Marvelous Trip back in Time: Tatort; Transit ins Jenseits

Tatort (Crime Scene) is a series of movies that started in 1970 made for television. It isn't really a series because the episodes are set in various regions and recorded by the regional broadcasters. I discovered it some time ago on Youtube, have watched it several times and found it really worth posting here on ATS. It is in German, but I'll tell you the story further below so if you want to watch it you understand what's going on. The Musik has been composed by Klaus Doldinger who also composed the music for Das Boot

"Transit ins Jenseits" (Transit into the Afterlife) was produced in 1976 in Berlin and the so called "Transit-Autobahn" in a time Germany was divided in 2 separate countries (Communist East and Capitalistic West). In order to go from and to Berlin by car you had to drive through East-Germany. This movie gives a very good sense how that was like and how people tried to smuggle people from East to West.
The moments at the border are a really good representation of how that was like. They really did a good job at that!
Here's the movie in full length:




Plot (don't read if you understand German and want to watch it:

"Bremer" first observes and later seduces a young woman (Erika) he and his partner in crime "Poll" want to use as a double to smuggle a East-German woman across the border to the west. Bremer tells Erika it is the fiancé of his brother and offers her 5000 Deutsch Mark so she can pay her debts and she goes along with them. While Poll is forging the ID he gets a visit from Crime Inspector Schmidt that wants to ask him some questions about an older case in which Poll was involved and sees a picture of Erika during that.

The plan is that Erika drives with Bremer across the border and gets out at a parking spot along the Transit-Autobahn so the East German woman can take her place and uses her ID to get across the border. Bremers girlfriend should be picked up by Poll and she would take place in the trunk of his car. If the East German police would find her she would claim that she was left alone without papers on a parking spot and she was afraid for trouble.

Poll and Bremer both rent a car and drive from Berlin across the border into East Germany. Within site of the Parking Bremer gets stopped by the East German police and ordered to help a family that has a flat tire. Poll doesn't stop at the parking and Bremer decides to pick the girl anyway and wants to put Erika in his own trunk. But because there are witnesses they decide to get her into the trunk on another parking.

During the ride Erika finds out that the woman isn't the fiancé from Bremer and that Bremer has been lying all the time. She freaks out, Bremer hits her and at the next parking she tries to flee as Bremer tries to put her into the trunk. Bremer chases her, Erika makes an unlucky fall and dies. Bremer hides the body, takes her ID and drives away. The East German woman wants to get out of the car but Bremer puts her under pressure and they cross the border. Poll and Bremer decide that the woman has to hide out and play along.

Inspector Schmidt gets a telex and a picture of Erika and he recognizes her from his recent visit at Poll. He finds out that Poll hasn't been home for the last ten days and from his landlord he learns that he was supposed to be away for only 2 days and Poll rented a car. He told his landlord that his own car was broken and Schmidt's colleague finds out that Poll's car isn't broken. Schmidt also finds out the Bremer (who was also involved in the crime Poll had committed before) had rented a car at the same day as Poll did and they question Bremer. Bremer tells them that he had an argument and his former girlfriend drove to Munich with Poll.

Schmidt finds out who the dead woman is and Schmidt contacts his colleague in Munich and asks them to keep an eye open for Poll. He also wants to speak to Bremer again, but Bremer has also left for Munich. Bremer asks Poll to take the lady to the East German border and Poll tells her that he will let her go there and she will be free. But the police is following Bremer ever since he got from the plane and Schmidt realizes that he wants to kill the woman. They intervene just in time and save the woman while Bremer gets arrested.

Hey, thanks for that. I am German and grew up with Tatort. I will be watching this later. As I have been living in the UK for more than 20 years, anything nostalgic is welcome. I went through a phase a few months ago and watched all the old Schimanskis [also from the Tatort series-for those who don't know what I am on about, even though I think this is as far as this thread is going ]
Good find, S&F for that!

reply to post by Hecate666


Nice of you to mention Schimanski. He plays in this Tatort "Martin Poll", one of the criminals.