Whether “Tatort” or “Polizeiruf 110”: The Sunday crime thriller is a beloved ritual for many. But recently several long-time actors left the TV series – or announced their departure.
Heike Makatsch is calling it quits. After five cases, she quits her job as “crime scene” investigator Ellen Berlinger. The final episode entitled “Out of the Dark” will be broadcast on ARD on October 8th at 8:15 p.m. Two days earlier, the station repeated a Makatsch crime thriller from 2021. The fact that there will be no further “crime scenes” with the 52-year-old in the lead role is for financial reasons, as the responsible broadcaster SWR announced in July of this year. “Inflation is also leading to noticeable cost increases for our fictional productions, which we can unfortunately no longer absorb without cutting back on offer,” said the SWR program director.
But Makatsch is not the only well-known actress to quit her job. It was recently announced that Franziska Weisz was also quitting as a “crime scene” investigator alongside Wotan Wilke Möhring; Dagmar Manzel has also announced her exit from “Tatort” and Axel Milberg is quitting his role as Klaus Borowski in 2026. With Anna Schudt and Meret Becker, the “Tatorte” from Dortmund and Berlin lost two top-class actresses last year and the same applies to “Polizeiruf 110”: There is always a little loss.