Cathrin Vaessen

Three exciting short stories about love, jealousy and devilish intrigues which are connected with each other.

A German woman travels to America with her baby to take up an au pair position with a rich couple. She has no idea that the childless couple are only interested in her child and want to kill her. In Mexico, she escapes the hired killers and survives further dangers together with a local.

Tommy, 22 years old, is broke and in debt, still lives with his parents and is constantly arguing with his father. The young man wants to break out of this life and believes he has finally found the opportunity to do so. A job advertisement promising 400 marks a week seems tailor-made for him. He quickly makes the acquaintance of a pusher column run by Kalle. But Tommy's ideas of a free life are soon nipped in the bud: He works more than 12 hours a day, goes from door to door to sell magazine subscriptions, lives in a filthy shared room, experiences psychological violence. He leads a life like a slave. How can he get out of this hopeless situation?

Willi Kritz earns his living as a night watchman and corpse washer at the East German Pathological Institute at the Berlin Clinic. In the process, he found another source of income: he steals pathological exhibits and smuggles them to West Berlin disguised as a Berlin bear. His customer is Frundsberg, and the delivery always takes place in his Yankee sleigh.

Josef Nötzli has swapped his job as an accountant for a chicken farm in Switzerland. He wants to be just as successful as his twin brother John, who he believes runs the Aurora Hotel in Berlin. In reality, however, John is one of the biggest underworld bosses, and the "Aurora" is Berlin's most famous brothel. When John suddenly dies in Bangkok, Max, John's partner, wants to prevent anyone in Berlin from finding out about John's death at all costs. First, with Josef's help, he has to get the black money from the bank. Under the pretext of having to accept the inheritance, Max brings Josef to Berlin. Once there, of course, everyone believes that Josef is John, the feared underworld boss, and so a maelstrom of confusion ensues.

Diziye konu olan olaylarda hep tanıdık temalar hakim. Almanya’da gündelik yaşamı etkileyen ya da geçmişte etkilemiş olan her konu, dizide ele alınıyor ya da alındı: Almanya’nın birleşmesi, terör, organ ticareti, küreselleşme, ırkçılık, uyuşturucu kullanımı, çevre skandalları, çocuk istismarı, işsizlik, sanayi suçları, yaşlı bakımıyla ilgili sorunlar, ya da eş bulma hizmetleri. Gerçek yaşamdakinden farklı olarak, toplumsal ayrılıklar “Tatort”ta her zaman çözülmese de, cinayetin faili her zaman bulunuyor ve pazar akşamı herkes yatağına huzur içinde gidiyor. Edebiyatbilimci Jochen Vogel’in sözleriyle “Tatort, Alman toplumunu anlatan bir roman.”