“An outing must have an effect”

Wolfram Koch played Brix, the cool and idiosyncratic Frankfurt crime scene investigator, for almost ten years. When the new Frankfurt crime scene opens this Sunday, it will be the last case for the investigative duo Paul Brix and Anna Janneke (played by Margarita Broich). The two commissioners together resolved 19 cases.

From 2025, a new crime scene team consisting of new actors will be deployed in Frankfurt to solve long-standing murder cases, so-called “cold cases”. What happens to inspectors Janneke and Brix can be seen in “It’s so green when the Frankfurt mountains bloom” (8:15 p.m. in the first and then in the ARD media library).

hessenschau.de: You and your colleague Margarita Broich were not at all satisfied with the screenwriters’ first idea for the ending of their farewell detective novel. What bothered you?

Wolfram Koch: The first attempts were, with all due respect, a bit boring at times. According to the scenario, we were sitting at work, unhappy, putting our heads down and basically having no desire to continue working. Then we said goodbye, one went, the other went.

Margarita Broich and I then said to the writers: We’re not going to do that, it’s too boring. If you write us the last crime scene, you have to write it like the first: so vital, funny and beautiful.

hessenschau.de: Are you now satisfied with the finale of Brix and Janneke?

Wolfram Koch: I come from the theater and there is the phrase “An outing must have an effect”, whether it is silent or loud. There should be at least some sort of souvenir left when you leave. Margarita and I then talked a lot about this scenario. That’s not all, but we have a say in what happens to this couple at this final crime scene. And what happens now is up to us. The final ending was also expressly our wish.

hessenschau.de: Would you have thought almost ten years ago that you would remain a crime scene investigator for so long?

Wolfram Koch: No. I was called at that time and asked if I was going to play the role. I said, “No, I don’t look at crime scenes, I think I’m wrong.” I didn’t have this Sunday evening ritual, I grew up without television. The editor then replied: “But that’s why we want you”. Of course, I watch Tatort from time to time.

The last day of filming in December a year ago was very sad because everyone in the crew knew it was over. Hessischer Rundfunk no longer produces Tatort in-house. We knew each other, we met to film, we looked forward to each other and it was over for everyone.

hessenschau.de: How did the Frankfurt crime scene do it differently from the others?

Wolfram Koch: We had this idea ten years ago: Here are two “normal people”, former semester students. We didn’t want to show any private mental depression, any mental illness, any family stress. We wanted exciting cases and kept a low profile as investigators. We didn’t learn much in private. There was Fanny (played by Zazie de Paris, editor’s note), who was ready, which was great. I lived with her and my questions remained unanswered.

The Tatort editorial team developed excellent, very courageous, very exciting scenarios and produced some very beautiful crime scenes. We were a bit like the experimentalists of German television.

hessenschau.de: Was there a crime scene that was difficult for you?

Wolfram Koch: There was this nighttime crime scene (editor’s note: “Have mercy. Too late.”). We had 25 days of filming and it was 25 days of night filming. Many people work their whole lives underground or at night, but for us it was a challenge to meet at night and work in the rain in meadows around Frankfurt until the morning. In this case: look for a corpse. The funny thing is that we were so focused on filming that we barely made any mistakes.

hessenschau.de: Have you ever noticed that you would have acted in the same way as Paul Brix?

Wolfram Koch: There are of course key points that agree. That I travel more independently and do my own thing. I like to be independent, even in my work in the theater. I have been independent for 30 years.

If certain things had to be regulated to solve a case, I imagine sometimes I wouldn’t follow the rules. But the Brix also sometimes distributed headbutts to defend itself. This hasn’t happened to me yet.

hessenschau.de: You live in Frankfurt and have already studied there. What was it like being a Frankfurt investigator?

Wolfram Koch: My family was really happy that I worked in Frankfurt. I traveled so much. With the crime scene, there were twice about six weeks a year where I worked in town. It was great.

And then of course you experience Frankfurt in a completely different way. We took turns that I didn’t know at all. We also met people I wouldn’t have met otherwise. People happy to make their apartment available, whatever the neighborhood, to all social classes. Of course it was great.

When I moved here with my family from Berlin, a long, long time ago, I thought Frankfurt was terrible. Snob, expensive and unfriendly. But that has changed a lot. Not just because I adapted, but because I realized how good this city is. They present the greatest contradictions that a German city can offer in a very small space.

hessenschau.de: As Paul Brix, what case would you have liked to investigate?

Wolfram Koch: Margarita Broich and I actually thought about doing a crime scene with Eintracht Frankfurt, especially Margarita. A murder in the Eintracht Frankfurt team. We would have liked to film this with the football team. It was just difficult to organize the shoots because, of course, they also practice. We would really have liked to do that again, a case like that.