Crime scene: death in the subway shaft
| Episode of the series Tatort | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Death in the subway shaft |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German , Turkish |
| Production company |
SFB |
| length | 91 minutes |
| classification | Episode 57 ( List ) |
| First broadcast | November 9, 1975 on German television |
| Rod | |
| Director | Wolf Gremm |
| script | Peter Stripp |
| production | Michael Wintzer |
| music |
Guido de Angelis , Maurizio de Angelis |
| camera | Jürgen Wagner, Wolfgang Knigge |
| cut | Waltraut Lück |
| occupation | |
| |
Death in the underground shaft is a consequence of the ARD crime series Tatort . The episode produced by the broadcaster Free Berlin (SFB) was first broadcast on November 9, 1975 on ARD. It is the first crime scene with Inspector Schmidt, who has to solve the fatal accident of an illegally employed foreign worker and the machinations of the people smuggling ring behind it . He must also end a hostage-taking resulting from the case. It is also the first crime scene with a “central migration reference” and is considered to be one of the most controversial films in the series.
action
West Berlin in the mid-1970s: The subway network is continuously expanded to make the S-Bahn operated by the Deutsche Reichsbahn superfluous. Almost all foreigners living illegally in Germany, mostly Turks, work in a subway tunnel under construction . Carelessly, Mehmet, one of the workers, is hit by the bulldozer and succumbs to his serious injuries at the scene of the accident. Foreman Bauler decides not to alert the police, otherwise the entire human smuggling ring would be exposed. The man's body is to be disposed of that night. But when it is being transported away from the construction site, one leg looks out of the crane and a drunk observes this scene through the site fence. He reports his observation to the police, whereupon Commissioner Wagner from the "Foreigners Working Group" takes care of the matter. Following a hint, Wagner tries to find the alleged body in a gravel pit, but without success.
Meanwhile, Arkan, the dead man's brother-in-law, is arrested by the police for stabbing a knife. When the construction site manager Kaiser found out about it, he was concerned that Arkan might reveal something about the accident, so he had his sister Ayse taken away and taken to an inn.
Inspector Wagner and his colleague Schmidt are in the picture about Kaiser's machinations, but could not prove anything to him in the past. Wagner also suspects Kaiser's drug deals. So he wants to use Arkan as bait to track down not only the emperor, but also Abdullah, the Turkish head of the human trafficking ring. During a prisoner transport, Arkan succeeds in the escape planned and initiated by Wagner. Since he wants to hide with his sister and cannot find Ayse in her apartment, he starts looking for her. It is clear to him that only Kaiser can be behind their disappearance, but he does not manage to get to him because his property is too well guarded. So Arkan first goes to the place where Mehmet was buried to pray there. In this way, the inspectors learn of the hiding place unnoticed.
Arkan is not only secretly pursued by the police, but also one of Kaiser's men is on his heels. This pushes Arkan in front of a railway, but fortunately he can save himself and survive. In return, Arkan can overpower the assassin and force him to take him to his sister. She is now forced to work as a prostitute in the brothel, disguised as an inn , and is currently defending herself against an intrusive suitor. One of the employees calls the police when Arkan appears with his hostage and is also armed.
Meanwhile, Wagner and his people actually find Mehmet's body. Schmidt arrives at the inn and tries to contact Arkan. He tries to get him to give up and guarantees him impunity and safe conduct to Turkey. But Arkan doesn't trust the police and tries to escape with his sister and the hostage. Arkan is killed by a police officer. Thus, it is once again not possible for the police to get to the people behind the people smuggling.
background
Death in the subway shaft was officially banned from repetitions ( poison cabinet sequence ) for 17 years until 1992 due to the drastically shown accident scene and the death struggle of the accident victim shown in close-up , before the SFB released the episode again. The contemporary Frankfurter Hefte suspected the explosive topic of the episode as the reason for this , however, in connection with the interference of Franz Josef Strauss . The news magazine Der Spiegel also reported in 1976 about a “big row” that the director had with the SFB because of his “police-critical crime scene staging”. In addition, the portrayal of migrant workers, especially in the Berlin press, polarized, some of them being perceived as too positive and partly too negative.
After a repetition in 1995, it took another 23 years before the film was shown again in a digitally restored version on RBB television at the end of December 2018 .
The film was shot in the Wilmersdorfer Straße subway station, which opened in 1978.
On tatort-fundus.de death in the underground shaft was rated as the third worst episode of all time.
reception
Audience ratings
When it was first broadcast, the episode achieved a market share of 56.0%.
Reviews
The CSU chairman and opposition politician Franz Josef Strauss considered the film shown to be a bandit film from Montevideo with a brothel component . He communicated this to the director of the SFB by telegram while the film was being broadcast.
"I thought such ineptitude, stupidity, tastelessness and mockery of the Berlin police were unimaginable."
The SFB rejected the criticism. In particular, the film was made in cooperation with the Berlin police and was not objected to by them.
“Peter Stripp's film (director: Wolf Gremm) about dark business dealings with illegally entered Turks in Berlin has been harshly criticized with good arguments. But it is precisely this that police officers are finally not idealized as omniscient super-men, but in their humanity (which is only too familiar to the citizen), i.e. also indolence, weakness, in short: even in their failure, is not a 'mockery' and everything other than 'a real scandal', as Strauss thinks, but a realism that in the long run arouses more sympathy for the police than the cold impersonality of fixed combiners and eternally radiant city sheriffs with whom many other crime novels get bored. "
Web links
- Crime scene: Death in the subway tunnel in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Death in the underground shaft in the online film database
- Summary of the plot of death in the subway shaft on the ARD website
- Death in the subway shaft
- Death in the subway shaft at the crime scene fund
Individual evidence
- ↑ Christina Ortner: Tatort: Migration. The topic of immigration in the crime series Tatort. ( Memento of the original from September 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 230 kB), Hans Bredow Institute (Ed.): Media & Communication Studies. 2007/1, Baden-Baden 2007, p. 10.
- ↑ Crime scene poison cabinet
- ↑ "Poison cabinet consequences" at tatort-fundus.de
- ↑ Frankfurter Hefte. Volume 31, 1976, p. 130.
- ^ Mareike Fuchs: The inventor. Gunther Witte, 71 years old, inventor of the crime scene, long-time TV game director at WDR . In: Du Kulturmedien AG (Ed.): Du . tape 67 , no. 779 , 2007, ISSN 0012-6837 , p. 39 ( e-periodica.ch [accessed on August 29, 2014] interview).
- ↑ The mirror. 34/1976, p. 115.
- ↑ The five dustiest episodes of the crime scene , tatort-fundus.de, accessed on December 30, 2018
- ↑ tatort-fundus.de
- ↑ Death in the subway shaft. Crime scene fund, accessed on November 14, 2016 .
- ↑ a b Rolf Michaelis: Please don't be so afraid. In: Die Zeit, year 1975, issue 48. November 21, 1975, accessed on August 29, 2014 .
- ↑ Bandit film with brothel insert , accessed on December 30, 2018
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Death in the underground shaft (1975) | Transit into the Hereafter (1976) | Fire Magic (1977)