History Series / Tatort

* ADateWithRosiePalms: In "Treibjagd", Kommissar Falke crashes into the room of his son Torben, who frantically clicks away [[{{Hentai}} teh Internets]]. Leading to this memorable dialog (translated freely):
--> '''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]]

** ''"Liebe mich!"'':
[[spoiler: Martina Bönisch is shot during the final confrontation and [[DyingInYourArmsTonight dies in Faber's arms.]]]]
** ''"Das Mädchen, das allein nach Haus' geht"'':
[[spoiler: After helping Julia Bolschakow to escape through Berlin airport and boarding the plane to leave the country,Nina Rubin is fatally shot by one of the [[TheMafiya Russian mafia members]] who pursued them. She [[DyingInYourArmsTonight dies in Karow's arms]].]]

* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: Indirectly. In "Der höllische Heinz", a poor mutt drops down an unprotected
borehole...and keeps on living there. Played for BlackHumor in the whole episode.

* FanNickname: ''Spatort'' for Tatort Saarbrücken. A portmanteau of ''Spaten'' (German for ''Spade'') and Tatort, due to [[spoiler: Leo saving Adam from his abusive father by hitting the latter with a spade]].

* ArchivePanic: 1,187 episodes and counting.

* ForWantOfANail: "Der höllische Heinz". It's complicated. [[spoiler: The bad guy has a show duel in a Western theme town. One of his victims has [[NotSoFakePropWeapon swapped the opponents gun.]] But luckily that guy aimed like a stormtrooper, giving him only a flesh wound. Unluckily, the further plot avalanche gets now two persons killed, including the baddie, and two police investigators only escape with a close shave.]]
* GreyAndGrayMorality: The episode "Weil sie böse sind". ("Because They're Evil")

* GroundhogDayLoop: ''Murot und das Murmeltier'' (already the title references it, the German title of ''Film/GroundhogDay'' is "Und täglich grüßt das Murmeltier")
* HatesTheirParent: Adam from Tatort Saarbrücken hates his abusive father to the point of having him saved under the name ''Drecksack'' (''Scumback'') in his phone contacts.

** "Wo ist nur mein Schatz geblieben?". [[spoiler: Stedefreund does a HeroicSacrifice for his colleague.]]
** ''Der feine Geist'': [[spoiler: Lessing is shot and killed hunting a suspect, and although he appears to Kira and Lupo as a ghost through the rest of the episode, he is definitely dead.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: ''Angriff auf Wache 8''. [[spoiler: Brenner, claiming he won't make it anyway, covers the retreat of the heroes and then blows the baddies and the whole scenery to kingdom come.]]

* HowUnscientific: The Ludwigshafen ''Tatort'' episodes usually focus on realism, sociopolitical issues and psychology, which makes the 1997 episode ''Tod im All'' ("Death in Space") stand out all the more. Here Odenthal and Kopper had to investigate the murder of a ufologist, and were fed information from a mysterious source, apparently the aliens with which the ufologist had communicated. The episode ended with a special-effects scene where a [[GainaxEnding watertower transformed into a spaceship and took off]]!

* IdentificationByDentalRecords: In the Münster episode ''Herrenabend''[[note]]Gentlemen's Night[[/note]] [[spoiler: a man faked his death in a house fire in South Africa by having his dentist tamper with his dental records. Since Professor Boerne was the one thus fooled into signing a false death certificate, and thus threatened with suspension/removal from his post as Coroner for Münster by Klemm, he took this personally and went to the extra trouble and expense of reconstructing the face from the skull found in the burned-down house to identify the victim's real identity, much to the dismay of Thiel, who had thoroughly enjoyed seeing Boerne so flustered.]]

* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: Indirectly. In "Der höllische Heinz", a poor mutt drops down an unprotected borehole...and keeps on living there. Played for BlackHumor in the whole episode.

** 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.]] Leitmayr has one hell of of an [[HeroicBSOD emotional fallout]] [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone from that]].

* SnarkToSnarkCombat: A returning occurence because each team has at least one DeadpanSnarker, often more. Honorary mention goes to the Münster team, [[GentlemanSnarker Boerne]] and [[FlatJoy Thiel]], and the Munich Team, Batic and Leitmayr who've been snarking at each other [[LikeAnOldMarriedCouple for a good thirty years]].

* NoNameGiven: ''Hauptkommissar'' Kain's first name was never mentioned. Up to now (2019), neither do we know Lessing's first name.

* JurisdictionFriction: The Stuttgart ''Stau'' has a hit-and-run driver caught in a traffic jam. The Kripo knows this to a degree (it's the only way out of Stuttgart) but absolutely nothing about his identity, and desperately tries to check out on all 200+ drivers and cars before everyone gets away (they can narrow it down to 20 or so, but it's still a needle in the haystack, as they can only rely on circumstantial evidence - there was no reliable eyewitness of the crime), even suggesting the traffic workers to slow down a bit on the water pipe break that completely blocks the road. This gets them at loggerheads with the local traffic cops (not to mention the drivers, who are one SUV short of starting an upheaval).

* HowUnscientific: The Ludwigshafen ''Tatort'' episodes usually focus on realism, sociopolitical issues and psychology, which makes the 1997 episode ''Tod im All'' ("Death in Space") stand out all the more. Here Odenthal and Kopper had to investigate the murder of a ufologist, and were fed information from a mysterious source, apparently the aliens with which the ufologist had communicated. The episode ended with a special-effects scene where a [[FunnyBackgroundEvent watertower transformed into a spaceship and took off]]!

** "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.

* DrivesLikeCrazy[=/=]BadassDriver: Well, it kind of depends on the point of view which trope applies more, but ''Professor Boerne'' of all people is actually both; he is a chronic speeder in the bicycle city Münster who takes a warning that a traffic light is about to go red as ''invitation'' to hit the gas, and would drive a Porsche 911 cabriolet across a ''golf course'' ([[spoiler:Justified though, to stop a murder from happening]]). This trait is so well-known with the Münster team most members tend to warn him of his "points in Flensburg" [[note]]Flensburg is home to the Federal Traffic Office, which holds the nationwide database of traffic violators and driving licenses; violations of traffic laws are given points, and getting enough in a certain amount of time revokes your license[[/note]] from time to time. Amazingly, the only thing he's ever run over is a [[spoiler:wild boar (at over 150km/h though)]], and he managed to perform a accident-free CarChase through a ''no-car-zone'' right in the first Münster episode. He does [[spoiler: temporarily]] die in a car accident once but then [[spoiler: that was due to being given an insulin overdose by the perpetrator of the week]].

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In the first Münster Tatort, ''Der Dunkle Fleck'', Professor Boerne implies to be rather averse to hunting for sport. The latest (No. 21), ''Fangschuss'', however, has him studying for a hunting license because his favourite golf course is being swamped by the plebs.

* BelligerentSexualTension: Subverted with forensic medical scientist (''not'' pathologist, which is taught with anatomy) Professor Dr. Karl-Friedrich Boerne (Jan Josef Liefers) and his assistant Silke "Alberich" Haller ([=ChrisTine=] Urspruch), who actually not romantically interested in one another. Although they did once meet anonymously on an internet dating forum and became interested. Then they fixed a date in a restaurant, discovered who they were dealing with, and that was the end of that.

* CantHoldHisLiquor: Lupo in "Der höllische Heinz". He tries to play undercover cowboy in an urge to protect undercover Kira. [[TheDitz Not his first idiotic idea]] - he drinks one glass of whisky and keels over at the spot.

* WholePlotReference: ''Angriff auf Wache 8'', already [[Film/AssaultOnPrecinct13 title-wise]] you know. ReferenceOverdosed, natch.

''Tatort'' ("Crime Scene") is a [[GermanMedia German]] PoliceProcedural series. Even after more than [[LongRunner 1000! episodes, having started in 1970]] (making it the oldest still going crime show in the world), it's still one of the most popular German TV series and regularly wins the battle for the highest UsefulNotes/{{Ratings}}.

** This may in part be due to the fact that many of the Tatort episodes are only partially shot in the city they are set in (Munich being the one big exception) and thus local landmarks have to be shown to throw less attentive watchers of the scent of the CaliforniaDoubling.
* FishOutOfWater: ''Hauptkommissar'' Frank Thiel (Axel Prahl) -- who, while having been born in Münster, grew up in UsefulNotes/{{Hamburg}} -- in the much smaller and deeply Catholic Münster. Other Tatorts also have such characters, for instance in the new Nuremberg-based one the two leading investigators are Paula Ringelhahn (Dagmar Manzel) from Guben in East Germany and North German Felix Voss (Fabian Hinrichs).

* DrivesLikeCrazy[=/=]BadassDriver: Well, it kind of depends on the point of view which trope applies more, but ''Professor Boerne'' of all people is actually both; he is a chronic speeder in the bicycle city Münster who takes a warning that a traffic light is about to go red as ''invitation'' to hit the gas, and would drive a Porsche 911 cabriolet across a ''golf course'' ([[spoiler:Justified though, to stop a murder from happening]]). This trait is so well-known with the Münster team most members tend to warn him of his "points in Flensburg" [[note]]Flensburg is home to the Federal Traffic Office, which holds the nationwide database of traffic violators and driving licenses; violations of traffic laws are given points, and getting enough in a certain amount of time revokes your license[[/note]] from time to time. Amazingly, the only thing he's ever run over is a [[spoiler:wild boar (at over 150km/h though)]], and he managed to perform a accident-free CarChase through a ''no-car-zone'' right in the first Münster episode.

* StealthPun: In "Der höllische Heinz", the FamousLastWords of [[spoiler: Nick, who first turns on the gas stove to kill selfsame Heinz...[[TooDumbToLive and then the light]] after Chekhovs door latch trapped him in the junk room.]] Of course any German should know [[Creator/JohannWolfgangVonGoethe "Mehr Licht!"]] ''and'' that Weimar (where the Kommissare work) was his hometown...but [[spoiler: the house exploding the next second]] is somewhat of a distraction.

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

The series is usually broadcast on Sundays during UsefulNotes/PrimeTime on the German channel ''[[UsefulNotes/GermanTVStations Das Erste]]'', the Austrian channel ''ORF 2'', and ''SRF 1'' in German-speaking Switzerland. You can expect to see reruns of older episodes on some of the regional tv stations about every other day. The original TitleThemeTune was composed by Music/KlausDoldinger.

The series is usually broadcast on Sundays during UsefulNotes/PrimeTime on the German channel ''[[UsefulNotes/GermanTVStations Das Erste]]'', the Austrian channel ''ORF 2'', and ''SRF 1'' in German-speaking Switzerland. You can expect to see reruns of older episodes on some of the regional tv stations about every other day.