History Series / Tatort

* OnlyTheLeadsGetAHappyEnding: "Der höllische Heinz". Here is a complete list to prove it: [[spoiler: Baddies, TotalPartyKill: [[AssholeVictim Wolfgang]], starting corpse. [[DumbassTeenageSon Nick]] and [[SerialKiller Heinz]] [[note]]This is Germany, two murders ''are'' a series[[/note]], [[GasLeakCoverup kaboom.]] [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Ellen]], DestinationDefenestration (possibly murdered before). [[NotSoFakePropWeapon Judith]], IncurableCoughOfDeath. Minor characters: Since Wolfgang has [[TragicBackstory no family]] [[{{Bookends}} (another gas leak)]], the gold...no, rare earth...no, Pantazium mine will fall to the state and all the Western fans surely be evicted.]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking And Lupos bike got turned into a puzzle and Kira's mom won't make her visit due to a fake measle epidemy.]]

* YouLookFamiliar: Extremely common. Some actors have been recast for five or more different ''Tatort'' roles. Several have started out as a one-episode suspect or witness and return later as inspectors in their own right.

** The Munich team again in "Der traurige König", where the suspect forces Leitmayr to fatally shoot him [[spoiler:in order to cover up his mother's part in an accidental death.]]

* TemporaryLoveInterest: As a rule, ''Tatort'' investigators are single or divorced, definitely unlucky in love because practically the only kind of romantic subplots they tend to get is with a suspects, which usually does not end well. One of the rare aversions is the Weimar-based team of ''Kriminaloberkommissare'' Lessing (Christian Ulmen) and Kira Dorn (Nora Tschirner), who have a child together.

* SuicideByCop: The fanatic killer in "Gefallene Engel" tries this, being too Catholic to kill himself. Batic refuses, shooting him in the leg and arm instead and thus rendering him unable to pose a further threat.

* GroundhogDayLoop: ''Murot und das Murmeltier'' (already the title references it, the German title of ''Film/GroundhogDay'' is "Und ewig grüßt das Murmeltier")

* AnImmigrantsTale: A number of ''Tatort'' investigators have ''Migrationshintergrund'' ("migration background"), for instance Munich-based ''Kriminalhauptkommissar'' Ivo Batic (Miroslav Nemec) was born in Vukovar, Croatia, and for him xenophobia can become a BerserkButton. Mario Kopper (Andreas Hoppe) in Ludwigshafen is the son of a German father and an Italian mother. Nadeshda Krusenstern (Friederike Kempter) is an ethnic German born in Russia who came to Münster with her parents (who find it much harder to assimilate to West German society than her). Hamburg-based Cenk Batu (Mehmet Kurtuluş) is the first leading ''Tatort'' investigator with Turkish roots. A real life example comes in the form of Vladimir Burlakov, who plays lead investigator Leo Hölzer in Tatort Saarbücken, who was born in Russia and came to Germany aged 9.

** The only two-part story (so far), ''Kinderland'' and ''Ihr Kinderlein kommet'' (2012), was another Cologne[=/=]Leipzig crossover, teaming up Ballauf and Schenk with the new Leipzig team of ''Hauptkommissare'' Eva Saalfeld (Simone Thomalla) and Andreas Keppler (Martin Wuttke).
* DeadpanSnarker: Most protagonists in the Münster ''Tatort'' are this to some extent, but nobody does it with more flair than Professor Boerne.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In ''Mord Ex Machina'', the later victim threatens "Ich werde den Karren gegen die Wand fahren!" (literarily: drive the car against the wall, metaphorically in this context: let your business crash). The self-driving car he drives away with gets hacked and he ends, OK, not against a wall, but ten meters below.

* TheHeroDies: "Wo ist nur mein Schatz geblieben?". [[spoiler: Stedefreund does a HeroicSacrifice for his colleague.]] ''Kinda'' TorchTheFranchiseAndRun, since this was the last ''Bremen'' Tatort (for now)...but of course not the last Tatort.

* Munich (Ivo Batic and Franz Leitmayr) since 1991

* Vienna (Moritz Eisner and Bibi Fellner) since 1999

A great many modern German actors have appeared in the series, usually as one of their early acting credits.

The series is described as "the last great campfire of television"[[note]] meaning a series where most viewers still gather regularly and where the newest episode will then be a big topic for conversations at work etc. the next day[[/note]] and has a cult following in German-speaking countries. In many cities, groups of people will gather in a bar every Sunday at 8:15 p.m. to watch the screening of the latest episode together. One particularly bizarre aspect of Tatort fandom is that despite the self contained nature of the individual episodes (you can really watch any given Tatort on its own), there are almost no casual viewers. People usually watch (and love) every single one of them or don't watch any at all. Some people have switched from the former to the latter within mere weeks. To fans missing "even one episode" is SeriousBusiness

--> '''Falke''': [[AskAStupidQuestion Whatchadoing?]]
--> '''Torben''': [[BlatantLies Writing my application papers.]]
--> '''Falke''': One-handed?
--> '''Torben''': Left-handed.[[note]] Untranslatable; "mit links" in German also means "most easily".[[/note]]
* AffectionateParody: Many cases of the Weimar duo, especially the Western parody "Der höllische Heinz", which borders on TropeOverdosed with ShoutOut flying around your ears left and right.

* BedmateReveal: In "Der höllische Heinz", selfsame Heinz wakes up beneath the [[Film/TheGodfather head of his beloved longhorn Eddie.]] To add insult to injury, Kommissar Lessing is completely unfazed, and in some in-universe version of ViewerGenderConfusion calls Eddie a cow. [[note]] For TropeOverdose completeness, add a stealth ShoutOut to Philip K. Dick - "Do you know that Longhorns dream? [[Literature/DoAndroidsDreamOfElectricSheep Or of what?]]" [[/note]]

* ChekhovsSkill: As the regular cast of the Münster ''Tatort'' contains not one, but two ace forensic medical scientists -- Professor Dr. Karl-Friedrich Boerne and his assistant Silke Haller -- and one of them is one of the two main protagonists, it is not surprising that episodes set in Münster involve murders by poisoning, questions of paternity, missing bodies or old cases where only the bones of a victim are left more frequently than others. Boerne's skills in riding and fencing have also proved useful in at least one episode each. There are also surprisingly many instances where Boerne is either helped or hampered by his upper class connections and his past in a ''Studentenverbindung'' (the German version of fraternities, only much more elitist and right leaning - at least in public perception).

* MetaFiction: 2015 episode "Wer bin ich?" Ulrich Tukur plays Ulrich Tukur playing his role just to run into his role going RageAgainstTheAuthor...or something like that...If you feel a brick falling on your head, that was the FourthWall collapsing over you.

* AnImmigrantsTale: A number of ''Tatort'' investigators have ''Migrationshintergrund'' ("migration background"), for instance Munich-based ''Kriminalhauptkommissar'' Ivo Batic (Miroslav Nemec) was born in Vukovar, Croatia, and for him xenophobia can become a BerserkButton. Mario Kopper (Andreas Hoppe) in Ludwigshafen is the son of a German father and an Italian mother. Nadeshda Krusenstern (Friederike Kempter) is an ethnic German born in Russia who came to Münster with her parents (who find it much harder to assimilate to West German society than her). Hamburg-based Cenk Batu (Mehmet Kurtuluş) is the first leading ''Tatort'' investigator with Turkish roots.

* GroundhogDayLoop: ''Murot und das Murmeltier'' (already the title references it, the German title of Film/GroundhogDay is "Und ewig grüßt das Murmeltier")

* AppliedPhlebotinum: [[Film/AFistfulOfDollars "A Fistful of Pantazium"]]...wait, no, this western parody was called "Der höllische Heinz". Selfsame Pantazium [[note]]WordOfGod confirms it is neither a VideoGame/{{Minecraft}} ShoutOut nor a slightly veiled [[MeaningfulName Fantasyum]] but is named in-universe from the professor who found it - Odissefs (=Ulyxes) Pantazis - who stems from a real person.[[/note]] is supposed to be a more-worth-than-gold-in-internet-times rare earth. [[ArtisticLicenseChemistry Sorry, folks, there are no holes in the periodic system.]]

* TheHeroDies: "Wo ist nur mein Schatz geblieben?". [[spoiler: Stedefreund does a HeroicSacrifice for his colleague.]] ''Kinda'' TorchTheFranchiseAndRun, since this was the last ''Bremen'' Tatort (for now)...but of course not the last Tatort.