Saarbrücken "Tatort" The detectives had to deal with this old acquaintance
Michelangelo Fortuzzi plays Moritz Leimer in "Tatort: Das Ende der Nacht". The 24-year-old is an old acquaintance of the Saarbrücken "Tatort" detectives.
Image: 2019 Getty Images/Andreas Rentz
Chief Inspector Pia Heinrich (Ines Marie Westernströer) finds herself in danger in the sixth Saarbrücken "Tatort". An old acquaintance of her colleague was involved in the crime ...
Image: Iris Maria Maurer
The brutal robbery of an armored car kept Chief Inspector Pia Heinrich (Ines Marie Westernströer), Chief Inspector Leo Hölzer (Vladimir Burlakov, center) and Chief Inspector Adam Schürk (Daniel Sträßer) busy in their sixth "Tatort" together.
Image: SR/Iris Maria Maurer
After the explosion of two explosive devices, Chief Inspector Pia Heinrich (Ines Marie Westernströer), Chief Inspector Leo Hölzer (Vladimir Burlakov, center) and Chief Inspector Adam Schürk (Daniel Sträßer) were only able to recover a few clues.
Image: SR/Iris Maria Maurer
Adam Schürk (Daniel Sträßer, left) and Chief Inspector Leo Hölzer (Vladimir Burlakov) take a closer look at the remains at the crime scene.
Image: SR/Iris Maria Maurer
During the interrogation of Merlin Bravard (Daniel Séjourné), Chief Inspector Esther Baumann (Brigitte Urhausen, right) received support from her French colleague Commissaire Noémie Legrand (Sandy Lewis).
Image: SR/Iris Maria Maurer
Carla Radek (Lena Urzendowsky, right) confronted her mother Béatrice Radek (Sabine Timoteo) years later.
Image: SR/Iris Maria Maurer
Michelangelo Fortuzzi plays Moritz Leimer in "Tatort: Das Ende der Nacht". The 24-year-old is an old acquaintance of the Saarbrücken "Tatort" detectives.
Image: 2019 Getty Images/Andreas Rentz
Chief Inspector Pia Heinrich (Ines Marie Westernströer) finds herself in danger in the sixth Saarbrücken "Tatort". An old acquaintance of her colleague was involved in the crime ...
Image: Iris Maria Maurer
The brutal robbery of an armored car kept Chief Inspector Pia Heinrich (Ines Marie Westernströer), Chief Inspector Leo Hölzer (Vladimir Burlakov, center) and Chief Inspector Adam Schürk (Daniel Sträßer) busy in their sixth "Tatort" together.
Image: SR/Iris Maria Maurer
After the explosion of two explosive devices, Chief Inspector Pia Heinrich (Ines Marie Westernströer), Chief Inspector Leo Hölzer (Vladimir Burlakov, center) and Chief Inspector Adam Schürk (Daniel Sträßer) were only able to recover a few clues.
Image: SR/Iris Maria Maurer
Adam Schürk (Daniel Sträßer, left) and Chief Inspector Leo Hölzer (Vladimir Burlakov) take a closer look at the remains at the crime scene.
Image: SR/Iris Maria Maurer
During the interrogation of Merlin Bravard (Daniel Séjourné), Chief Inspector Esther Baumann (Brigitte Urhausen, right) received support from her French colleague Commissaire Noémie Legrand (Sandy Lewis).
Image: SR/Iris Maria Maurer
Carla Radek (Lena Urzendowsky, right) confronted her mother Béatrice Radek (Sabine Timoteo) years later.
Image: SR/Iris Maria Maurer
The brutal robbery of an armored car in the Saarbrücken "Tatort" turned out to be a young woman's desperate attempt to find her parents. The "Tatort" audience already knew her accomplice from a previous case ...
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- In the latest case, the "Tatort" team from Saarbrücken had to deal with a deadly attack on an armored car.
- In the course of the investigation, Schürk (Daniel Sträßer) and Leo Hölzer (Vladimir Burlakov) came across a former adversary: Moritz Leimer (Michelangelo Fortuzzi).
- The end of the ARD thriller was extremely dramatic: at the end, one of the detectives lay lifeless - the end is open.
It was a comparatively tenuous connection between the current Saarbrücken "Tatort: Das Ende der Nacht" (directed by Tili Tüllmann) and the previous "Tatort: Der Fluch des Geldes" (first broadcast: January 2024): "Not money again," complained Inspector Adam Schürk (Daniel Sträßer) as he and his colleague Leo Hölzer (Vladimir Burlakov) arrived at the scene of a robbery on an armored car. The stolen money came from a casino.
The previous film "The Curse of Money", in which the background story of Adam and Leo was finally completed, was set in a similar establishment. But that wasn't the only link to the detectives' recent past. Adam Schürk also ran into an unloved old acquaintance. But who was this Moritz Leimer (Michelangelo Fortuzzi) again and what was his connection to the Saarbrücken detectives in the ARD crime thriller?
What was "Tatort: Das Ende der Nacht" about?
The robbery of the money transporter took place in several stages: First, the perpetrators stopped the van and sprayed all the windows with black paint, then they planted an explosive device at the back door, forcibly gaining access to the large amount of money.
A second explosive device was later used to cover any traces. Unfortunately, one of the two security guards (Jean-Luc Bubert) panicked, left the car prematurely and was blown to pieces in front of his surviving colleague Aytac Celik (Mücahit Altun).
So from then on, the detectives Schürk and Hölzer and their colleagues Esther Baumann (Brigitte Urhausen) and Pia Heinrich (Ines Marie Westernströer) had to solve a death.
What was it really about?
As the cars used in the robbery had recently been stolen in France, the Saarbrücken "Tatort" team asked a French colleague (Sandy Lewis Godefroy) for help. She quickly established a link between the number 73 spray-painted at the crime scene and a criminal gang operating throughout Europe led by the married couple Josef and Béatrice Radek (Sabine Timoteo).
Their now grown-up daughter Carla Radek (Lena Urzendowsky) had not seen her parents since they left her with the neighbors at the age of eleven. By robbing the money transporter and committing other crimes, the young woman had tried to attract her parents' attention and find them again.
Who was the accomplice Moritz Leimer?
But Carla Radek did not act alone: she was supported by Moritz Leimer (Michelangelo Fortuzzi), among others, whose traces of blood the police found at the crime scene. Unlike Esther Baumann, Leo Hölzer already knew the name well: "I know him from a robbery," he explained to his shocked colleague: "He robbed Adam, wanted a million from his father. We let him go back then."
This could be seen in the fourth Saarbrücken "Tatort: Die Kälte der Erde" (first broadcast: 2023). Like the script for "Tatort: Das Ende der Nacht", it was written by Melanie Waelde. As a reminder, the case tells the story of an arranged brawl between rival hooligan groups from Saarbrücken and Kaiserslautern. In a subplot, Adam Schürk was attacked at home.
The perpetrator, Moritz Leimer, was after the loot from Adam's father's bank robbery. He was hired by Adam's imprisoned "uncle" Boris, who had been involved in the robbery. The detective himself found and hid the money at the end of "Tatort: Das Herz der Schlange" (first broadcast: January 2022).
Moritz Leimer is played by Michelangelo Fortuzzi: the 24-year-old son of Italian actor and director Alberto Fortuzzi became famous in 2018 for his role in the award-winning rbb drama "Alles Isy". He was also seen alongside Lena Urzendowsky in the eight-part film adaptation of the novel "Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo" (2021, Amazon Prime Video).
How did the story about the scammed money end?
The background story about the scammed money was ultimately concluded in the fifth Saarbrücken "Tatort: Der Fluch des Geldes": Adam had confessed everything to his colleague Leo. In the end, the sports bag in which he had kept the money was stolen from him once and for all. He didn't seem to face any serious consequences in the sixth "Tatort" that has now been shown. Instead, both Pia and Leo were in serious danger at the end of the 90-minute movie.
Pia was kidnapped by Carla Radek and her mother Béatrice. When the police caught Béatrice, Carla offered to exchange Pia for her mother. But the meeting between the two parties escalated, Carla detonated an explosive device and died. Inspector Leo Hölzer, on the other hand, can be seen lying lifeless on the floor in a final shot.
What's next for the Saarbrücken "Tatort"?
"Tatort: Das Ende der Nacht" was the sixth case for detectives Adam Schürk and Leo Hölzer, who have been investigating since 2020 and received female support in 2022 with Esther Baumann and Pia Heinrich. Whether Leo Hölzer survived the detonation will be revealed in the next Saarbrücken "Tatort" at the earliest. It is not yet known when this will be shown on the first channel. According to the current broadcasting schedule, however, it will probably not be until January 2026.
A premature end to the Saarbrücken quartet is rather unlikely in view of the very good ratings: 9.05 million people watched the previous fifth film "The Curse of Money". The overall market share of 30.2 percent was the best figure for an SR "Tatort" since 1993.
