Season 31 (2000)

In an open field on the edge of the Vienna Woods, a car burns out. The police discover the remains of a body inside the vehicle, around which a symbol has been carved into the earth. This unusual discovery presents Chief Inspector Eisner and his team of investigators with a baffling puzzle. The victim was the owner of a peep show. Is this ritualistic tableau the work of a psychopath, or is a killer from Vienna's pornographic underworld using this scenario to divert attention from their true motive?

The body of wealthy real estate magnate Gerd Wesibach is found, his pores emanating a familiar odor: bitter almonds. At first his death is thought to be an assisted suicide, but it is soon discovered that he was poisoned. Ballauf and Schenk have a long list of suspects, and soon uncover a dubious euthanasia ring. Directed by Kaspar Heidelbach, 2000.

A blackmailer has been threatening the Kölsch brewery in Cologne. Concerned with his company's reputation, Belcher Sr. decides to pay the ransom in person, and is soon shot dead. But when the blackmailer demands a higher ransom and poisons the beer, Ballauf and Schenk suspect they're dealing with a copycat offender. Directed by Markus Fischer, 2000.

Viennese Inspector Moritz Eisner (Harald Krassnitzer) had envisioned his vacation in idyllic Tyrol quite differently. On the very day after his arrival, while out hiking, he stumbles upon a dead body. Hubert Egger (Gregor Seberg)—the son of Mayor Alois Egger (Dietmar Schönherr)—has been murdered in a manner as gruesome as it is symbolic. Someone has nailed the actor playing Jesus in the Passion Plays—traditionally performed by the small community every eight years—to the cross. The still-inexperienced Inspector Roxane Aschenwald (Sophie Rois) is assigned to solve the case.

A man is shot dead in broad daylight in Cologne city center. The bullet was fired from 700 meters away and went straight to the heart. Chief Inspector Freddy Schenk believes he knows the murder weapon that can hit the target with pinpoint accuracy from such a great distance. The victim, Charly Hecker, was a successful businessman who apparently had never done anything wrong in life. During the interrogations of Hecker's young wife Franka, something happens to Inspector Ballauf that should not happen: He falls in love with the murdered man's widow and begins to meet her secretly.

To mark the 30th anniversary of Tatort, there was to be a special anniversary crime thriller with this episode. The Cologne detectives Ballauf and Schenk investigate together with their East German colleagues Ehrlicher and Kain. The four have to solve two murders.

On a family trip to Holland, Freddy finds himself suspected of drug smuggling and is forced to go on the run to clear his name. Directed by Martin Giesach, 2000.