University of Amsterdam Graduate School of Humanities MA Television and Cross Media Culture – Media Studies “Undeniably German” National Culture Building in German Crime Series Thesis Supervisor: Dr. Toni Pape Second Reader: Dr. Joke Hermes MA Thesis Submitted by: Franziska Pfeiffer Student number: 12054720 Date: 28.06.2019 Table of Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 Theoretical Framework: Crime Fiction and National Culture 4 2.1 Crime Fiction: Development of the Genre 4 2.2 Crime Fiction: History and Production Context in Germany 6 2.3 Transnational Crime Fiction 10 2.4 National Culture Building and Identity 11 3 National Culture Building in Tatort: Regional Representations 16 3.1 Localization and Territory: The German City 17 3.2 Language Use: Local Colour 20 3.3 Cultural Proximity: Everyday Life 23 3.4 Social Issues: Crime on an Individual Level 26 4 National Culture Building in Dogs of Berlin: Dividing the Country 30 4.1 Localisation and Territory: The Divided City 31 4.2 Language Use: Sociolects 34 4.3 Cultural Proximity: German Clichés 36 4.4 Social Issues: Crime on a National Level 39 5 National Culture Building in Beat: Globalising the Local 43 5.1 Localisation and Territory: The Global City 43 5.2 Language Use: Coexistence 46 5.3 Cultural Proximity: Local Subculture 48 5.4 Social Issues: Crime on an International Level 49 6 Conclusion 52 Bibliography 55 Table of Images Image 1: The police offers shared by Rubin and Karow 19 Image 2: Berlinale Palast at Potsdamer Platz, Berlin 24 Image 3: Investigator Birkan entering the no-go area 33 Image 4: Agent Emilia and her superior Richard at ESI headquarters 44 1 Introduction On October 2nd of 2018, the European Parliament passed a new directive requiring thirty percent of the content on video-on-demand platforms to be of local origin (European Parliament, 2018). Popular streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime have consequently increased local acquisitions and original productions in Europe. After announcing several new German projects including the crime series Dogs of Berlin, Netflix’s Vice President for original series was quoted as saying: “We want to tell local stories with global appeal. We are excited to have found this in these five projects, which — each in their unique way — are both undeniably German and at the same time tell stories that are relevant to viewers all over the world” (Netflix Media Center, 2018). The aim of this research is to examine how local German cultures – and especially the city Berlin – are represented in online crime series in comparison to a popular traditional crime series on linear television. In order to analyse how German national culture is presented, I will examine three German crime series under consideration of Castelló’s (2009) four elements of national culture building in television fiction. These include localisation and territory, language use, cultural proximity and social issues. Castelló (2009) argues that television fiction plays a significant role in expressing national culture through narrative. Through an investigation of localisation and territory, I will be able to determine which signifiers of ‘Germanness’ have been incorporated into the series and how they situate Berlin within Germany and, if applicable, Germany within the world. Examining the use of language and the cultural elements within the series gives an indication of cultural belonging and highlights the different ways the series can appeal to national and international audiences. By studying the manifold social issues addressed in the three crime series, it is possible to form a deeper understanding of the type of German society that is portrayed and how this society deals with social issues. While I will also explore how each series conceives of crime in society, the portrayal of national culture will be in the foreground. Thus, the understanding of crime will only be analysed insofar as it is relevant to the portrayal of German culture. I aim to determine how the series present Germany to a national audience as well as the appeal for an international audience. The three German crime series I will be analysing are Tatort, 1 Dogs of Berlin and Beat. All three series take place in Berlin and the respective episodes have, with the exception of one Tatort episode, all aired in 2018. It will therefore be interesting to see how differently national culture is presented at supposedly the same point in time. Tatort is a longstanding German crime series that is shown on the public broadcast television regularly on Sundays. Each episode addresses a different social issue in combination with a crime. The episodes take place in different German cities each week, each city being represented by its own team of investigators. I will be looking at three episodes in total: ‘Meta’, ‘Tiere der Großstadt’ and ‘Wilkommen in Hamburg’. ‘Meta’ takes place in Berlin and follows the two investigators Rubin and Karow as they solve a murder connected to the film festival Berlinale. The narrative operates around a film that depicts the same investigation that Rubin and Karow are currently conducting and the lines between fiction and reality become blurred. The episode ‘Tiere der Großstadt’ is also set in Berlin and features the investigators Rubin and Karow. In this episode, they investigate the deaths of a man trapped inside a robotic coffee machine and a woman that was seemingly killed by a wild boar in the woods. The episode addresses fears of technological advancement. The episode ‘Willkommen in Hamburg’ is the only episode discussed in this thesis that does not play in Berlin, but in the city of Hamburg. It tells the story of investigators Tschiller and Yalcin as they uncover an illegal prostitution ring. The episode was chosen as a research object due to the public criticism it received for misrepresenting local culture and being overly Americanised in style (Göbel-Stolz, 2016). Dogs of Berlin consists of ten episodes published in December 2018 on the streaming service Netflix. The narrative centres around the death of German-Turkish football player Orkan Erdem. The investigators Grimmer and Birkan take on the case. The series’ plot features numerous societal groups including members of a neo-Nazi association, the Lebanese mafia, Turkish clans and the German football association. The series treats issues of xenophobia, homosexuality and corruption. Beat is a 2018 Amazon Prime Video production consisting of seven episodes. The narrative follows club promoter Robert ‘Beat’ Schlag, who is recruited by the European Security Intelligence (ESI) as an informant on illegal activities concerning the investors 2 of his club. The series portrays the Berlin techno and electronic music scene and centres around the issue of illegal organ harvesting. Even though a majority of the action takes place within the cosmos of local subculture, the series introduces a wider European context of relevance. The outline of this thesis is as follows: The first chapter provides an overview of crime fiction and its development as a genre, followed by a summary of its history and production context in Germany. I will explore the reasons for the transnational success of crime fiction and how it can be connected to national culture and identity. Following this theoretical framework, I will make use of the four elements of national culture building defined by Castelló to analyse each series individually and draw conclusions in terms of the type of national culture presented and how the series conceptualises crime in relation to national culture. Tatort focuses on regional representations and locality. I contend that the series concentrates on the crime of individuals within society and thereby remains in a very limited frame of reference, which is responsible for its lack of transnational success. Dogs of Berlin portrays a broader image of nationality and uses the narrative taking place in Berlin to represent Germany as a whole. However, the series draws on clichés and conventions to do so. Lastly, the series Beat places Germany in a wider European context and conceptualises crime as a network of diverse actors. This contributes to a more nuanced view of German national culture. 3 2 Theoretical Framework: Crime Fiction and National Culture In order to analyse how German crime series represent national culture, it is important to look at the establishment of crime fiction as a genre. In this chapter, an overview of the characteristics and conventions of the crime fiction genre will be given, as well as an introduction to the development of crime fiction in Germany. This enables a later comparison of the three series Tatort, Dogs of Berlin and Beat in relation to the traditional notion of crime fiction. After explaining the historical and production contexts of German crime fiction, I will go on to explore transnational television in order to map out why crime fiction is particularly suitable to be successful on an international scale. In this regard, I will address streaming services as distribution platforms in particular, since transnational television is traditionally associated with public broadcasters. Finally, I will explain the concept of national culture building that is often found within crime series to establish how it can serve to create an image of a specific country. 2.1 Crime Fiction: Development of the Genre Crime fiction is the most popular genre of fiction and is read across age and social scale (Worthington, 2011). Due to its accessibility and widespread audience, it is often characterised as popular fiction. However, it is precisely these aspects that make it worthy of literary consideration and able to respond to change (Worthington, 2011). Crime fiction often incorporates cultural and social transformations and reflects hopes, fears, morals and values of contemporary society. Worthington claims crime fiction is the only fiction dealing with fact.