Cologne | Next Sunday, the Cologne crime scene “Abbruch Kante” has an away game with chief inspectors Max Ballauf and Freddy Schenk (ARD, March 26, 8:15 p.m.). The duo is investigating a murder in the Rhenish lignite mining area just outside the city gates. There, a dead man is found in the abandoned village of Bützenich. We spoke to the two Cologne screenwriters Eva and Volker A. Zahn in advance.
What is the new Cologne crime scene “Abbruch Kante” about?
Volker A Zahn: For once, this “crime scene” does not take place in Cologne, but around 40 kilometers away in the Rhenish lignite mining area, in a fictional village called Bützenich, which was supposed to be excavated because of the coal mining, but is now preserved. There, the local doctor is found shot dead in an abandoned house. During their investigations, our two detectives immerse themselves in a torn village community. They encounter some conflicts with quite murderous potential.
They were on site in the lignite mining area for research. What did you experience there?
Eva Tooth: We have been there several times in recent years to get a precise picture of the region and the people there. And we were immediately fascinated by this area, by this strange atmosphere there, this mix of old and new, of rebellion and resignation. And all this in the shadow of an unbelievable destruction of nature. Of course, we were particularly interested in human fates, for example the sad stories of elderly people who were driven out of the village in which they lived all their lives.
Volker A Zahn: Resettlement always meant a fundamental breach of life. People were forced to make essential decisions for themselves and their families: Do I bow down or do I resist? Can I still expect my elderly parents to be transplanted at the end of their lives? Am I selling the farm that has been our family’s home for generations? Marriages and friendships have broken up over such questions, and many families have fallen out.
The two authors have been to the lignite mining area several times
How close is the history of the “crime scene” to current events around Lützerath?
Volker A Zahn: The “crime scene” tells fictional stories. But of course the family tragedies and individual fates that we encountered on site inspired us. Bützenich is a fictional place, but the story behind it is real and highly topical. Many people have struggled and quarreled for years with having to leave their homes, they have given up everything that was important to them. And suddenly it says: coal compromise, it won’t be excavated!
Eva Tooth: Despite this, now the ancient villages are not immediately revived, there are many plans, big visions, but no one knows for sure what will happen there in the future. The state of limbo remains and continues to burden people: the new feels strange and the old does not come back.
Was the topic of Lützerath already relevant when you started writing?
Eva Tooth: We started our on-site research about four to five years ago. Lützerath was already an issue back then, but the biggest conflicts and battles were fought in and around the Hambach Forest.
How important is it that a “crime scene” is also dedicated to political issues?
Volker A Zahn: Very important. It would be boring for us to just tell random whodunits, we see ourselves as politically thinking and writing authors and are happy that we can tell exactly these stories in “Tatort”, which move and sometimes also upset people.
What makes up the DNA of the Cologne “crime scene”?
Eva Tooth: On the one hand, the relevant stories that are being told in Cologne. And in a pleasantly liberal and tolerant way, Rhenish relaxed and pervaded by great humanity. And on the other hand, of course, Ballauf and Schenk, two calm investigators, actually everything have seen and still let themselves be gripped by the fates of the people.
How important is it that the two of them leave their traditional territory from time to time?
Volker A Zahn: Of course, there is great appeal in sending the two inspectors to an away game, even if the unfamiliar terrain they are entering in “Abbruch Kante” is only a few kilometers from the city. But the Revier is a world of its own, so Ballauf and Schenk first have to find their way around in this strange and memorable atmosphere of being lost. It’s a festival for writers.
Eva and Volker A. Zahn have been writing screenplays as a couple for more than 30 years
What does it mean for you as an author to write for a classic like “Tatort”?
Eva Tooth: It is something very special, a real privilege, but one that also has to be treated with great responsibility. Around ten million viewers tune in to the Cologne “Tatort”, the crime series is one of the last blazing campfires of linear television. It is a real gift to be able to reach and entertain so many people.
They write their screenplays as a couple. Does that make the job easier or more difficult?
Volker A Zahn: We can only write as a couple (laughs). And we have been doing this for more than 30 years. We are constantly supplementing and correcting ourselves, and we are also constantly spurring each other on. And we live intensively with our characters, it’s a job that we really love, but it can actually get exhausting at times…
