Last week, readers of the “New York Times” were introduced to one of the most successful and longest-running German TV formats: “Tatort”.

“Tatort” is a crime drama that has been on the air for almost 40 years now but still shows no sign of slowing down. The secret of its success might be the unique concept that results from the structure of ARD, the public broadcasting system that produces and airs the show. It consists of nine regional public broadcasting services which all contribute to the ARD program in general as well as to “Tatort”, resulting in not only one but 15 detectives or teams of detectives respectively who each solve crimes in different regions of Germany and even in Austria. Episodes are about 90 minutes long, and there is a new episode almost every Sunday night, adding up to about 30 episodes a year.

As is the case with most crime shows, most of the detectives on “Tatort” (which means as much as “crime scene”) were and still are men, but a lot has happened since the first female detective, who was introduced in 1978, only lasted for three episodes. Three of the detective teams are lead by women, three more teams consist of both a man and a woman (though one is not a detective, but a psychologist), and in the version that is set in Hannover/Lower-Saxony, Charlotte Lindholm (played by Maria Furtwängler) is a single mother who also investigates her cases on her own. Even the most senior “Tatort” detective is a woman: Lena Odenthal, played by Ulrike Folkerts.

All very good reasons to take a closer look at the women of “Tatort”:

Lena Odenthal (Ulrike Folkerts)

For 20 years and 47 episodes, Lena Odenthal has been solving murders in Ludwigshafen, the second biggest city of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. In the early years, she came across as a tough, lone wolf, and not only because of her short hair and her overall outside appearance. While she has never been someone to shy away from confrontation, there is also a softer side to her, which she has been showing more of lately, especially when it comes to Mario Kopper, her partner and friend with whom she also shares an apartment. Unlike Mario, who regularly goes out on dates (even though he usually isn’t very successful), Lena does not really seem to have a love life but instead spends her rare spare time running or cuddling with her cat.

Lena and Mario (Andreas Hoppe) pursue a murder suspect

The character of Lena Odenthal is one of the most successful “Tatort” detectives. Up to 9 million viewers tune in to watch Lena and Mario banter at each other like an old couple while trying to uncover who the bad guys are. In 2008, Ulrike Folkerts was voted the most popular female detective on German TV by the readers of the biggest German TV magazine “Hörzu”.

It did not even do the character’s popularity any harm when Folkerts came out as a lesbian in the late 1990s – probably because Lena had never been the girly type anyway. Ever since then, German lesbians have hoped for Lena to come out as well, especially since a 2001 episode in which Lena fell in love with and even kissed another woman. But Mona inevitably unfortunately was killed by the end of the episode, and Folkerts herself has crushed her fans’ hopes when saying that she does not want Lena to be a lesbian because it would be too close to her own personal life.

Lena (right) is about to kiss Mona (Sandra Borgmann)

Mona and Lena kiss (around 1:30)

The New York Times recently published an article about the German crime drama Tatort - a very good excuse to take a look at some of the female detectives on the show.

Pages: 1 2