Ein Kommissar kehrt zurück

Vera Lenz meets up with her divorced husband Uli again after years. They have decided to sell their former house on the North Sea to finally draw a line under their failed marriage.

The alleged murderer of a policewoman, Frank Keller, applies for release from preventive detention after 15 years in prison. However, it is rejected. Out of desperation, Keller takes his lawyer hostage and flees the courtroom. His first destination is the house of the edgy and highly respected police instructor Bruno Theweleit. Keller is said to have shot his colleague 15 years ago. After the incident, young policewoman Lena Frey sets off on her own search for clues and comes across more and more contradictions in the version of events that is supposed to have happened 15 years ago. This draws the displeasure of Theweleit and the shady inspector Günther Lehmann, who was also involved in the incident. After a meeting with Keller, Frey begins to doubt the man's guilt.

In the middle of untouched nature, surrounded by forests and grain fields of the Brandenburg province, the fictional village of Unterleuten with only 250 inhabitants is located. Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall it seems a peaceful place for both locals and newcomers. But the appearance of rural idyll in eastern Germany is deceptive. There are turnaround winners and turnaround losers, friends and enemies, neighbors eyeing each other with suspicion, gossip, old secrets and hidden conflicts. When the mayor puts forward the proposal to have a company build a wind farm with dozen of wind turbines in order to secure the prosperity and future of the locals, the open fight for the only possible piece of land begins, which unfortunately belongs to three different owners. Everyone sees big money for themselves. Alliances are formed and friends become enemies. In addition, an unscrupulous vulture capitalism investor from southern Germany interferes that causes the glass to overflow.

In a criminal trial at the Berlin district court, in which the accusation of rape is being heard, it is one statement against the other - a seemingly insoluble dilemma, both legally and humanly, that has enormous explosive power. Because beyond the professional and private future of two people, it is about nothing less than the values and prejudices that define us as a society. It is a case of high public attention: the well-known TV presenter Katharina Schlüter and the industrialist Christian Thiede have had a secret affair that has lasted for years, and now they are sitting opposite each other in the courtroom as hostile parties. On the witness stand, Schlüter describes how what was initially consensual sex in Thiede's apartment turned into rape. But are circumstantial evidence sufficient? Experts and witnesses are questioned, and an unexpected turn of events doesn't make it any easier for the court to decide on credibility and truth.

Judge Katarina Weiss must decide whether the allegations against millionaire businessman Werner Lamberg—that he beat and raped his wife, Sandra—are valid or not. In court, Katarina faces a defense attorney Eva Hartmann who actually manages to refute all charges to such an extent that she secures her client’s provisional release from custody.

Witnesses about to testify at the Nuremberg War Trials needed a safe place to wait. All under one roof, each with their own secrets. And the countess assigned to take care of them. What was her secret?

On January 20, 1942, the Wannsee Conference takes place in Berlin, a meeting that had only one item on the agenda: The Final Solution, the organization of the systematic mass murder of eleven million European Jews.

Just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the birthday celebrations of an East German family turn into a tragicomical moment of political and personal breakdown.

Hans Wolgast is executed with a shot in the head in the idyllic town of Husum to Mozart's Magic Flute. His half-brother, Inspector Anton Glauberg, immediately suspects that the shadows of the family past have caught up with him because Hans was a member of the RAF. Without initially disclosing that he not only knew the dead man but was even related to him, Glauberg begins to investigate, supported by the young, attractive but inexperienced BKA officer Paula Reinhardt. The traces lead to Berlin to the scattered remnants of the RAF and its still functioning cable groups. Wolgast lived there in a shared apartment before he, like so many former terrorists, fled to the GDR in the 1980s. A former roommate of Hans Veith Seewald points out the parallel to Glauberg to a murder case from 1978.

After getting his cancer diagnosis, Holm decides to die in Switzerland. With a last big appearance he wants to say goodbye to his family. Holm invites family members and close friends to a dinner to review his successful life. But the evening is not a wistful-emotional family reunion, but a settlement with the head of the family. Old wounds break open, long kept secrets come to light, the different views of the people, the others and the life leads to hard argument and to many a surprise.

The committed inspector Jonas Birke, just new to the Frankfurt homicide squad, only has this one night left. The next day, his superior Lehm wants to present to the press the perpetrator who murdered the former police officer Rainer Mettich in a hotel room. One night - actually enough time to prove the crime to the convicted criminal Wolfram Ernst. But Birke has doubts: Mettich was about to testify about corruption to the police. His statement would have cost the careers of many bigwigs from business and the police. The well-known businessman Ludwig Wellingsen and his beautiful wife Isabel also seem to be involved in the matter.

Kemmel, a sculptor with a troubled nature, wonders, as he approaches his fortieth birthday, whether he has created any truly significant work.

One house, three apartments and three friendly couples, who have to put their relationships and life concepts to the test. After 20 years of marriage, Anne and Martin are close to separation. Eva and Thomas are freshly in love and want to do everything right. The relationship between Saskia and Kai gets into a crisis when she returns to work and takes care of the daughter.

Philosophy professor Judith is on her way to her parents' house to celebrate Christmas with them. But nothing comes of it, because as she leaves her hotel she is intercepted by a state security officer. A grueling interrogation begins. Thomas knows a lot about Judith's life, her recent past, her relationships and her political views. Apparently the professor has been spied on for some time. Thomas confronts her with the suspicion that she was planning a bomb attack.

Tatort is a long-running German/Austrian/Swiss crime television series set in various parts of these countries. The show is broadcast on the channels of ARD in Germany, ORF in Austria and SF1 in Switzerland.