22. Februar 2020

The “Tatort” Deception – Detective Patrick Kurtz in an Interview with the Swiss Newspaper Blick

With regard to the new – female – Swiss Tatort team Anna Pieri Zuercher and Carol Schuler, who were to appear in the leading roles from autumn 2020 onwards, the Swiss daily newspaper Blick interviewed private investigator Patrick Kurtz of the Kurtz Detective Agency Zurich and Switzerland about the proportion of women in the detective profession.

The “Tatort” Deception

“Carol Schuler and Anna Pieri Zuercher are replacing Stefan Gubser and Delia Mayer in the Swiss Tatort. The idea that two female commissioners solve crimes together is a fantasy construct. In reality, they are a small minority.

Women take charge of investigations on screen – in reality, they are a small minority

Swiss Tatort fans are still rubbing their eyes in astonishment. The day before yesterday at noon, SRF presented the new investigative duo consisting of two women. Winterthur-born Carol Schuler (32) and Romandy actress Anna Pieri Zuercher (40) will be hunting criminals from 2020 onwards as Tessa Ott and Isabelle Grandjean, replacing Stefan Gubser (61) and Delia Mayer (52). This astonishing reshuffling fits the major change associated with the long-announced shift of the show's location from Lucerne to Zurich. “We want to show a modern Zurich,” explains SRF head of fiction Urs Fitze (61) regarding the drastic changes. “We no longer want to cling so closely to reality but instead allow ourselves greater freedoms and give fictional storytelling more space.”

 

The current situation at the Zurich Cantonal Police further shows that an all-female duo has little to do with reality. Female investigators are a minority in Zurich, as the authorities confirm: “The roughly 20 staff members who investigate homicides for the Zurich Cantonal Police – as the commissioners do in Tatort – are field sergeants with special duties,” says their media spokesperson Rebecca Tilen (37). “One fifth of them are women. In general, approximately 20 percent of Kapo Zurich’s employees are women.”

“Two women are unlikely”

Zurich detective Patrick Kurtz (29) knows: “In all my work, I have never seen an investigative team consisting of two women. Usually, two men are on the job together, occasionally a man and a woman, but two women are very unlikely.”

 

The same applies, by the way, in the private detective industry, says Kurtz. For good reason: “The two sectors are built on one another. Many investigators in the private sector previously worked for the police. If the police have a high share of men, that automatically means a high share of men in detective agencies as well.”

Quotas are King

Why, then, is SRF opting for this essentially unrealistic model? Quite simply: quotas are king. “The female commissioners are very successful with audiences,” states the Tatort page of ARD when asked why there are so many female investigators. “The remote control is always right.”

 

Text: Patricia Broder and Jean-Claude Galli

Screenshot Blick article Patrick Kurtz “Tatort”; detective agency Zurich, detective Lucerne, private detective Lucerne, private investigator St. Gallen

Note

The original article appeared in the Swiss daily newspaper Blick. Emphases (bold text) and hyperlinks on this page may differ from the original.

Kurtz Investigations Zürich and Switzerland

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8048 Zürich

Tel.: +41 (0)44 5522 264

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-schweiz.ch

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