“Undeniably German”

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University of Amsterdam

Graduate School of Humanities

MA Television and Cross Media Culture – Media Studies

National Culture Building in German Crime

Series

Thesis Supervisor: Dr. Toni Pape Second Reader: Dr. Joke Hermes

MA Thesis Submitted by: Franziska Pfeiffer Student number: 12054720

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Table of Images

Image 1: The police offers shared by Rubin and Karow 19 Image 2: Berlinale Palast at Potsdamer Platz, Berlin 24 Image 3: Investigator Birkan entering the no-go area 33 Image 4: Agent Emilia and her superior Richard at ESI headquarters 44

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1 Introduction

On October 2nd of 2018, the European Parliament passed a new directive requiring thirty percent of the content on video-on-demand platforms to be of local origin (European Parliament, 2018). Popular streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime have consequently increased local acquisitions and original productions in Europe. After announcing several new German projects including the crime series Dogs of Berlin, Netflix’s Vice President for original series was quoted as saying: “We want to tell local stories with global appeal. We are excited to have found this in these five projects, which — each in their unique way — are both undeniably German and at the same time tell stories that are relevant to viewers all over the world” (Netflix Media Center, 2018). The aim of this research is to examine how local German cultures – and especially the city Berlin – are represented in online crime series in comparison to a popular traditional crime series on linear television.

In order to analyse how German national culture is presented, I will examine three German crime series under consideration of Castelló’s (2009) four elements of national culture building in television fiction. These include localisation and territory, language use, cultural proximity and social issues. Castelló (2009) argues that television fiction plays a significant role in expressing national culture through narrative. Through an investigation of localisation and territory, I will be able to determine which signifiers of ‘Germanness’ have been incorporated into the series and how they situate Berlin within Germany and, if applicable, Germany within the world. Examining the use of language and the cultural elements within the series gives an indication of cultural belonging and highlights the different ways the series can appeal to national and international audiences. By studying the manifold social issues addressed in the three crime series, it is possible to form a deeper understanding of the type of German society that is portrayed and how this society deals with social issues.

While I will also explore how each series conceives of crime in society, the portrayal of national culture will be in the foreground. Thus, the understanding of crime will only be analysed insofar as it is relevant to the portrayal of German culture. I aim to determine how the series present Germany to a national audience as well as the appeal for an international audience. The three German crime series I will be analysing are Tatort,

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Dogs of Berlin and Beat. All three series take place in Berlin and the respective

episodes have, with the exception of one Tatort episode, all aired in 2018. It will therefore be interesting to see how differently national culture is presented at supposedly the same point in time.

Tatort is a longstanding German crime series that is shown on the public broadcast

television regularly on Sundays. Each episode addresses a different social issue in combination with a crime. The episodes take place in different German cities each week, each city being represented by its own team of investigators. I will be looking at three episodes in total: ‘Meta’, ‘Tiere der Großstadt’ and ‘Wilkommen in Hamburg’. ‘Meta’ takes place in Berlin and follows the two investigators Rubin and Karow as they solve a murder connected to the film festival Berlinale. The narrative operates around a film that depicts the same investigation that Rubin and Karow are currently conducting and the lines between fiction and reality become blurred. The episode ‘Tiere der Großstadt’ is also set in Berlin and features the investigators Rubin and Karow. In this episode, they investigate the deaths of a man trapped inside a robotic coffee machine and a woman that was seemingly killed by a wild boar in the woods. The episode addresses fears of technological advancement. The episode ‘Willkommen in Hamburg’ is the only episode discussed in this thesis that does not play in Berlin, but in the city of Hamburg. It tells the story of investigators Tschiller and Yalcin as they uncover an illegal prostitution ring. The episode was chosen as a research object due to the public criticism it received for misrepresenting local culture and being overly Americanised in style (Göbel-Stolz, 2016).

Dogs of Berlin consists of ten episodes published in December 2018 on the streaming

service Netflix. The narrative centres around the death of German-Turkish football player Orkan Erdem. The investigators Grimmer and Birkan take on the case. The series’ plot features numerous societal groups including members of a neo-Nazi association, the Lebanese mafia, Turkish clans and the German football association. The series treats issues of xenophobia, homosexuality and corruption.

Beat is a 2018 Amazon Prime Video production consisting of seven episodes. The

narrative follows club promoter Robert ‘Beat’ Schlag, who is recruited by the European Security Intelligence (ESI) as an informant on illegal activities concerning the investors

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of his club. The series portrays the Berlin techno and electronic music scene and centres around the issue of illegal organ harvesting. Even though a majority of the action takes place within the cosmos of local subculture, the series introduces a wider European context of relevance.

The outline of this thesis is as follows: The first chapter provides an overview of crime fiction and its development as a genre, followed by a summary of its history and production context in Germany. I will explore the reasons for the transnational success of crime fiction and how it can be connected to national culture and identity. Following this theoretical framework, I will make use of the four elements of national culture building defined by Castelló to analyse each series individually and draw conclusions in terms of the type of national culture presented and how the series conceptualises crime in relation to national culture. Tatort focuses on regional representations and locality. I contend that the series concentrates on the crime of individuals within society and thereby remains in a very limited frame of reference, which is responsible for its lack of transnational success. Dogs of Berlin portrays a broader image of nationality and uses the narrative taking place in Berlin to represent Germany as a whole. However, the series draws on clichés and conventions to do so. Lastly, the series Beat places Germany in a wider European context and conceptualises crime as a network of diverse actors. This contributes to a more nuanced view of German national culture.

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2 Theoretical Framework: Crime Fiction and National Culture

In order to analyse how German crime series represent national culture, it is important to look at the establishment of crime fiction as a genre. In this chapter, an overview of the characteristics and conventions of the crime fiction genre will be given, as well as an introduction to the development of crime fiction in Germany. This enables a later comparison of the three series Tatort, Dogs of Berlin and Beat in relation to the traditional notion of crime fiction. After explaining the historical and production contexts of German crime fiction, I will go on to explore transnational television in order to map out why crime fiction is particularly suitable to be successful on an international scale. In this regard, I will address streaming services as distribution platforms in particular, since transnational television is traditionally associated with public broadcasters. Finally, I will explain the concept of national culture building that is often found within crime series to establish how it can serve to create an image of a specific country. 2.1 Crime Fiction: Development of the Genre

Crime fiction is the most popular genre of fiction and is read across age and social scale (Worthington, 2011). Due to its accessibility and widespread audience, it is often characterised as popular fiction. However, it is precisely these aspects that make it worthy of literary consideration and able to respond to change (Worthington, 2011). Crime fiction often incorporates cultural and social transformations and reflects hopes, fears, morals and values of contemporary society. Worthington claims crime fiction is the only fiction dealing with fact. This is expressed on two levels: the first level is within the narrative, where detectives use facts to find out more about the crime and the criminal in order to solve the case; the second level, according to Worthington, includes facts in the form of rules and laws of the specific country where the crime takes place. These legal, procedural and juridical facts dictate what is considered a crime, the procedures that the investigators have to follow and potential court proceedings (Worthington, 2011). Through crime fiction, the audience gains “unrivalled access to the legal, moral and social values of the past and present” (Worthington, 2011, p. 5). These aspects make the genre of crime fiction a relevant object for studying how sociocultural settings are constructed in a national context. I will be focusing on the representation of national culture and society in Berlin and how the city is placed within a wider German and international context.

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Porter (1981) observes that crime fiction is “a genre committed to an act of recovery, moving forward to move back” (p. 29). Scaggs (2005) interprets this in two ways. For one, investigators have to go back to the past to understand how a crime occurred, while the narrative moves forward (Scaggs, 2005, p. 47). The second understanding of Porter’s observation, however, is of ideological nature. This means that by moving forward in the narrative to solve a crime, there is a motivation to return to the period before the crime occurred, which was characterised by stability and order (Scaggs, 2005, p. 47). Within crime fiction, investigators serve to reinstate the social order that existed before it was disrupted by the crime. The return to social order was then repeated on a regular basis when fiction first developed in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Scaggs, 2005). Similar to how early crime novels were serialised in magazines, contemporary episodes of crime series are shown on a weekly or monthly basis on television or online. This produces a serial pattern, where each story, or more specifically each episode, is self-contained and linked through the characters of the investigators (Scaggs, 2005). The corpus of this thesis contains two kinds of serial crime fiction: The online series Dogs of Berlin and Beat where one story continues across episodes, and the episodic fiction format Tatort where each weekly episode tells a self-contained story.

The second half of the twentieth century saw the rise of the police procedural, which was structured around what Winston and Mellerski (1992) referred to as the “dominant Western symbol of social control: the policeman” (p. 2). They hypothesize further that the foregrounding of the police and the judicial system serves as a means of managing and controlling the audience (Winston & Mellerski, 1992). This is not necessarily achieved through portrayals of morality, but rather by inciting fear of punishment and fear of one’s own capability to commit a crime (Winston & Mellerski, 1992). The development of police procedurals also symbolised a transition from the private eye, where individual detectives often solved personal cases, to the public eye, where large-scale police investigations were conducted to serve a purpose for society (Scaggs, 2005). In this way, police procedurals can be viewed as a textual Panopticon. Bentham’s Panopticon (1995) highlights the concept of universal surveillance by proposing a model for a prison which sees a watch tower at the centre and prisoners distributed in separate cells in a circle around the tower. This way, prisoners have no way of knowing if they are watched and cannot communicate with one another, leading

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view, the Panopticon represents a transition to disciplinary society and Scaggs (2005) sees police procedurals as a mechanism of such. The serial pattern of police procedurals further contributes to the notion of continuous surveillance, causing the audience to have specific expectations of how the crime is to be dealt with within the story, as well as reflecting on their own behaviour.

The serial pattern of police procedurals further influences the setting as well as the social issues addressed. Urban settings became characteristic of the police procedural as the sub-genre developed, due to the realism it aims to present (Scaggs, 2005). The variety and sheer amount of criminal cases needed to produce regular episodes is realistically more present in densely populated urban areas than rural environments. A similar consideration applies to the social issues addressed in police procedurals. Worthington (2011) maintains that crime fiction responds to societal transformation and is therefore able to take up the social issues present in a certain environment. Due to its seriality, crime fiction can comment on developments of these issues. This is already a first indication of the potential of crime fiction within a transnational context, since a transnational audience can relate to the social issues in another country by comparing them to their own.

2.2 Crime Fiction: History and Production Context in Germany

The television crime series, also referred to as Fernsehkrimi, has a long standing tradition in Germany that began in the 1950s. These early productions focused on tensions between East and West Germany and the competitiveness between the two states (Hall, 2016). Both West and East Germany produced their own crime series that dealt with cases inspired by real-life events such as Stahlnetz (Steel Net, Deutsches Fernsehen, 1958-68) and Blaulicht - Aus der Arbeit unserer Kriminalpolizei (Blue Light - from the Work of our Criminal Police, Deutscher Fernsehfunk, 1959-68). Blaulicht, for instance, showed three policemen in East Berlin that largely fought crime that originated from the West, illustrating the threat that the West and capitalism represented for the GDR audience (Hall, 2016). From the very beginning, crime series in Germany therefore seemed to occupy a representative function in society. Towards the 1970s and 1980s, the early crime series were replaced by more fictional narratives as Germany entered a new age of television drama (Hall, 2016).

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In 1970, the police procedural Tatort was introduced by the German public broadcaster ARD. The series is still running by the time of writing (June 2019) and has become a national institution that many Germans watch regularly on Sundays at quarter past eight. The series has an average of nine million viewers per episode, which typically last 90 minutes and show police investigators in different German cities each week (Hall, 2016). Around thirty episodes a year are produced by different teams of writers and producers (Hall, 2016). This enables Tatort to offer a diversity to their audience that highlights regional characteristics of the different German cities (Mattson, 1999).

Tatort began by highlighting topical issues such as the impact of German reunification,

sex trafficking from the Soviet Union and violence stemming from right-wing populism (Hall, 2016). While the series initially focused on Western Germany, police investigators from post-reunification Eastern states gradually began to appear on screen. The image of an “investigator who restores and guarantees the established social order through knowledge, discipline, and proper procedure” in a post-war society appealed to the German audience (Hall, 2016, p. 134). As the longest running German crime series, Tatort has undergone changes throughout the years to adapt to current social, technological and political transformations in society (Göbel-Stolz, 2016). The series always takes place in the present and comments on German society by portraying crime on a political level as well as in daily life (Vogt, 2005).

Tatort displays elements of local colour through the representation of place and locality

within its narrative structure, which makes it effective in communicating culture and negotiating discourse (Eichner & Waade, 2015). Local colour can be used as an aesthetic strategy and includes representation of place, language, cultural practices and social discourses (Eichner & Waade, 2015). Elements of local colour and locality are, however, not only brought about by representation, but also by cultural-political conditions such as the tradition of public service broadcast in the country and how it is funded (Eichner & Waade, 2015). In Germany, the public pays a fixed amount each month, called Rundfunkbeitrag, which funds a substantial amount of media produced by the public service broadcasters (“Der Rundfunkbeitrag - Solidarmodell”, 2015). According to §11 (1) of the Staatsvertrag für Rundfunk und Telemedien, the official framework for broadcasting and telemedia, German public broadcasters serve the process of free individual and public opinion building and thereby fulfil the democratic,

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social and cultural needs of society (Die Medienanstalten, 2018, p. 22). The decentralised production of Tatort in different cities and by different production teams reflects the structure of the public broadcaster ARD and the effort of presenting all parts of the country equally (Mattson, 1999). This regulatory framework also dictates how content for children and teenagers should be produced as well as regulations for advertisement and sponsoring (Die Medienanstalten, 2018). The framework attaches specific importance to the representation of cultural diversity and the respect for life, freedom and physical integrity as well as for the opinions and beliefs of the population (Die Medienanstalten, 2018, p. 10). Hence, Tatort as a programme of the German public service broadcast aims to be a combination of information, education, counselling and entertainment, which is reflected in the type of content that is produced.

Streaming services such as Netflix or Amazon Prime, which have gathered a substantial amount of members in Germany in recent years, are not bound by the standards set for public broadcasters (Krieger, 2016). Nevertheless, latest regulations by the European Parliament have affected the way international streaming services operate in the European Union. On October 2nd_{of 2018, the European Parliament}

passed a new directive requiring thirty percent of the content on video-on-demand platforms to be European (European Parliament, 2018). The directive was passed to “support the cultural diversity of the European audiovisual sector” (European Parliament, 2018) and increase involvement of these platforms in the development of European productions either by investments in content or by contributing to national funds. The revenues of streaming services in a specific country are to determine the level of this contribution (European Parliament, 2018). This has led the two major streaming platforms Netflix and Amazon Prime to not only increase local acquisitions but to increase original productions in Europe prior to the directive. As a result, new German series such as Dogs of Berlin and Beat were introduced. By producing more local content, the platforms also seek to attract new international users (Netflix Third Quarter Earnings, 2018).

International video-on-demand platforms are now faced with the challenges of producing European content. This does not only bring organisational changes for the production side, where US production companies such as Warner Brothers now

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partner with local European production companies. Producing European content for European audiences requires a knowledge of said audience and the ability to represent local culture appropriately (Kuipers, 2011). Since this content is available to a far wider audience than that of the respective country, it is also a balancing act for the streaming services to produce a marketable notion of Europe which will appeal to an international audience. Referring back to the words of Netflix’s Vice President of Original Series, the goal is for local stories to be told with a global relevance (Netflix Media Center, 2018).

Even though both public service broadcasters and streaming providers are bound by legislation in terms of content production, one by the national framework and the other by the European, their aspirations in terms of marketability differ significantly. Through the regulatory framework of the Staatsvertrag für Rundfunk und Telemedien, programmes produced for the public service broadcast are protected from the market mechanisms that drive commercial productions (Die Medienanstalten, 2018). Moreover, public service broadcast is designed to primarily benefit and appeal to the national audience and does not need to consider transnational popularity. Even though programmes from the public service broadcast are technically part of the market, through the financing of these productions through the Rundfunkbeitrag and public funds, they are not dependant on commercial success. This becomes evident from the differences in audience shares for the different Tatort episodes. While episodes in cities such as Münster or Cologne attract up to 13 million viewers, episodes that play in smaller places such as Schwarzwald or Göttingen receive far less attention (Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung, 2019). Nevertheless, these episodes remain part of Tatort in an effort to represent different parts of the country equally, even though chances of transnational success remain low. Streaming services such as Netflix or Amazon Prime on the other hand are global operations and thus subject to the mechanisms of the global market. By wanting to appeal to a global audience, the local is often translated into a context that said audience is familiar with, such as the city of Berlin. Streaming services therefore follow very different goals and obligations and target a far more diverse audience. I will explore how these regulatory frameworks affect the content of online productions such as Dogs of Berlin and Beat in comparison to Tatort. While the production context is not the focus of the analysis, it will become clear that there is a clear distinction between crime fiction content on linear television

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and streaming services, respectively. However, different approaches by the streaming services Netflix and Amazon Prime Video also become apparent.

2.3 Transnational Crime Fiction

Stougaard-Nielsen (2016) identifies crime fiction as “a particularly mobile and adaptable genre able to spread and take root throughout the world by adapting internationally recognisable literary forms to local circumstances, languages and traditions” (p. 2). Similarly, Bondebjerg et al. (2017) refer to crime as “indisputably the most popular transnational genre of TV” (p. 18). The success of Scandinavian crime series, also referred to as Nordic Noir, as well as British crime series abroad indicates the appeal of crime fiction with elements of local reality. Despite the cultural and linguistic differences that exist within Europe, mediated cultural encounters are able to take place through television, making it possible to experience other European realities (Bondebjerg et al., 2017). According to the cultural proximity principle developed by Straubhaar (1991), audiences tend to prefer national productions, since they offer familiar social and cultural contexts. However, transnational production networks are on the rise and are changing how audiences are experiencing television (Bondebjerg et al., 2017).

Bondebjerg et al. (2017) highlight the importance of European cultural encounters through television drama and the facilitation of intercultural dialogue. These cultural encounters can take place on four levels: (1) the production level, (2) the institutional level, (3) the content level, and (4) the audience level (Bondebjerg et al., 2017). While taking all four levels into account, the focus of my analysis of cultural encounters will lie on the content level of crime series. This includes elements such as narrative, plot, characters, dialogue and setting. This focus will yield the most useful results as to how national identity is represented to international audiences. Bondebjerg et al. (2017) confirm that television dramas do not have to be transnational co-productions in order to generate a cultural encounter. National productions also have the ability to tell convincing stories that fascinate international audiences, as seen by the success of Nordic Noir. As Gräf (2010) adds, crime is a transcultural violation of the norm and therefore more easily translatable for an international audience.

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international audience. A frequently cited example from Nordic Noir is the crime series

The Killing with its female lead Sarah Lund. Viewers were fascinated by the portrayal

of Lund’s struggle to find the killer of a young girl and the insights into her private life (Bondebjerg et al., 2017). The series addresses police work, gender issues and the Danish welfare state. Bondebjerg and Redvall (2015) hypothesise that viewers could negotiate questions of national and cultural difference between Denmark and their own country through the series. They were also able to relate certain situations to the state of affairs in their home country (Bondebjerg et al., 2017). Similarly, British crime drama has celebrated success in a variety of European countries. It is, however, a certain type of subgenre that seems to fascinate the European audience (Bondebjerg et al., 2017). UK crime series of this genre are typically set in small, traditional villages that evoke a sense of nostalgia within the viewer (Bondebjerg et al., 2017). The focus of this research, however, is urbanity and the appeal of metropolitan cities such as Berlin.

European collaborations were mainly initiated by public service broadcasters through the establishment of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in 1950 and have been increasing since the 1980s with the formation of the European Union (EU) (Bondebjerg et al., 2017). Event television such as the Eurovision Song Contest and European sports tournaments have received great attention, yet other television formats such as crime fiction have only recently found transnational appreciation. Meanwhile, Germany has not had a history of crime series with particular transnational success. However, Bondebjerg et al. (2017) have discovered new patterns of production structures and distribution forms, describing the country as an “upcoming player and co-producer” (p. 300). One of the reasons for these emerging new patterns is most notably the rise of streaming services in the EU and the increased availability of international television drama. Even though US/UK content is still dominating the market, there is a clear rise in other European productions which is still being led by the public service broadcasters in the respective countries.

2.4 National Culture Building and Identity

To analyse how national culture and identity are presented in German crime series, it is essential to establish an overview of what is meant by concepts such as 'national identity' and 'national culture'. Higson (1998) suggests that national identity describes a sense of unity that inhabitants of the same national space share despite any social

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communities' to describe how “members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion” (p. 6). While national identity is nothing physical or tangible, it can be seen as a cultural process that is learned over time (Higson, 1998).

Billig (1995) elaborates that national identity is found within cultural products and the habits of social life such as the use of language. Especially in established nations of the West, citizens are reminded of their place in a world of nations in many little ways on a daily basis (Billig, 1995). These reminders have hence become so familiar and habitual that this is not a conscious process. In addition, reminders of national identity can be found in and provide structures for media, cultural products and political discourses. Billig differentiates between the waved and the 'unwaved' flag of the of nation, indicating that many reminders of nationhood have become part of everyday spaces and are not recognised as banal displays of nationalism anymore. This is especially true of representations found in media, where readers or viewers are naturally assumed to be part of the nation and there seems to be an unquestioned understanding of a world divided into nations (Billig, 1995; Edensor, 2002). Billig concludes that “to have national identity is to possess ways of talking about nationhood” (1995, p. 8).

Edensor (2002) agrees that identity is anchored within national space and argues that the space in which culture exists is therefore the nation. What remains important to consider, however, is that the concept of national culture is a dynamic one and a constant site of interaction (Edensor, 2002). It is therefore not possible to analyse cultural products and simply tick off preconceived notions of different cultures. This fits into Stuart Hall’s (1994) notion of cultural identity, which he believes should not be seen as an accomplished fact with a fixed definition but rather an ongoing 'production'. Hall (1994) identifies two ways of thinking about cultural identity. It can, for one, be seen as a collective, shared culture, where people view each other as one entity. His second definition on the other hand focuses not on the similarities that people share, but rather the differences that constitute a culture (Hall, 1994).

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Beeden and Bruin (2010) build upon these concepts to argue that media and television therefore play a significant part in constructing this shared sense of national belonging, seeing as they represent similarities and differences within a nation. Castelló (2009) agrees that “nation building is a process of cultural and political construction in which the mass media have a central role”, arguing that ”we believe that television, and serial fiction in particular, is a crucial site that defines types of nation” (p. 306). He identifies two aspects that make television fiction an effective tool in the process of national culture building: the routine way in which it is created and consumed and the representation of genre (Castelló, 2009). Even though I will discuss how crime fiction created for television is different to online streaming, my focus will be on the representation of the genre of crime fiction. According to Castelló, storytelling and fictional narratives in particular should be taken into account when analysing how exactly television fiction contributes to the building of national culture and settling national discourse.

Castelló (2009) identifies four main elements in television fiction that contribute to the process of national culture building: localization and territory; language use; cultural proximity; and social issues. These elements will guide my analysis of the three German crime series Tatort, Dogs of Berlin and Beat. According to Castelló, the concept of the ‘national’ cannot exist without its relationship to a cultural dimension. Referring back to claims by Edensor (2002) and Hall (1994), if culture is viewed as a dynamic process rather than static, the concept of national culture is a natural deduction. It is the nations themselves who devise a cultural policy (Castelló, 2009). In order to analyse each of Castelló’s four elements appropriately, I will provide a short overview of each.

The first element of territory refers to the specific locations of drama series and how these can convey different concepts of a nation (Castelló, 2009). Castelló references multiple series set in the United States, which all represent significantly different views of the nation, creating a “kaleidoscopic ‘sense of the cities’” (p. 311). The fact that television fiction is often set in a single city that simply cannot represent the cultural diversity of the entire nation has led to the development of certain tropes associated with nations. Tobin and Neville (2011) reference the pastoral trope, which has remained persistent in the representation of Ireland. An image of rural romanticism is

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created not only in international productions, but also in local Irish film and television productions (Tobin & Neville, 2011). Similarly, the urban setting of English television dramas such as Skins (2007-2013) or Shameless (2004-2013) has become increasingly popular (Tobin & Neville, 2011). These series aim to capture a more realistic image of modern life in cities and create a very different sense of national identity. Territory is inevitably linked to identity and is not only aesthetically present in television fiction, but also finds explicit mention in dialogues and characters (Castelló, 2009). I will continue to explore the different approaches of presenting national identity through territory throughout my analysis.

The second element is the use of language, since language is an indicator of national and cultural belonging (Castelló, 2009). The use of local dialects instead of ‘standard language’ within television fiction represents a conscious choice and reflects the cultural differences that can exist within a nation. However, the use of dialects only bears significance for the national audience since they have a direct association with the respective area of the country and the people that inhabit it. Whereas an international audience who might not speak the language and are watching either with subtitles or a dubbed version of the production, might not recognise dialects at all. Language use is therefore an important element to consider when looking at the transnational success of crime fiction.

The representation of cultural elements constitutes the third element of national culture building and is referred to as ‘cultural proximity’ by Castelló (2009). These are elements with which an audience can identify, such as historical developments of the country, sports, food or traditions that are valued within the country. Portrayals of national festivities or celebrations such as the Irish ‘Saint Patrick’s Day’ or the Mexican ‘Día de los Muertos’ are also included in Castelló’s definition of cultural proximity. Similar to the use of language, the representation of these national traditions primarily holds value for a national audience, who can immediately identify with certain customs or festivities. Nevertheless, globalisation has led many of these elements of national culture to be recognised internationally. ‘Saint Patrick’s Day’ for example has become subject of many international series. The successful American sitcom How I met your

Mother (2005-2014) had one episode dedicated to the Irish festivity in every one of the

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the majority of Western countries and has now become a commercial, marketable element that an international audience can relate to. It is therefore interesting to analyse the task of transnational television to create a sense of home for the national audience, while creating a marketable version of it for an international audience at the same time.

The fourth element of national culture building is the choice of social issues that are addressed within television fiction. Discussing how issues such as abortion or drug abuse are dealt with in society creates an image of and comments on the ideology of the country’s society itself (Castelló, 2009). The national audience might recognise issues that they have been struggling with themselves or are at least familiar with, while the international audience might be able to draw parallels to the situation in their own country. Through transnational television it is therefore possible to gain insight into how another nation views certain controversial issues and how they are addressed within society.

I intend to explore how these four elements are present in the three series, Tatort,

Dogs of Berlin and Beat. In doing so, it will become clear what image of Germany is

built up and presented to a national audience. I will relate these representations to the traditional notions of crime fiction and examine how certain aspects of the genre contribute to national culture building. Since Dogs of Berlin and Beat were also produced with an international audience in mind, it will be interesting to see how Castelló’s elements of national culture building add to a notion of Germany that holds appeal for a global audience.

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3 National Culture Building in Tatort: Regional Representations

Tatort first aired in November 1970 and has been running on the German public service

broadcaster ARD ever since. The series is always shown at German prime-time 20:15 on Sunday evenings and is followed by a political talk-show that typically takes up the issues portrayed in the episode of that week (Vogt, 2005). A large part of Tatort’s audience are said to be politically interested and intellectual (Vogt, 2005). The series follows the conventional police procedural with the American pattern of one or two police officials supported by technical assistants that solve one case per episode (Vogt, 2005). There is always a return to social order, where no case remains unsolved (Gräf, 2010). The unique characteristic of Tatort is the fact that episodes are set in different German cities and each of these cities have their own investigative teams. There are currently teams from twenty cities in Germany, including one from Austria and one from Switzerland, that recur in regular intervals on the public service broadcast (Das Erste, 2019). This enables the series to work with different characters, places and stories in its episodes, of which there are around 35 a year.

In the initial concept and profile of the ARD crime series by its inventor Gunther Witte in 1969, there were three main elements that constituted Tatort:

(1) Every station establishes their stories within their individual region. The diversity of regions creates a specific charm for the series.

(2) The stories have to be plausible in reality. This does not mean naturalistic representation of police work and does indeed offer the possibility to move away from reality within some boundaries.

(3) The detectives (and their teams) are to be the centre of the narratives, that may be presented from the detectives’ or omniscient narrators’ points of view. (Göbel-Stolz, 2016, p. 29)

Tatort makes for an interesting research object due to its serial pattern. This makes it

possible to observe changes on both an aesthetic level and the level of cultural representation (Gräf, 2010). By showcasing crimes and their resolution as well as the societal treatment of the issue, Tatort presents cultural ways of thinking and practices (Gräf, 2010). Even though Tatort itself is a series, individual episodes can be seen in the overall context. Due to the common opening credits, all episodes are linked in a

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frame of reference, yet each episode creates its own world and specific ideology (Gräf, 2010). This makes it difficult to speak about the series as a whole by analysing single episodes. However, there are certain patterns that recur due to the overarching concept the series was created under.

I will go on to analyse the presence of Castelló’s four elements of national culture building (territory, language use, cultural proximity and social issues) within three specific Tatort episodes. Two are from the investigative team located in Berlin: ‘Meta’ (2018) and ‘Tiere der Großstadt’ (2018). These two episodes make for relevant objects of analysis since they aired the same year that Beat and Dogs of Berlin were released and are set in the same city. This enables an effective comparison of the way places and locality are represented. The fact that they are both from 2018 also makes it possible to explore the social issues that were present during that specific time period and how they were taken up in the respective episodes. The third episode of Tatort is located in the city of Hamburg. ‘Willkommen in Hamburg’ (2013) features popular German actor Til Schweiger and received widespread criticism for the way it diverged from traditional Tatort episodes, as well as its similarity to American blockbusters (Göbel-Stolz, 2016). Even though it does not take place in Berlin, the episode makes for an interesting research object in regard to the presentation of national culture and what a German audience expects from a national production.

By using Castelló’s four elements of national culture building as a tool for analysis, I will demonstrate how Tatort uses the three elements of localisation, language and cultural proximity as a way of producing regional cultural identity, while the presentation of social issues builds national identity. By representing the different regional cultures of the country, the series suggests there is diversity in unity. Tatort always finds ways to relate to the lives of ordinary people within society. Due to this fact, however, regional diversity is often exaggerated in order to appeal to the national audience. 3.1 Localization and Territory: The German City

Castelló (2009) identifies territorial representations in television fiction as a tool for national culture and identity building. Eichner and Waade (2015) agree that different concepts of imagined communities are transmitted through the representation of place. Choosing the location of a series is by no means a random decision, but is often

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and how often each city is featured each year is largely determined by the public service broadcaster ARD in an effort of equally representing the nation (Mattson, 1999). I argue that localisation and territory are used to create scenarios that the everyday citizen can identify with and build cultural identity by illustrating the normality of police work.

Böll-Hofer (2007) assigns a particular significance to the representation of place in

Tatort, as it is directly related to the plot. The scene of the crime, as indicated by the

title of the series, serves as a signifier of the space that victims and perpetrator occupy (Böll-Hofer, 2007). Böll-Hofer compares the murder of a drug addict through numerous gunshots in an abandoned train station to his death in his apartment with a single knife wound. While the first scenario indicates a violent dispute in the drug milieu, the second points towards a personal dispute with someone in the victim’s direct social environment. This makes the crimes, as well as the respective crime scene, not only essential for the narrative, but also a tool for representing space through motives and figures (Böll-Hofer, 2007). Abandoned factories, run-down neighbourhoods or ports therefore create an atmospheric, dense image of the city (Böll-Hofer, 2007). These are not particularly touristic images that would appeal to an international audience, yet they display authenticity for the national viewer.

‘Tiere der Großstadt’ begins with a shot of the well-known Kaiser-Wilhelm Memorial Church on Kurfürstendamm. Several times throughout the episode, the viewer is presented with iconic places throughout Berlin such as the Potsdamer Platz or Haus Schwarzenberg. Establishing shots of the setting serve as a dramaturgic function for the viewer to help with orientation, but also evoke emotions and a sense of recognition (Eichner & Waade, 2015). Even though the setting of ‘Meta’ is not as obvious from the beginning, the viewer is reminded through details like the address label on a package and, later on, through well-known locations such as the Sony Center or the cinema Babylon Kino where the episode takes place. Eichner and Waade (2015) highlight the significance of place in transmitting feelings of belonging and longing in a global culture. Both Tatort episodes offer a Berlin-based as well as a national audience reference points that they recognise, thereby evoking a sense of belonging to a shared culture.

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‘Willkommen in Hamburg’ makes explicit use of setting to portray the contrasts that

constitute the city of Hamburg. The investigator Yalcin, partner of the main character Tschiller, begins by criticising the efforts of the city of Hamburg to be seen as a ’tourist city’ where everything is clean and no crimes occur. The episode goes to great lengths to prove that the opposite is the case and that Hamburg has in fact got a crime problem taking place on the outskirts but also right in the city centre. This is shown by images of run-down high-rise buildings and abandoned factories as well as elaborate scenes on bridges next to the river Elbe and shots of the ’Elbphilarmonie’, Hamburg’s iconic concert hall, which was still under construction at the time. The unexpectedly high costs and duration of the construction of the Elbphilarmonie were highly discussed in German media from when it began in 2007 until its completion in 2016. Deciding to use it as a location for Tatort evokes a sense of recognition for the viewer and has the potential to reignite discussion about the controversial project in front of the television screens. This function of public service broadcast to stimulate discussion and opinion building within society will be analysed further when looking at Castelló’s fourth element of national culture building, the representation of social issues. It is quite contradictory that the episode set in Hamburg explicitly criticises the tourist-friendly image of the city whilst drawing attention to popular land marks and being the first

Tatort to exploit additional distribution channels such as Amazon Prime. Ultimately,

‘Willkommen in Hamburg’ does cater to a tourist gaze and grants a national audience access to regional culture.

Image 1: The police offers shared by Rubin and Karow Source: RBB (Tatort, Episode Meta)

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Returning to the analysis of localisation and territory, the vast majority of Tatort episodes take place in an urban setting. The same goes for the three episodes analysed in this thesis. Referring back to Tobin and Neville’s (2011) considerations, the urban setting is directly related to the realism that the series aims to represent. Recognisable places create authenticity and credibility for the viewer, making it believable that these events could have actually taken place (Reijnders, 2011). The aesthetics of Tatort are generally held plain and monochromatic, highlighting the grey asphalt of the city. Similarly, the offices from which the investigators operate are small and drab with little access to advanced technology. This can be seen in image 1. The job of a police investigator is in no way presented as glamorous, which is reflected not only in the representation of the workplace but also through the personal spaces of the investigators. Berlin investigator Rubin lives in a messy apartment with her son in what is referred to as a ’dodgy’ area of the city, which also suggests a difference in class. Even though her partner Karow’s apartment is far more sophisticated, it offers a colourless view of the city’s high-rise buildings and numerous construction sites.

The spaces that the investigators operate in thus display Berlin as a concrete jungle, a conception that is shared by a majority of the national audience, and serve to present police work as part of this reality. The job of the police is shown as grounded in daily life: a middle-class occupation that is not removed from society but an integral part of it. The daily routines and lives of the investigators are something that the German public can identify with. As I will demonstrate in the following chapter, this observation stands in stark contrast to the approach of Netflix and Amazon Prime in their two German crime series, which feature upper echelon police investigators.

3.2 Language Use: Local Colour

Language use is a significant tool for national culture building, since it can serve as a signifier of nationality as well as of the different identities that can exist within a nation (Castelló, 2009). Eichner and Waade (2015) confirm that local colour is added to crime fiction through language and that the use of region-specific vernaculars is an expressive characteristic of Tatort. These vernaculars or dialects are not only used to highlight where the action is taking place, but also to provide context on the characters and local culture (Eichner & Waade, 2015). The investigative teams on Tatort can be described as regional business cards (Böll-Hofer, 2007). Regional dialects can convey

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obvious contrast between characters (Eichner & Waade, 2015). The following analysis shows that language is used to create cultural identity, yet is often depicted in conventional and clichéd ways to appeal to the national audience.

The contrast between the characters of the two Berlin investigators Rubin and Karow is reinforced through the use of local dialect. While Karow is presented as a cold, logical thinker, his partner Rubin is his emotional, chaotic counterpart. Karow is not interested in the fate of an individual, but instead sees the big picture. These differences are conveyed not only by the state of their living conditions as mentioned above, but also by their use of language. Both characters are from Berlin, but with divergent backgrounds. Karow is from Berlin-Pankow and has a middle-class background, while Rubin grew up with her father in working-class Berlin-Wedding. These social differences are clearly evident in the way they speak. Rubin speaks a very strong Berlin dialect, which presents her as likeable for the viewer. The Berlin dialect is often perceived as coarse and rude, yet loveable and sincere at the same time. The same goes for the character of Rubin, who is quick-witted and direct, yet appears good-natured and empathic to the viewer. Karow, on the other hand, speaks what is referred to as High German, which immediately gives him an air of aloofness and reservation in comparison to his partner. Both characters represent stereotypical perceptions that a national audience has of Berliners: the chaotic, working single mother and the condescending metropolitan. The characterisation of the two investigators is reinforced by their use of language and corresponds with the urban reality that is already created through localisation and territory of the series.

Similarly, dialect is used to contrast the characters of the investigators Tschiller and Yalcin in the Hamburg-based Tatort episodes. Tschiller is presented as an outsider, who has just moved to Hamburg and is not familiar with the place or the people. This is conveyed through the way he speaks in standard German, as well as through his body language. Tschiller is always tense and serious, while inhabitants of Hamburg, such as his partner Yalcin, are presented as laid-back and with a coarse sense of humour. These stereotypical characteristics are reinforced by the northern German dialect, creating a sense of familiarity and sympathy from regional viewers. The difference in language use serves the narrative and the characterisation of Tschiller as a rather unpopular newcomer who has trouble adapting to his new environment. This

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is an ongoing theme within the episode and exemplifies another stereotype of Hamburg, which presents its inhabitants as difficult to communicate with and open up to. The play on regional mentalities has caused Tatort to often be the subject of criticism for some of the stereotypes it displays (Scherer & Stockinger, 2010). The preconceived notions that a national audience has of certain regions are therefore often confirmed through the use of regional dialects in Tatort. This indicates that while Tatort does not cater to an international audience, it still has a diverse German audience to consider. While one might expect the traditional German public broadcast to adequately represent these regions, the use of stereotypes and clichés is still often used to guarantee a sense of recognition and relatability from the larger German audience.

Throughout Tatort episodes, language is not only used to create a contrast between the two main characters, but the use of dialect also serves as an indicator for social class. While investigator Karow and the character of the film producer in the episode ‘Meta’ speak standard German and convey affluence and intellect, characters of a lower social standing are heard speaking dialect. When Karow tries to raid a prostitution ring and speaks to one of the sex workers in a nearby diner, her Berlin dialect is clearly distinguishable. Similarly, the underage prostitutes in the episode ‘Willkommen in Hamburg’ consist of young women from Romania, who speak German with a heavy accent. Their difficulty to communicate is not only representative of their struggle, but also reinforces the authority of their well-spoken German pimp, Max Brenner. 16-year old Tereza is the girl with the best proficiency of the German language and is therefore chosen as the favourite and leader of the group. One of the guidelines for the original Tatort format was, and still remains, that subtitles are to be avoided (Göbel-Stolz, 2016). Due to this specification, all characters within the Tatort series speak in a way that is understandable for the viewer, regardless of their ethnicity. This limits the regional character of some of the episodes, as a heavy dialect from Munich or Cologne, for example, is difficult for other national viewers to understand. The lack of foreign languages spoken also has the unique effect that foreigners are in some form always presented as an integrated part of society, since they are able to speak the language. This creates a more diverse image of the country and makes regional differences more accessible for a broad national audience. The observation also relates back to Beeden and Bruin’s (2010) argument that television constructs a

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shared sense of national belonging by representing similarities and differences within a nation.

The use of dialects can therefore be considered as an important element of identification for a national audience. Dialects hold political relevance, as those characters speaking with a dialect are often associated with a lower social status.

Tatort acknowledges this fact and represents a broad range of social classes, ensuring

that a large part of the German population, regardless of their class or level of education, can identify with the characters and feels represented on television. This confirms the observations made about the localisation of the series and how the narrative is grounded in society’s daily lives. However, the series limits this local colour in order to remain accessible for a broad national audience and often draws on clichés. This can be compared to the way international streaming services adjust elements of German culture to stay relatable for a transnational audience. This hypothesis will be picked up in my analysis of Dogs of Berlin and Beat.

3.3 Cultural Proximity: Everyday Life

The third element that Castelló (2009) identifies as a valuable tool for national culture building in television fiction is that of cultural proximity. This refers to specific cultural elements that create a sense of connection for the viewer. Scherer and Stockinger (2010) extend Castelló’s list of cultural elements, which consists of historical developments of the country, sports, food and traditions, to include regional events and media, car licence plates and recurring representations of societal practices. Tatort is known to include regional festivities in the respective episodes, illustrating how they exist in the same space as society. In terms of representing cultural identity, the following analysis suggests that the series manages to connect society’s everyday life and struggles to these extraordinary events and thereby enables a national audience to identify with what is happening.

For instance, episodes of Tatort that play in Cologne often address Karneval, a regional street festivity that includes parades and costumes. Böll-Hofer (2007) sees the representation of Karneval in Tatort as a kind of parallel world of exhilaration and freedom. Time and again this façade of Karneval is used to display human abyss (Böll-Hofer, 2007). A similar comparison can be made with the depiction of the Berlinale, an

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episode ‘Meta’. The viewer is presented with the red carpet, cameras and well-known German actors. The original logo and location of the Berlinale at the Sony Center in Berlin are used and are bound to be recognised by a large part of the population (depicted below in image 2). This creates a sense of realism and connection for the viewer. It becomes apparent that one of the film producers in the spotlight is connected to the crime and the viewer learns more about the behind-the-scene operations. This breaks up the illusion of glamour connected to the film industry by showing unhappiness and suffering behind the success. This holds particular value for the national audience, which is familiar with media coverage of the Berlinale. For those that are unfamiliar with the event as such, it offers an insight into the cultural events of another federal state.

Image 2: Berlinale Palast at Potsdamer Platz, Berlin Source: RBB (Tatort, Episode Meta)

The most significant aspect of ‘Meta’ is the fact that the narrative of the crime and the process of its resolution are not only taking place in the plot itself, but also in a film which the two investigators watch. The events of the film spill over into reality. This gives the episode a self-reflective touch. It causes the two investigators Rubin and Karow to question and discuss the way they perform their police work. There are several references to the American film Taxi Driver starring Robert De Niro, which blur the lines between film and reality even further. While at first the narrative of the film within the film seems to match reality, it is later reality that matches the film. In the end, however, the narratives diverge and it becomes clear that the investigators have control over the real narrative. The representation of the Berlinale and the film is another example of how Tatort explains extraordinary events within the ordinary. The

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ordinary lives of the investigators are put into stark contrast to the media spectacle and serve as a way for the audience to relate to the narrative.

Another cultural element that is frequently addressed in episodes of Tatort is that of food and gastronomy. This is a very regional detail and differs from episode to episode. While the Cologne-based investigators enjoy their Currywurst at the same foodtruck each episode, it is rather the lack of food that characterises the Berlin-episodes. The viewer catches a glimpse of Rubin’s empty fridge as she prepares breakfast for her son and ends up offering him a dry croissant. Karow declines an invitation to Rubin’s apartment, claiming her food wouldn’t be his taste anyway. After her initial protest, she doesn’t reply to Karow’s guess that she had planned on cooking pasta with tomato sauce. In the ‘Meta’ episode Karow and Rubin meet in a diner, where Rubin eats a burger and fries while Karow orders nothing but a drink and preoccupies himself with cleaning Rubin’s crumbs off the table. Food is used to illustrate the contrast between the two main characters, but is not particularly indicative of the regional dining culture. This could, however, also be interpreted as representative of the stressful city life, where city dwellers rely on fast food and have no time to buy groceries.

A similar image is conveyed in the ‘Willkommen in Hamburg’ episode. Tschiller struggles to make a soft-boiled egg for his daughter and is constantly buying

Schokohörnchen (chocolate croissants). This is an aspect that, for a regional audience

from northern Germany, might make the investigator seem even more out of place. The pastry of choice in the region being the Franzbrötchen, a sweet pastry baked with butter and cinnamon, Tschiller represents an obvious deviation of the cultural norm in Hamburg. The Tatort episodes featuring Til Schweiger received widespread criticism, which was, amongst other things, directed at the misrepresentation of culture in Hamburg and his obvious displacement. The regional audience prefers the investigators to have a connection to the respective city, in order to represent it and its culture appropriately to the rest of the country, affirming Böll-Hofer’s (2007) assumption that investigators act as regional business cards.

Elements of cultural proximity such as the representation of the Berlinale can be considered city branding and display regional culture. It is a local festivity with media coverage that takes place once a year and exists separately from the daily lives of

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Berlin’s citizens. The series, therefore, shows extraordinary cultural events and connects them to everyday culture. Tatort always addresses the ordinary citizen and his or her life. In terms of representing cultural proximity, I have consequently come to two parallel findings. Ordinary cultural goods such as food or clothes are left uncommented by Tatort and are part of daily life. This is what Billig (1995) refers to as the unwaved flag and is not necessarily recognised as cultural indicators unless they deviate from the norm, such as the chocolate croissant in the Hamburg-episode. The second finding is the embedding of extraordinary cultural events in everyday life in order to relate to ordinary citizens.

3.4 Social Issues: Crime on an Individual Level

The fourth element of national culture building is the examination of social issues and how they are dealt with in society (Castelló, 2009). I intend to show that this is the most expressive element in Tatort and one of the reasons for its success in Germany. While Castelló’s first three elements contribute to the formation of a cultural identity, the representation of social issues takes place on a national level and is not necessarily connected to the regions. National identity is expressed through specific subject matters. In this way, Tatort is setting the agenda for discussions within the public sphere and creates national identity rather than just representing it.

While German TV series gradually began integrating current issues of public debate in the 1990s, Tatort addressed political material in its story from the beginning (Mattson, 1999). Even though there might be side stories, the main narrative is generally focused on a single issue such as homophobia. The series makes sure to address this one issue in detail to avoid confusion and provide an informed yet entertaining overview of the subject matter for the viewer (Mattson, 1999). Gräf (2010) observes that there are two levels to the representation of social issues in Tatort. Within the contextual framework of the case that the investigators are working on, the crime is always solved in one way or another and the culprit is found. The social or political issues that might have led to the crime or shaped the episode in some form, however, are often left open and there is no solution (Gräf, 2010).

In order to meet the expectations of a public service broadcast to build public opinion, ARD offer their viewers a way to bridge this gap between entertainment and politics,

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evenings are often followed by a political talk show, which addresses the topic of that week’s episode by discussing it in a round of experts. Vogt (2005) describes this as a transition from political entertainment to entertaining politics, a sort of ‘politainment’ (p. 112). The episodes show how certain issues can affect individuals, thereby making it easier for the viewer to identify with the topic. The stories told by Tatort are gripping and full of suspense, which leaves the audience more open to a broader and more general conversation about those societal and political issues.

The follow-up talk show and the importance that is thereby accredited to the social issues portrayed in Tatort award the series an even greater realism and are reflective of German culture. Tatort is not a series that is merely consumed by a national audience, but it is also discussed in public discourse. In Habermas’ (1962) terms, this can be seen as a return to a critical public, as opposed to passive consumerism. The public discussion about the issues portrayed in Tatort has also found its way into social media. Over 9000 tweets connected to the series are posted during the ninety minutes that an episode airs as well as the 15 minutes before and after (Mohr, 2016). This indicates that the topics that are addressed in Tatort and, more importantly, the ways in which they are addressed, are relevant for a national audience and do in fact exist within society. There are even Tatort episodes that have been removed from circulation upon the request of viewers. This is referred to as the Giftschrank (poison locker). There are currently six episodes of Tatort that are shelved (Göbel-Stolz, 2016). The reasons for their removal range from “insufficient clarity of narrative, qualities of plot, and technical issues” as well as issues regarding thematic content (Göbel-Stolz, 2016). This shows the democratic potential of the series and reflects how the ARD reacts to the demands of their viewers.

The episode ‘Tiere der Großstadt’ addresses the overarching topic of advanced technology versus humans. In Berlin’s city centre a man is killed by an automatic coffee robot and the investigators are at loss to explain the crime. The episode poses important ethical questions about technology and responsibility and expresses explicit social criticism. The continuous advancement of technology is presented by the robot baristas taking over jobs as well as robots that are turning on humans. The episode also features senior citizens that have not managed to keep up with technology. These are very real fears of society as a whole rather than just the citizens of Berlin in

“Undeniably German” - National Culture Building in German Crime Series