"Tatort" in review How many women suffer from domestic violence?
Chief Inspector Thiel (Axel Prahl, left) and forensic scientist Professor Boerne (Jan Josef Liefers) had to deal with a skewered corpse in "Tatort: Man stirbt nur zweimal".
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
For three years, Doreen Prätorius (Cordelia Wege) fought with her lawyer Oskar Weintraub (Nils Brunkhorst) for the payout of her deceased husband's life insurance.
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
After the alleged attack by her lawyer, Doreen Prätorius (Cordelia Wege) could not remember anything.
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
How exactly did the body of dead lawyer Oskar Weintraub (Nils Brunkhorst, lying down) end up on the spear of a warrior sculpture? That's what Silke Haller (Christine Urspruch) and Professor Boerne (Jan Josef Liefers, right) wanted to find out during the autopsy. Chief Inspector Frank Thiel (Axel Prahl) came close to his limits.
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
Silke Haller (Christine Urspruch) surpassed herself a little in this "Tatort".
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
Chief Inspector Thiel (Axel Prahl, left) and forensic scientist Professor Boerne (Jan Josef Liefers) had to deal with a skewered corpse in "Tatort: Man stirbt nur zweimal".
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
For three years, Doreen Prätorius (Cordelia Wege) fought with her lawyer Oskar Weintraub (Nils Brunkhorst) for the payout of her deceased husband's life insurance.
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
After the alleged attack by her lawyer, Doreen Prätorius (Cordelia Wege) could not remember anything.
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
How exactly did the body of dead lawyer Oskar Weintraub (Nils Brunkhorst, lying down) end up on the spear of a warrior sculpture? That's what Silke Haller (Christine Urspruch) and Professor Boerne (Jan Josef Liefers, right) wanted to find out during the autopsy. Chief Inspector Frank Thiel (Axel Prahl) came close to his limits.
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
Silke Haller (Christine Urspruch) surpassed herself a little in this "Tatort".
Image: WDR/Thomas Kost
Insurance fraud and domestic violence were the two major themes of the 46th Münster "Tatort: Man stirbt nur zweimal" with Thiel (Axel Prahl) and Boerne (Jan Josef Liefers).
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- A macabre case in Münster: In "Tatort: Man stirbt nur zweimal", Thiel (Axel Prahl) and Boerne (Jan Josef Liefers) awaited a skewered corpse.
- During the investigation, the case had far-reaching implications - from insurance fraud to domestic violence.
- In Switzerland, it is mainly women who are affected by domestic violence. The number of victims has remained at a similar level over the past four years.
It almost seems as if the Münster "Tatort", which has been produced since 2002 and stars Chief Inspector Thiel (Axel Prahl) and forensic scientist Karl-Friedrich Boerne (Jan Josef Liefers), is getting a little old:
Compared to absurd past films such as "Tatort: Limbus" (theme: limbo) and "Tatort: Propheteus" (theme: preppers and reptiloids), the 46th case "Man stirbt nur zweimal" (director: Janis Rebecca Rattenni, screenplay: Sascha Arango) was quite ordinary - apart perhaps from the cause of death in the murder case around which everything revolved.
The lawyer Oskar Weintraub (Nils Brunkhorst) died when he fell from a parapet and his body was pierced by the spear of a warrior sculpture below. What looked like a tragic accident in self-defense developed into a complex case.
What was the "crime scene" about?
A few hours before his death, Weintraub had successfully supported the widowed Doreen Prätorius (Cordelia Wege) in a legal dispute with an insurance company. The insurance company had refused to pay out Doreen's husband's due life insurance.
However, Jonas Karl Prätorius had already died three years ago during one of his many research trips. At least that's what Doreen Prätorius claimed.
In fact, Weintraub came across the deceased (Christian Erdmann) by chance at his client's house. The latter initially offered Weintraub a share of the fraudulent sum, but when he refused and threatened to expose the fraud, Jonas Karl Prätorius pushed him off the parapet.
What was it really about?
Insurance fraud was therefore one of the two major topics that this "crime scene" revolved around. "Statistically speaking, one in ten German citizens has committed insurance fraud," Boerne explained in a lecture right at the beginning of the film: "One in three can imagine doing so in the future."
In fact, the damage caused by insurance fraud in Germany increased significantly last year, estimated at over six billion euros. This is according to the German Insurance Association. The proportion of suspected cases remained unchanged at around ten percent.
The second major topic of the crime thriller was domestic violence, which is just as present in society:
After Weintraub's murder, Jonas Karl Prätorius forced his wife to make a false statement. Weintraub had threatened and beaten her, which is why she had pushed him down the parapet in self-defense.
To support the story, Prätorius inflicted injuries on his wife. He also became violent later on in the movie.
How widespread is insurance fraud in Switzerland?
Insurance fraud is a problem in Switzerland: according to an estimate by the Swiss Insurance Association (SIA), fraud is behind every tenth claim.
"With claims expenditure of around seven billion Swiss francs in 2019 in these areas, this amounts to up to 700 million Swiss francs per year," SIA media spokeswoman Lisa Schaller told the "HZ Insurance" portal in 2021.
How many women are affected by domestic violence?
In Switzerland, an average of 25 people die each year as a result of domestic violence. The majority of these are female victims.
The Federal Statistical Office recorded a total of 19,918 domestic violence crimes in the 2023 police crime statistics. Of the 11,479 people affected, 70 percent were women. The figures have remained at a constant level for four years.
At the end of 2023, there were 23 women's shelters in Switzerland with 202 family rooms and 419 beds. This corresponds to a ratio of 0.23 family rooms per 10,000 inhabitants.
This means that the country falls short of the Council of Europe's recommendation that there should be one family room per 10,000 inhabitants. There is also a need to catch up in terms of funding.
What's next for the Münster "Tatort"?
In "Tatort: Man stirbt nur zweimal", the questionable relationship of the Prätorius couple ended tragically:
After Jonas Karl Prätorius had knocked out his wife and kidnapped her in the car along with a share of the looted money, she grabbed the steering wheel after waking up and caused an accident in which Jonas Karl Prätorius died.
At the time, Thiel and Boerne were in an underground bunker where the man they thought was dead had hidden and eventually locked up the detective and the forensic scientist. Boerne's assistant Silke Haller (Christine Urspruch) managed to track down the bunker and free the two.
So nothing stands in the way of the cult duo's future: filming for the 47th Münster "Tatort: Ich gestehen" (working title) took place from the beginning of September to the beginning of October in Cologne, Münster and the surrounding area.
The film by screenwriter Regine Bielefeldt focuses on the housing shortage among students: after an exuberant party in the medical faculty, student Chris Haffmeister (Jonas Stenzel) is found stabbed to death. Could his access to the university housing exchange have been a motive for the crime?
