The German detective series Tatort first aired in 1970, and is the longest-running and most popular crime series in German-speaking countries. At the beginning of the Tatort broadcasts the series had more than 25 million viewers and a market share of more than 70%. Only in the 1980s, after the introduction of the dual broadcasting system, this situation changed by by virtue of the competition of the private television: the rates dropped to a significantly lower level. However, Tatort still remains one of the most popular television shows in Germany.[1]
As a consequence of the immense popularity of the series and the huge audience it has, some fans do not only want to experience the world of the detectives on TV, but in real life as well. In his article ‘Places of the imagination: an ethnography of the TV detective tour’, Reijnders introduces the concept of “lieux d’imagination”, which are physical points of reference, such as objects or places which, for specific groups in society, provide the opportunity to construct and subsequently cross the symbolic boundary between an ‘imagined’ and a ‘real’ world.[2] In this essay, we will take a closer look at these lieux d’imaginations and investigate which effect tourism has on several German cities which compete over the sceneries of the series and offer tours in order to attract the series most dedicated fans. Furthermore, we will dive a bit deeper into the article of Reijnders itself and shine a critical light on one of the statement he makes according to the wishes and needs of the audience.
In Media, Markets and the Public Sphere, Croteau and Hoynes present two approaches for researching the way in which media interacts with audiences. The first aproach, the ‘market model’, mainly promotes exchange based on supply and demand. Whereas by the ‘public sphere model’, the focus lays more on informing the society. according to this model, media also has the role of an information source and a storyteller.[3] When analyzing the interaction of Tatort with the audience, we can see that mainly the market model becomes present. Especially when we look at the way in which “Lieux d’imaginations” are created, we see that both pubs and the cities try to make profit out of the fact that they appear in the series.
In Tatort, there is a very stark emphasis on the cityscape. The “lieux d’imagination” the series employs, has made some harcore followers go out and travel to specific German cities that were featured in the series, in order to step into the footsteps of the characters. Of course, different enterprises make a profit out of this: several pubs for example advertise the fact that a dialogue scene has been shot at their bar. However, not only pubs and bars try to make profit out of the lieux d’imaginations from the series; German cities where the series is shot do so as well. Deaths in Münster, Ulm or Freiburg, brutal gang warfare between Mannheim and Heidelberg, or maybe a murder in the Black Forest, in the elegant Baden-Baden or near Karlsruhe: many municipalities in Germany want to become (fictional) crime strongholds for the series. The struggle for new scenery is always a big hype in Germany. As a location of the ARD crime series, the cities and regions expect national attention and a positive image. City Marketing and Crime series occupy an increasingly important role in the tourism industry.[4] Many cities want to be on the screen in prime time on Sunday evening with an audience of millions. TV shows make places known which seems to induce tourism, in this case television tourism, or of you will, Tatort tourism. But the place and space of a city has to be credible of course, you can’t just situate a Tatort season in any German city willy-nilly; it is important that cities offer topics, different social classes and milieus for credible crime stories.
Once a location is chosen, location marketing, understood as the orientation of a city or region as a location provider at regional, national and international site markets, can come into fruition, both before the actual episodes are being shot, and of course, after they have aired. The aim is to influence the location decisions of companies. In this case, the marketing is focused on the safeguarding of existing premises and the acquisition of new-interested companies. In addition, the operator of the location marketing wants to achieve more visibility and a better image in the primary target group companies as well as advertise with tourists, investors, skilled workers and families to bring additional purchasing power to the location.
The television critic Hendrik Efert reported that some cities have had additional revenue, because Tatort tourists were targeted, and with succes. However, the effect could still be much bigger. The hit series Breaking Bad for instance, instigated a whole new level of attention for the once fairly anonymous Albuquerque, New Mexico. To give one more example: tourism in the small Swedish town of Ystad, home of the mysteries inspector Kurt Wallander detects, has shown what since has been dubbed as the "Wallander - effect”, which is another word for a major rise in tourist numbers.[5] So, economically-wise, it is fair to judge that it is not disadvantageous for a city if a popular film or series takes place there, even when it is mostly grim and revolves around murders, drugs and other unpleasant topics. But it is important to raise the question whether this place promotion in the long term doesn’t devaluate or obscure the original sense of place or identity of that particular place, in the sense that the tourist image, instigated by popular televsion or film, doesn’t usurp the place’s truer and more classic identity, something that doens’t have that strong of a relation to fiction.
So far, we have explained the concept of ‘lieux d’imagination’ in relation to Tatort and analyzed how this can be an important concept for German cities in their own city branding. In the conclusion of this essay, we want to take a closer look at one of the statements Reijnders makes in his article: the notion that ‘tourists clearly enjoy the disctintion which is made between the TV detective programs and the ‘real world’.[6] This is an interesting assumption, because it raises the question whether or not tourists travel to places to get their fantasies about certain places confirmed, or to get them, in a sense, deconstructed, because they will be confronted with reality sec, which, of course, hardly ever is true to fiction. There might be tourists who, in a Freudian sense, and perhaps unconcsiously, will travel to these lieux d’imaginations to get their fantasies destroyed, for mental cleansing maybe, but we can also, just as easily, imagine tourists who go and travel to enjoy the unclear, symbolic boundaries between the real and the imagined. So, if cities get a clearer understanding of the emotional and deeper motivations on televison and film tourism, the branding and marketing of these phenomena could turn into something even more adequate. More research on this topic, could provide interesting answers.
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[1] Richter, 2009: x.
[2] Reijnders, 2010: 40.
[3] Crocteau & Hoynes, 2006: 17, 22-23.
[4] Balderjahn, 2014: 21.
[5] Deutschlandradio Kultur: x.
[6] Reijnders, 2010: 45.
References
Balderjahn, I. (2014) Location Marketing. UVK/Lucius: München.
Croteau, D. & Hoynes, W. (2006) ‘Media, markets and the public sphere’, in: The Business of Media: Corporate Media and the Public Interest. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press: 15-40.
Deutschlandradio Kultur [article] ‘Sie profitieren von den Krimi-Touristen’, retrieved 06-10-2015, from: http://www.deutschlandradiokultur.de/reisen-in-tatort-staedte-sie-profitieren-von-den-krimi.2156.de.html?dram:article_id=313712
Gerhards, M. & Klingler, W. (2011) ‘Branches- and Format trends in German television’, in: Media Perspectives, 1.
Reijnders, S. (2010) ‘Cultural Geographies, Places of the imagination: an ethnography of the TV detective tour’, in: Cultural Geographies, 17, nr. 1: 37 - 52.
Richter, C. (2009) 'Die Experten: 14. September 2009', in: Quoten Meter. Retrieved at 06-10-2015, from: http://www.quotenmeter.de/cms/?p1=n&p2=37241&p3
Proposition: do we as an audience really want the fictional world of the series to be ‘explained’ or do we, to a certain extend, enjoy to be fooled by the fantasy?
A. vd B., V.M., J.P.
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