ARD crime thriller
Nuns never lived here: The truth about Reisach Monastery from the “Tatort”
The current “crime scene” took place on Sunday in the Reisach monastery.
© Dr. Wilfried Bahnmüller // Picture Alliance
The “Tatort” commissioners Batic and Leitmayr investigated on Sunday in a nunnery. But the site has actually been empty for two years – and only monks lived here.
Actually, they are investigating in Munich. But the murder of an auditor caused the two “Tatort” commissioners Franz Leitmayr (Udo Wachtveitl) and Ivo Batic (Miroslav Nemec) to do a very special country game in the episode broadcast on Sunday evening: The two non-believers investigated in the idyllic im Reisach Abbey, located in the Inn Valley, and lodged with the nuns there.
So much hustle and bustle shouldn’t have existed in the area for a long time. The film was shot this summer. At that time the monastery had been closed for two years.
The monastery consecrated to St. Theresa was founded in 1731 by the Bavarian court chamber councilor Johann Georg von Messerer and was called Urfahrn Monastery until the secularization in 1802. After that it was designated the extinction monastery of the abolished Carmelite monasteries. That means: religious orders who had become homeless could find a new home here through the closure of monasteries ordered by the state.
Unlike in the “Tatort” portrayed, nuns never lived here
In the course of the 19th century, the strict restrictions on the orders were relaxed in many areas of Germany, so that many monasteries were re-established after 1830. This is also the case with the monastery located in the Rosenheim district, which was rebuilt in 1837 under the name Reisach Monastery.
In contrast to what is shown in the “crime scene”, there were no nuns living here. Rather, the monastery was occupied by the Discalced Carmelites, the male branch of the Teresian Carmel – his sign was the reform branch of the Carmelites. The Discalced Carmelites of the Krakow province have lived here since 2012.
But in 2019 the religious went back to their Polish homeland, because the monastery was dissolved. Because the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising had no interest in the buildings in need of renovation, the property fell back to the Free State of Bavaria.
Reisach Monastery is currently closed
You can currently not visit the site: The monastery church is closed due to the risk of collapse, the western building urgently needs a general renovation. According to the monastery, renovating the historic building will cost at least nine million euros.
The magnificent site, including the historical buildings, is currently completely empty and unused. But hope is near: An entrepreneur from neighboring Kiefersfelden has developed a concept for how the monastery can be revitalized and preserved in the long term. In order to collect the necessary money, he started an initiative to rescue the monastery.
It is currently difficult to assess whether the project will be successful. But the situation is not hopeless. Because what is the title of the “crime scene”: “There are always miracles”.
Here you can read the TV review of the current “Tatort” episode. More about Reisach Monastery on the official website