Lindburgs Fall (2011)

Peter Lindburg is an actor who has been familiar to fans for decades as “Inspector Kämpfer” in the crime series “Blaulicht.” But his fan base is shrinking, and after 280 episodes the series no longer gets high enough ratings for the television network, so it is canceled. Lindburg is upset and retreats to his hometown in Thuringia. He wants to enjoy the peace and quiet there for a while and perhaps write a screenplay of his own that could help him make a comeback. So he sets off for the small town of Lindburg, after which he chose his stage name, checks into the “Zur Traube” hotel, and gets to work. That evening, he goes for a walk and is attacked. When he comes to, he watches from the park as a man apparently argues with a woman in an apartment building and then beats her to death. He immediately reports the incident to the police, but at first they do not take him seriously. Inspector Biehl eventually hears him out and visits the supposed crime scene with him. However, Lindburg is mistaken about which window he claims to have seen the murder through, and so he cannot convince the inspector. The apartment above the one they have just inspected belongs to public prosecutor Dr. Eugen Wangenheim, whom it seems impossible to suspect of anything. For the inspector, that settles the matter, but not for the die-hard TV detective. He keeps Wangenheim under surveillance and even brings in his television sidekick Conny, alias Mike Häusl, so they can take turns—after all, he is supposed to be writing his screenplay. Lindburg’s stakeout outside Wangenheim’s apartment makes the prosecutor increasingly nervous, and he threatens him. But that only spurs Lindburg on, and he discovers that until recently an old woman had been keeping watch on Wangenheim’s apartment in exactly the same way. Lindburg follows up on this lead and finds out that the woman was Hilde Zietkov, who worked as a housekeeper for the elder Wangenheims 30 years ago and recently disappeared. Since the police do not believe Lindburg’s accusations against the prosecutor, he is left to investigate on his own. Judging by what he has pieced together so far, Hilde Zietkov must have blackmailed the prosecutor into helping her secure a reduction in the prison sentence being served by her son Oliver. Apparently, Wangenheim’s parents were siblings, and Hilde Zietkov knew this. With Wangenheim on the verge of a career advancement, he could not afford a scandal like that. Thanks to Lindburg’s persistence, he manages to briefly catch Wangenheim off guard, and the police finally take notice. When Hilde Zietkov’s body is indeed found on the grounds of the Wangenheims’ old mansion, the prosecutor is to be arrested for murder. But Lindburg objects that Wangenheim can only have disposed of the body: based on his observations, the killer is right-handed, which does not fit Eugen Wangenheim. Cäcilie Wangenheim then confesses, since she could not bear to see Eugen’s career destroyed. Now that Lindburg’s detective instincts are being positively promoted in the media, he is offered a new television series, but the actor turns it down. He has come to appreciate the private life he had far too little of all these years, and gets in touch with his former childhood sweetheart, Sabine Arnhold, who still lives here in Lindburg. He rings her doorbell with an enormous bouquet of flowers, convinced that it is never too late.