Harter Brocken: Die Erpressung (2025)

After Hans-Peter Zimmermann dies in an accident, his widow is visited by Oliver Mienle, who is looking for a microfilm. When he cannot find it, he kills her. Zimmermann and Horst Witt had blackmailed Mienle with compromising material. Shortly afterward, a female burglar tries to kill Witt in his home with a syringe, but during the struggle Witt manages to inject her with the substance. As she pursues the fleeing Witt, she collapses dead on the tracks of the Harz Railway. An approaching train manages to stop in time. Witt, whom she has shot, makes it into the stopped train, and the train’s driver informs village police officer Koops. The dead woman turns out to be an officer with the State Criminal Police Office (LKA), and the weapon found on her—a Soviet Makarov—is unusual. Koops calls the last number dialed on her phone and reaches Mienle, who is standing just a few metres behind him and is also an LKA officer. Mienle takes over the investigation and wants as little interference from Koops as possible. He tells his colleague Sabine Berger, who is in the middle of an election campaign, about what has happened. Koops later finds the two of them at Mienle’s lodgings. The circumstances and the behavior of Mienle and Berger strike Koops as mysterious. He investigates on his own and finds a photograph of the microfilm in Mienle’s room, showing several people from the MfS era. Witt manages to make it to his former daughter-in-law Bettina and have her, a nurse, treat his injuries. He tells her about the microfilm and says he hid it on the Harz Railway. Bettina sees a chance to demand money from Mienle and Berger in exchange for handing over the microfilm. But the plan goes wrong: Bettina’s current husband, Alexander, has a heart attack during the handover, and Mienle prevents him from taking his life-saving pills. Later, after Bettina tells the two of them at her house where the microfilm is, Berger shoots her. Koops, who has also just sneaked into the house while searching for Witt, manages to escape with him. Witt tells Koops about his work in the State Security archive, where he discovered the microfilm. It shows former East German agents, who later became LKA officers, committing murders. This led him and Zimmermann to blackmail the people shown in the images. Koops and Witt jump aboard the Harz Railway, with Mienle following them. Koops manages to overpower Mienle and handcuff him. By then, Witt has died of his injuries, and Koops has taken possession of the microfilm. At the same time, Mette Vogt, who is supposed to be having a day off with Heiner, tries to apprehend Berger at a stop. Berger fires and wounds Heiner. At the terminus, Berger frees Mienle on the train, and they walk along the platform toward Koops. Berger shoots Mienle and demands the microfilm from Koops, then burns it in front of him. As she walks away, confident of victory, Koops sends several photos he copied from the microfilm to her phone; they also show her crimes. Koops arrests Berger.