Cologne crime scene: Of people and monsters

Everything points to a relaxing end to work - without the usual Currywurst, but with a bottle of beer for the way home: As Commissioner Max Ballauf (Klaus J. Behrendt) in a subway station witnessed a brutal brawl and goes in between, He is beaten himself and finally pushed onto the tracks - just before the train enters.

The first minutes of the new "crime scene" from Cologne are fast. While Ballauf comes away with minor injuries, the victim of the fight falls into a coma and dies a little later. The perpetrators are found quickly. While other "crime scenes" end at this point, things really get going in Cologne.

Offender from a good home

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The alleged perpetrators are young people from middle-class home, which are already known to the police. The common stereotypes of delinquent problem youth from social hotspots with difficult family circumstances do not apply. But what drives these young people? Boredom? Frustration? That will not be clear. It was self-defense, says the perpetrator, while her friend confidently stands up to the commissars. And ensures that Ballauf is taken by his boss on the short leash and colleague Freddy Schenk (Dietmar Bär) alone must determine (a similar situation we know from the last Munich "crime scene").

And the parents? They have long since resigned in their excessive demands and lost access to their offspring. Only the mother of the perpetrator tries to compensate for the violence of her daughter with even more love and affection. This also shows how aptly the title "powerlessness" summarizes this "crime scene". All are powerless - from the people in the subway station, who are staring but not intervening, to the parents, who have lost their brood.

Every minute is worthwhile here

Editor Insa Winter and "Tatort" actor Klaus J. Behrendt have one thing in common: Both grew up in Ibbenbüren.

In the past, the Cologne "crime scene" would have drifted off into an explanatory piece about moral courage and violence; today, people understand that they do not have to explain and depict everything. Why do some people become violent? And how does the environment react? Who is responsible? There are no answers to some questions. Instead, fat question marks may end up in the end.

Ballauf and Schenk become experts in Sunday evening entertainment after their two last, gloomy cases "Franziska" and "Der Fall Reinhardt", which have sometimes really hurt the viewer. From this, other "crime scene" teams can look a lot off. "Powerlessness" is a very successful "crime scene" about moral courage, responsibility, power and powerlessness with fresh, new faces - and remains exciting to the surprising end. Every single minute is worth it. For me already one of the best "crime scenes" of the year.

Crime Scene: Fainting, Sunday, May 11, 2014, 8:15 pm, ARD

If you have missed the "crime scene", you can watch the current episode until seven days after broadcasting (for reasons of youth protection in the time from 20 to 6 clock clock) in the ARD-Mediatheque.

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