Tatort

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Der Tatort, literally ‘the scene of the crime,’ is the longest running and most popular German TV police series; the 50th anniversary of Tatort was widely celebrated in November 2020. Furthermore, the Tatort has been credited with reflecting social and cultural changes in German society over the past five decades. This close tie between a fictional police series and social history is in part the result of the public broadcasting system (and its many regional stations) that produces the Tatort and that has to pay close attention to a mainstream television audience. Unlike other police series, the Tatort is shot in many locations throughout Germany and even Austria and Switzerland, each featuring a group of local detectives. The course investigates this unique lens on German society by focusing on the following aspects: ● Introduction to the history and regional concept of the Tatort, with special emphasis on the successful relaunch of the series in the early 2000s. ● Popularity of the series across generations; fan culture; synergy effect of websites and social media. ● Changing genre conventions and introduction of new types of detectives: blue collar (Schimanksi), women (Odenthal and others), ethnic minorities (Batic and others). ● Changing crime scenes, ranging from interpersonal and familial conflicts to global crime networks and terrorism. Following introductory readings on the genre of crime fiction in general and the Tatort in particular, students will view selected Tatort episodes as part of their homework assignments, starting with some of the early ones of the 1970s. (Students are encouraged to watch the Tatort in groups of 2-3 and to read plot summaries, available on Wikipedia or “das erste”, prior to viewing a new Tatort episode). In the second part of the semester, students will work in pairs and introduce a new Tatort to the class. Advanced language acquisition is fully integrated into the subject matter of the course. Supporting materials for genre-specific conventions and terminology (e.g., film analysis, film reviews, etc.) will be provided and practiced. Throughout the semester, we will pay attention to language use (e.g., by looking closely at some Tatort scripts and by identifying formal and informal responses on Tatort websites) and to visual and narrative genre conventions of police series (e.g., alternatives to the traditional “whodunit” approach). Finally, we will examine specific investigative approaches and their ethical and legal implications. For instance, in contrast to the focus on scientific investigation methods in popular US police series like CSI the Tatort series often examines the motives and social conditions of the perpetrator. Overall, students will acquire the visual, linguistic, and cultural vocabulary to critically discuss the Tatort series and its role in German society. Course structure Teil I: Einführung zum Tatort: die Anfänge in den 70er Jahren [Taxi nach Leipzig, 1970] – Reifeprüfung, 1977 Teil II: Neue Ermittlertypen & soziale/gesellschaftspolitische Themen: 1980er-1990er Jahre [Die Neue, 1989] – Engelchen flieg, 1998 – [Duisburg/Ruhrpott, 1991] Teil III: „Neue“ Verbrechen -- Tatorte im Zeitalter der Globalisierung, 2000 bis heute Blutdiamanten, 2006 – Sonnenseite, 2006 – Willkommen in Hamburg, 2013 Teil IV: Psychologie der Täter – Psychologie der Ermittler Vom Himmel hoch, 2018 – Herz aus Eis, 2009 – Sturm, 2017 Please note: only a few of the episodes are available with German subtitles; for a couple of other episodes I have access to the script and we will spend some time reading and analyzing sections thereof. For episodes with neither subtitles nor script, reading the plot summaries ahead of time is especially important. I also urge you to watch those episodes more than once. Our discussion will often focus on visual and other (non-verbal) aspects of these episodes. Complete comprehension of the dialogue is not expected but please alert me if you have trouble understanding important scenes. Assessment Attendance: in case you cannot attend please let me know before class! Unexcused absences will affect your final course grade; also, please come to class even if occasionally you did not complete all of the assignments (you will fall further behind if you miss class). In most cases, assignments will be heavier from Thur.-Tue. than from Tue.-Thur. Class preparation (incl. blog responses to the assigned Tatort), Brief presentations, and class participation 30% Formal presentation in pairs on one Tatort episode 15% Two short papers (film review; scene analysis) w. rewrite 30% Final creative project in groups 25%