"Tatort" check Are poor people treated worse by the justice system?
Lena Odenthal (Ulrike Folkerts, left) and Johanna Stern (Lisa Bitter) observe the lawyer Patricia Prinz (Sandra Borgmann, right) in court. She is representing a call center in an employment law case - and the mostly underprivileged employees usually look bad in it ...
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
In Odenthal's 80th case, "Tatort: Dein gutes Recht", Lena Odenthal (Ulrike Folkerts, right) and Johanna Stern (Lisa Bitter) have to come to terms with a successful lawyer whose husband has been shot dead. Was she actually the target?
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Marie Polat (Emma Drogunova) is fighting for custody of her young son in court. A steady job is extremely important for this. But now she is about to be fired.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Marie Polat (Emma Drogunova, left) and Luisa Berger (Samia Chancrin) support each other.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Lawyer Patricia Prinz (Sandra Borgmann, left) is questioned by Lena Odenthal about the death of her husband. He was shot dead in his wife's office at night. By a burglar he surprised?
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Piet Sievert (Matthias Lier) visits his colleague Marie Polat (Emma Drogunova) at home.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Lena Odenthal (Ulrike Folkerts) has to face an internal interrogation by her LKA colleague Kurt Breising (Bernd Hölscher).
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Internal investigation: Martina Petrasch (Christina Hecke, right) questions Johanna Stern (Lisa Bitter) about incidents involving Lena Odenthal, which viewers only find out about quite late in the crime thriller.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
LKA man Kurt Breising (Bernd Hölscher) has decided to really get to the bottom of Lena Odenthal (Ulrike Folkerts).
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Call center boss Piet Sievert (Matthias Lier) puts pressure on his employee Luisa Berger (Samia Chancrin).
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Johanna Stern (Lisa Bitter, left) and Lena Odenthal (Ulrike Folkerts) visit Piet Sievert (Matthias Lier) in his call center.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Lena Odenthal (Ulrike Folkerts, left), Johanna Stern (Lisa Bitter) and the young head of operations of a SEK have to deal with a dangerous situation.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Lena Odenthal (Ulrike Folkerts, left) and Johanna Stern (Lisa Bitter) observe the lawyer Patricia Prinz (Sandra Borgmann, right) in court. She is representing a call center in an employment law case - and the mostly underprivileged employees usually look bad in it ...
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
In Odenthal's 80th case, "Tatort: Dein gutes Recht", Lena Odenthal (Ulrike Folkerts, right) and Johanna Stern (Lisa Bitter) have to come to terms with a successful lawyer whose husband has been shot dead. Was she actually the target?
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Marie Polat (Emma Drogunova) is fighting for custody of her young son in court. A steady job is extremely important for this. But now she is about to be fired.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Marie Polat (Emma Drogunova, left) and Luisa Berger (Samia Chancrin) support each other.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Lawyer Patricia Prinz (Sandra Borgmann, left) is questioned by Lena Odenthal about the death of her husband. He was shot dead in his wife's office at night. By a burglar he surprised?
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Piet Sievert (Matthias Lier) visits his colleague Marie Polat (Emma Drogunova) at home.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Lena Odenthal (Ulrike Folkerts) has to face an internal interrogation by her LKA colleague Kurt Breising (Bernd Hölscher).
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Internal investigation: Martina Petrasch (Christina Hecke, right) questions Johanna Stern (Lisa Bitter) about incidents involving Lena Odenthal, which viewers only find out about quite late in the crime thriller.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
LKA man Kurt Breising (Bernd Hölscher) has decided to really get to the bottom of Lena Odenthal (Ulrike Folkerts).
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Call center boss Piet Sievert (Matthias Lier) puts pressure on his employee Luisa Berger (Samia Chancrin).
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Johanna Stern (Lisa Bitter, left) and Lena Odenthal (Ulrike Folkerts) visit Piet Sievert (Matthias Lier) in his call center.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Lena Odenthal (Ulrike Folkerts, left), Johanna Stern (Lisa Bitter) and the young head of operations of a SEK have to deal with a dangerous situation.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
"Tatort: Dein gutes Recht" was about a lawyer who made poor people look bad in court. Does our justice system really suffer from "classism" - and what is it anyway?
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- In "Tatort: Dein gutes Recht" with Lena Odenthal (Ulrike Folkerts) and Johanna Stern (Lisa Bitter), a lawyer made poor people look bad in court.
- The crime thriller from Ludwigshafen was about discrimination, which begins with the fact that the underprivileged cannot afford good lawyers.
- What is the reality of classism in the legal system - and what is it actually?
The Black Forest case "Ad Acta", a "crime scene" that focused on a nasty lawyer, only aired in September. He worked for organized crime and negotiated extremely dubious deals in court. Just over a month later, SWR once again turned its attention to the justice system in Ludwigshafen.
This time, the focus was on a lawyer who was supposed to make poor people look bad in court. And she was successful. Is the legal system really blind on the "class eye"? And did you know that both Ulrike Folkerts as detective Lena Odenthal and Lisa Bitter as her colleague Johanna Stern celebrated an anniversary in this episode?
What was it about?
Commissioner Lena Odenthal received an emergency call. The successful lawyer Patricia Prinz (Sandra Borgmann) was cowering in a hiding place in her office. Jasper Ünel (Mohamed Achour), the lawyer's husband, was lying next to her, badly injured. Had he surprised a burglar when he went to get his forgotten cell phone at night - or was it something else? In addition to the tough lawyer, we soon got to know the young mother Marie Polat (Emma Drogunova).
She was afraid of losing custody of her young son, which could go to her ex. In order to be able to prove a steady job in court, with a difficult social history, Marie worked in a call center. The company was run by Piet Sievert (Matthias Lier), who liked to put pressure on his employees. At least Marie received support from her friend Luisa Berger (Samia Chancrin), who also worked for Sievert.
What was it really about?
For the second time in the fall of 2024, an SWR "Tatort" examined the legal system. After "Ad Acta" from Freiburg, in which August Zirner as an unscrupulous lawyer served organized crime in cooperation with the court, Martin Eigler's script now dealt with the discrimination of poor people in court. It starts with the fact that the underprivileged cannot afford good lawyers.
If you look at the latest films by regular "Tatort" director Martin Eigler, you will notice that the 60-year-old author and director likes to focus on the topics of justice and truth. In the Stuttgart episode "Zerrissen" (2024), Eigler tells the story of a young man under the age of criminal responsibility who was exploited by his criminal family. And in the grandly disturbing "Der Mann, der lügt" (2018, tr: The Man Who Lies), complex reflections were made on the subject of truth itself. One critic wrote at the time: "It is important to recognize the truth through the eyes of a liar."
What is classism - and does it exist in Switzerland?
Classism is discrimination against a person based on their presumed or actual social status. For example, on the basis of education, income, place of residence, housing situation and employment.
In Switzerland, the state "way of life" as a confederate already opposes the class society. As an abstract legal concept, confederation means the union of equal comrades through an oath sworn to God for a certain period of time or forever as the highest form of self-commitment of man. But so much for the theory.
In affluent Switzerland, there are huge differences in income - and, of course, classism. In recent years, studies conducted by the Universities of Zurich and Lucerne have attempted to research the manifestations of Swiss classism, dividing the population into four social categories: Lower class, working class, middle class and upper class.
Which of these classes you are born into can determine how your life develops and what opportunities are open to you. Systematized interviews with class members are used to find out which forms of classism they encounter in their lives.
Who was the (evil) protagonist?
Lawyer Patricia Prinz was played by Sandra Borgmann. The 50-year-old is one of German television's most regular professionals when it comes to "difficult" female roles. Borgmann comes from the Ruhr area, also studied acting in Essen, but has lived in Hamburg for a long time. The mother of a son, she is often booked for abysmal roles - as in this "Tatort".
Borgmann played the unwieldy detective in the SAT.1 crime series "Julia Durant", which was discontinued after three episodes, she played the mysterious Elisabeth Doppler in the Netflix hit "Dark", caused RAF terror in "Der Baader Meinhof Komplex" and played the murderer or at least an obscure suspect in countless crime thrillers. However, the blonde actress started out as a popular figure: in the cult dramedy "Berlin, Berlin", which made Felicitas Woll a star at the beginning of the millennium, she played Rosalie, best friend of the main character Lolle, in the first season of the successful ARD format.
What anniversary did the detectives celebrate?
For Germany's longest-serving investigator, Lena Odenthal, "Dein gutes Recht" was the 80th episode since actress Ulrike Folkerts (63) took on the role for the crime thriller "Die Neue" (first broadcast: 29.10.1989). Lisa Bitter has been on the show as her colleague Johanna Stern for ten years now. The 40-year-old's first case was the episode "Blackout" on October 26, 2014. Speaking of the Ludwigshafen team: following the retirement of Ms. Keller (Annalena Schmidt) and Peter Becker (Peter Espeloer), the two detectives are looking for new colleagues in the current episode.
Even though it was only hinted at at the end of "Dein gutes Recht", the search could soon be over. The Palatine-speaking Afro-German is played by Davina Chanel Fox from Kaiserslautern, who will probably apply for a "permanent position" as Mara Herrmann, just like Nico Langenkamp (Johannes Scheidweiler) from the post office. As SWR confirmed on request, the rivalry between the two will be taken up again in the next film.
What happens next in Ludwigshafen?
The next "Tatort" from Ludwigshafen has the interesting name "Der Stelzenmann". It is expected to be shown in the first quarter of 2025. It was created by the duo Harald Göckeritz and Miguel Alexandre, who also made "Tatort: Avatar". It is about the abduction of a child, the circumstances of which are reminiscent of an unsolved case from years ago.
The detectives contact the victim at the time (Samuel Benito), who is clearly still suffering from trauma nine years later. Nevertheless, they must try to activate his memories in order to save the current victim.
