Police call 110: At the age of…

After years, Lieutenant Fuchs and the journalist Jenny Gerlach meet in a parking lot on the motorway. Fuchs was friends with the Gerlach family for many years before his professional transfer. Mrs. Gerlach, who lost her husband in an accident, sees her eleven-year-old son Ben as the image of her husband.

The joy at the unexpected reunion is great on both sides. Ben, a bright and athletically talented boy, discovers his sympathies for Fuchs and invites him to the school sports festival, as he expects to win the hurdles race. After the competition, Ben and his friend Till want to go swimming, while Fuchs and Jenny rummage through old memories. Till, who only comes to the lake later, looks for his friend in vain. The police search operation that began immediately ended shockingly. Ben is found dead.

The criminal police begin their investigative work on a large scale. Due to his friendly relationship with the Gerlach family, Fuchs is excluded from the investigation in this case against his will by his superior. Fuchs tries to support Jenny Gerlach and, despite his suspension, tries to identify the perpetrator. Meanwhile, the criminal police, supported by the public, are gathering important facts. Facts that prove that Ben’s murder must have been the work of a pedophile. When they tried to find the culprit, he judged himself.

This film was never broadcast on GDR television; there was only a rough cut version after filming. The then chief dramaturg noted in a note that, according to instructions from the Ministry of the Interior, the film was not allowed to be broadcast in this way. All material should be destroyed, rough cuts, copies, recordings, scripts.

By chance, however, the silent camera negative escaped the ordered destruction. And when a copy of the script was found, a reconstruction could be thought of. The synchronization took place with actors from the police call detectives of the current episodes.

The “Polizeiruf: At the age of…” is a production by GDR television in 1974 and Telepool/Urlass-Film/Metrix Media GmbH on behalf of Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk in 2011.

Police call 110: At the age of…
TV film GDR 1974 / Germany 2011

First Lieutenant Peter Fuchs (Peter Borgelt)
First Lieutenant Jürgen Hübner (Jürgen Frohriep)
Lieutenant Vera Arndt (Sigrid Reusse (Göhler)
Major Wegner (Stanislaw Zaczyk)
Jenny Gerlach (Wieslawa Niemyska)
Karl Fischer (Walter Lendrich)
Wife Fischer (Teresa Lipowska)
Horst Reisenweber (Heinz Behrens) and others

Music: Rainer Oleak (2011)
Camera: Tillmann Dähn (1974)
Book: Heinz Seibert (1974)
Director: Heinz Seibert (1974), Hans Werner (2011)