier , Peter Schulze-Rohr
production	Dieter Meichsner
music	Friedrich Scholz
camera	Nils-Peter Mahlau
cut	Inge P. Drestler (as Inge Drestler)
occupation
Walter Richter : Inspector Trimmel Renate Schroeter : Eva Billsing Paul Albert Krumm : Erich Landsberger Peter Hallwachs : First Lieutenant Peter Klaus Edgar Hoppe : Detective Master Höffgen Erwin Klietsch : Karl Lincke Marianne Hachfeld : Elvira Kniebel Ernst Wendt: People's Police Officer Günter Lamprecht : GDR border guards Gerhard Hartig : Karl Bell Horst Ulbricht : Mechanic in Leipzig Henry-Ernst Simmon : Jeweler Barbara Lienau : Ms. Lincke Jutta Zech : Isolde, Landsberger's housemaid Boris Mahlau : Christian Landsberger Liselotte Kunze : Mrs. Rau

Taxi to Leipzig is the first television film in the crime series Tatort from 1970. It was first broadcast in Germany on November 29, 1970.

action

A request for assistance from the Public Prosecutor General of the GDR requests the support of the investigative authorities of the Federal Republic . The body of a boy was found at a rest area on the transit motorway near Leipzig . The GDR authorities inferred a connection to the Federal Republic of Germany from the fact that the boy was wearing clothing items of West German origin. However, the request for help is withdrawn very soon. Chief Inspector Paul Trimmel from the Hamburg criminal police is still concerned with the case. Trimmel's East Berlin colleague Karl Lincke from the Ministry for State Security knows him from a job in the former Reich Criminal Police Office - he assures him on the phone that no further assistance is required.

Trimmel begins his own research. These initially lead him to a villa on Hamburg's posh Elbchaussee . By asking a neighbor, the inspector found out that the wealthy chemist Erich Landsberger, father of the illegitimate child who was found dead and who has since been identified as her son Christian by the GDR citizen Eva Billsing, has moved to Frankfurt am Main .

Chief Inspector Trimmel initially drives to Frankfurt for further investigations. Landsberger, however, is not very cooperative with him. Trimmel does not give up and sets off across the inner-German border towards West Berlin . In the vicinity of Leipzig he fakes a breakdown, takes a taxi and looks for Eva Billsing, but does not find her at home. When Eva finds out about this, she panics and meets with her friend, the People's Police Officer Peter Klaus. She shows him a message from Trimmel. Klaus takes the initiative and has Trimmel, who is staying in West Berlin, tracked down. Along the way, he learns that Trimmel is a commissioner for the Hamburg police. At a rest stop on the transit highway, he intercepts Trimmel and drives him to a lonely place to question him. There is a physical test of strength. But Trimmel manages to get Klaus to meet Eva and find out how the child died. He suspects that Landsberger exchanged his terminally ill child for Eva's healthy child. Under pressure from Trimmel's assertion, she finally admits to having exchanged the child, with the promise to later marry Landsberger.

Trimmel seeks Landsberger and confronts him with the story and the information that Eva no longer wants to marry him. This leads Landsberger to threaten Trimmel with a gun, whereby a shot is released, but it goes into the ceiling. Landsberger wants to personally convince himself of Trimmel's statement and forces him to come along with the threat that he would otherwise report his GDR trip to Trimmel's superiors.

Landsberger, Peter Klaus, Trimmel and Eva Billsing meet at a GDR motorway rest area. Eva Landsberger confirmed there that she no longer wanted to follow him to West Germany because she needed a man who was always there. She also wants her son back, but Landsberger refuses. Instead, he gives her a bracelet and they say goodbye. On the return trip, Trimmel wants to know from Landsberger how he got rid of the child, when he realizes that the child is still alive and that he has suffocated to be on the safe side. They drive home, but Landsberger distrusts the inspector because he doesn't know how Trimmel will deal with him. A picture of Landsberger with his son in his arms signals that he will probably leave him unmolested.

background

A Wartburg 353 as a taxi or police car in the wake taxi to Leipzig was used

Taxi to Leipzig is the second television film with the character Paul Trimmel, was shot independently of the Tatort series and only integrated into it as a kick-off film after completion. The first film in the Trimmel series was released in 1969 under the title Exklusiv! in 1971, but also classified as episode 9 and broadcast (repeatedly).

Trivia

The one thousandth episode in the crime scene series is traditionally also called a taxi to Leipzig for the first . Several actors from the crime scene from 1970 appear in short supporting roles. Furthermore, the co-author of the 1970 screenplay, Friedhelm Werremeier, can be seen in a cameo as a condescending elderly gentleman.

Audience rating

The first broadcast of Taxi to Leipzig on November 29, 1970 achieved a market share of 61.0% for Das Erste .

Reviews

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote on December 1, 1970:

“All in all, the beginning of the series offers more of a variant of the familiar than of something new. It is also suspicious that as a precaution you are promised 'criminalist home cooking'. I would love to take them. But lobster mayonnaise is still easier to make than a good stew ... "

Web links

• Taxi to Leipzig in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Taxi to Leipzig in the online film database
• Summary of the plot from taxi to Leipzig on the ARD website
• Taxi to Leipzig at the crime scene fund
• Taxi to Leipzig at Tatort-Fans.de
• The 1000th crime scene is called "Taxi to Leipzig". New edition for the anniversary, tagesspiegel.de, November 12, 2015.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Release certificate for the crime scene: Taxi to Leipzig . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , July 2009 (PDF; test number: 118 653 V).
2. ^ "Tatort" inventor Gunther Witte is a fan of the Münster crime novels. Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung from April 9, 2010, accessed on October 13, 2015
3. ^ Taxi to Leipzig , accessed on September 9, 2015

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