The crime scene on Sunday bears a dedication. “In memory of Stephanie Heckner” is displayed at the end. “High Mass for Toni” was her last film. Heckner died on March 27th. Without them there would be no FranconiaCrime scene, she invented it. Stephanie Heckner headed the editorial department for series and mini-series at BR; she has from 2013 to the Munich crime scene looked after and the regional detective stories, she was with the Eberhoferseries and editor of, among other things, the highly explosive television film Operation Sugar about organized sexual violence against children.
In conversation with people who have worked with Stephanie Heckner, the picture emerges of a woman who very constantly promoted the extraordinary on television, who brought undertones and overtones of life into films, and this life was even allowed to play out in the so-called provinces . “Stephanie was someone who was really interested in stories, in characters, in people,” says Michael Polle, who, as producer and managing director of X-Filme, has several crime scenes made with Heckner, also her last. Gabriela Sperl, producer of Operation Sugarsays: “She was someone who took great pleasure in daring to tackle unusual, difficult topics and led them to success – a courageous fighter.”
In general, not much is known about editors in public service broadcasting, and there are often complaints about discouragement, about the alleged slowdown in creativity on the part of directors and authors. Some, however, create their own life’s work away from public visibility. Stephanie Heckner is one of them. She is described as a 150 percent woman, with all the consequences that has for oneself and for others. If you’re looking to differentiate yourself from your average workaholic, you’ll hear about her brilliance and creativity, or as Polle puts it: “Working with her was about precision, but also about freedom. I felt her meticulousness came with a great deal of confidence along.”
Heckner 2016 at a “Tatort” premiere with the actors Udo Wachtveitl (left) and Miroslav Nemec.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
With Stephanie Heckner, Polle has the sensational one in 2019, among other things crime scene “Unklare Lage” (directed by Pia Strietmann, book by Holger Joos), which – inspired by the attack on the OEZ in Munich – put the city in a state of emergency for two days while searching for potential assassins and attracted attention with a radically concentrated story line, so to speak the cinematic translation of the overstretched alertness of the investigators, who are left pretty exhausted at the end. “You have to dare to do that in a format like this,” says Polle, “bring your characters to the fringes. Stefanie was always very open to ideas like that.”
When the Franconiancrime scene was planned, the Franks naturally wanted Franks as commissioners. Despite this, Heckner pushed through Dagmar Manzel, a Berliner, and Fabian Hinrichs, a native of Hamburg, and nevertheless researched the special Franconian sensibility. At “Hochamt für Toni” Heckner was already seriously ill; but, says Polle, “we talked about this one crime scene exchanged with her right down to the last mix, the synopses and press releases”. And the dedication, it’s there “simply because it was important to us”.