"Tatort" in the check How many Swiss people are struggling with debt?
Detective Freddy Schenk (Dietmar Bär) interviews the employees of the debt collection company where the missing man worked as a debt collector.
Image: WDR/Martin Valentin Menke
Max Ballauf (Klaus J. Behrendt, left) and Freddy Schenk (Dietmar Bär) visit the customers of a debt collection manager in "Tatort: Restschuld".
Image: WDR/Martin Valentin Menke
Freddy Schenk (Dietmar Bär, left) and Max Ballauf (Klaus J. Behrendt) don't find a corpse at the crime scene this time, just traces of blood from debt collection manager Fabian Pavlou.
Image: WDR/Martin Valentin Menke
Tax clerk Stefanie Schreiter (Katharina Marie Schubert) has big money worries through no fault of her own. However, she doesn't want to admit this to Freddy Schenk (Dietmar Bär) and Max Ballauf (Klaus J. Behrendt).
Image: WDR/Martin Valentin Menke
The married couple Jost (Roman Knižka) and Monika Lehnen (Tilla Kratochwil) have seen much better days.
Image: WDR/Martin Valentin Menke
Physiotherapist Timo Eckhoff (Ben Münchow) works as a mobile masseur on the side.
Image: WDR/Martin Valentin Menke
David Gross (Vladimir Korneev, left) has just found out that his partner Fabian Pavlou has been brutally attacked.
Image: WDR/Martin Valentin Menke
A couple under pressure: Monika (Tilla Kratochwil) and Jost Lehnen (Roman Knižka) deal with their impending total bankruptcy in very different ways.
Image: WDR/Martin Valentin Menke
Detective Freddy Schenk (Dietmar Bär) interviews the employees of the debt collection company where the missing man worked as a debt collector.
Image: WDR/Martin Valentin Menke
Max Ballauf (Klaus J. Behrendt, left) and Freddy Schenk (Dietmar Bär) visit the customers of a debt collection manager in "Tatort: Restschuld".
Image: WDR/Martin Valentin Menke
Freddy Schenk (Dietmar Bär, left) and Max Ballauf (Klaus J. Behrendt) don't find a corpse at the crime scene this time, just traces of blood from debt collection manager Fabian Pavlou.
Image: WDR/Martin Valentin Menke
Tax clerk Stefanie Schreiter (Katharina Marie Schubert) has big money worries through no fault of her own. However, she doesn't want to admit this to Freddy Schenk (Dietmar Bär) and Max Ballauf (Klaus J. Behrendt).
Image: WDR/Martin Valentin Menke
The married couple Jost (Roman Knižka) and Monika Lehnen (Tilla Kratochwil) have seen much better days.
Image: WDR/Martin Valentin Menke
Physiotherapist Timo Eckhoff (Ben Münchow) works as a mobile masseur on the side.
Image: WDR/Martin Valentin Menke
David Gross (Vladimir Korneev, left) has just found out that his partner Fabian Pavlou has been brutally attacked.
Image: WDR/Martin Valentin Menke
A couple under pressure: Monika (Tilla Kratochwil) and Jost Lehnen (Roman Knižka) deal with their impending total bankruptcy in very different ways.
Image: WDR/Martin Valentin Menke
In "Tatort: Restschuld", Max Ballauf (Klaus J. Behrendt) and Freddy Schenk (Dietmar Bär) meet the desperate debtors of a debt collection company. How many people in Switzerland are over-indebted?
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- A "crime scene" without a body? A missing debt collection consultant kept Ballauf (Klaus J. Behrendt) and Schenk (Dietmar Bär) on their toes.
- There was no shortage of suspects. The debt collection consultant had previously tried to collect money from many debtors.
- In Switzerland, around 5.7 percent of the population is in debt. The rate is particularly high in Biel.
Being in debt is still shameful. Yet the scenarios that are played out in three stories in Cologne's "Tatort: Restschuld" can affect anyone: You break up, fall ill, lose your job or have bad luck with professional investments. Perhaps you were a guarantor for a relative or partner. Suddenly your finances get into difficulties.
What's worse, despite their best intentions and drastic savings, many debtors are unable to get back on their feet. Their debt spiral leads to the abyss. How many people in Switzerland have massive debt problems?
What was it all about?
Fabian Pavlou (Thomas Hauser) from "Correct Incasso" was on his way home after work when he was attacked. Cologne detectives Max Ballauf (Klaus J. Behrendt) and Freddy Schenk (Dietmar Bär) found a lot of Pavlou's blood at the crime scene, but no body. Was the debt collection manager kidnapped? The Cologne team investigated among his customers.
The married couple Jost (Roman Knižka) and Monika Lehnen (Tilla Kratochwil) had seen much better days. That's why they were - still - living in a large house that Pavlou had visited shortly before closing time. Because the Lehnens were no longer able to work as a teacher and musician due to illness, they desperately saved on food and heating and hardly ever went outside.
Stefanie Schreiter (Katharina Marie Schubert), a mother of two, was just as ashamed of her life. As a tax clerk, she was on the verge of having her salary garnished. The young physiotherapist Timo Eckhoff (Ben Münchow) was also suffering from massive money worries. He worked as a mobile masseur in addition to his day job. But despite his constant toil, his debts increased instead of decreasing. Did debt collection manager Pavlou have to pay for the desperation of one of the debtors?
What was it really about?
A "Tatort" scriptwriter knows what she's talking about: This is not the first time that Karlotta Ehrenberg ("Tatort: Marlon") has dealt with debts and their collection practices in her contribution to the Cologne district.
Born in 1979, the journalist is the author of the non-fiction book "Ich mach mich fertig. On the eternal toil of personal happiness". For her non-fiction book and the "Tatort: Restschuld" (Crime Scene: Residual Debt), she conducted intensive research among indebted people and debt collection companies.
"Many practices that are allowed to be used in this country are morally highly dubious," she says. "Germans also have a particularly emotional relationship with debt, the guilt of the debt is just as heavy as the shame of it." Illness, job loss, separation and permanently low income are the main causes of over-indebtedness, Ehrenberg found during her research. In other words, life events that can affect almost anyone.
How many Swiss people are in debt?
In May 2024, 400,000 people in Switzerland were in debt. This corresponds to around 5.7 percent of the total population. Around two thirds of this group of people in Switzerland are male.
With a debtor rate of 11.9%, Biel leads the regional ranking. Almost every ninth inhabitant here is in debt. In second place, Geneva has a debtor rate in the double-digit percentage range. Every tenth inhabitant there is struggling with a debt burden.
Are debt collection companies evil?
Debt collection refers to the collection of debts that are due. Anyone who does not want to deal with invoicing or collecting late payments themselves hires external service providers, so-called debt collection companies. This is completely legal or, moreover, clearly regulated by law as to who - and how - is allowed to provide this service.
Nevertheless, screenwriter and non-fiction author Karlotta Ehrenberg is critical of the industry. She criticizes the "rude tone" of many debt collectors and their high fees. Of course, the middlemen also want to earn something themselves when collecting debts - at the expense of the already hard-pressed debtors.
Karlotta Ehrenberg comments: "The debt collection system works thanks to the fright it deliberately creates. Once the debt collection machinery is set in motion, the problem gets worse and worse. Most people simply pay, they don't even check whether the claim and the procedure are legitimate or are unable to assess this at all. They often even pay for years without the debt being noticeably reduced due to the high collection costs."
What's next for the Cologne "crime scene"?
Two more Cologne "crime scenes" have already been filmed. Case 93, "Tatort: Colonius", takes the detectives to their city's 253-metre-high television tower. The two-storey visitor area is no longer open to the public. Since 1994, no tenant has been found for the revolving restaurant and the discotheque above. The viewing platform has been closed since 1999. The thriller can probably still be seen in the first quarter of 2025.
Filming of "Tatort: Die Schöpfung", the 94th case, ended in September 2024. Filming took place at the Cologne Opera House. In the middle of rehearsals for the first premiere of the new season, the production's set designer is found shot dead. And it doesn't stop there.
