Movies
Tatort Münster: Thiel and Boerne Locations
Tatort Münster, the comic crime series with Detective Thiel and Professor Boerne, is set in Münster but filmed partly elsewhere. This route links the Aasee and the Allwetterzoo in Münster with the Venner Moor, Schloss Harkotten and the Cologne house used in the first episode.
Since 2002 Axel Prahl and Jan Josef Liefers have played the odd couple of Münster's murder squad. Five stops follow the series from its first case, Der dunkle Fleck, to the zoo episode Schlangengrube in 2018. Some places are the real setting, others only stood in for it.
Timeline & locations
What do the location labels mean?
- Exact
- The pin marks the actual place where it happened or was filmed.
- Approximate
- The right area — a town, park or district — but not a precise spot.
In the story, Frank Thiel is new to the Münster police and rents a flat in the house of Professor Karl-Friedrich Boerne, the forensic doctor he will work with. The house is not in Münster at all. For the first episode, Der dunkle Fleck, an apartment building on Leipziger Platz in Cologne-Nippes was used as their shared home. Filming mostly takes place in and around Cologne for cost reasons.
Open area inGoogle MapsApple MapsOrganic MapsOpenStreetMap50.96606, 6.95573Visitability not confirmedLocation precision: The source names the square, not the individual building; the pin marks Leipziger Platz in Nippes.
Sources
- Tatort Münster
- Locator:
- Idee, Dreharbeiten und Erzählweise; Figuren
- Tatort Münster
The first case opens with a body in a bog. The scenes where the bog body is discovered were shot at the Venner Moor near Senden, about 15 km south-west of Münster. Der dunkle Fleck was first broadcast on 20 October 2002. The moor is a protected nature reserve, so check local rules before leaving the paths.
Open area inGoogle MapsApple MapsOrganic MapsOpenStreetMap51.85972, 7.54194Visitability not confirmedLocation precision: The source names the moor, not the exact spot where the scene was shot; the pin marks the moor itself.
Sources
- Tatort: Der dunkle Fleck
- Locator:
- Handlung; Drehorte
- Venner Moor
- Locator:
- Introduction
- Tatort: Der dunkle Fleck
The Alsfeld family has a country seat in the first episode, and the exterior shots were filmed at Schloss Harkotten near Sassenberg, about 30 km east of Münster. Harkotten is a rare double castle complex. The castle is privately used and usually closed to the public, so view it from outside.
Open area inGoogle MapsApple MapsOrganic MapsOpenStreetMap52.06083, 8.03194Visitability not confirmedLocation precision: The source names the castle as the film location for the Alsfeld estate; the pin marks the castle, not a particular scene.
Sources
- Tatort: Der dunkle Fleck
- Locator:
- Handlung; Drehorte
- Schloss Harkotten
- Locator:
- Introduction
- Tatort: Der dunkle Fleck
In the 2004 episode Mörderspiele, a woman's torso is found in the Aasee, followed soon after by a parcel with her limbs. Boerne, Silke Haller and prosecutor Wilhelmine Klemm at once think of the Rohrbach murder of the 1950s, a real case that began with a torso found in the same lake in 1957. The episode was first shown on 25 April 2004. Today the Aasee is Münster's inner-city recreation area.
Visitor guidance: The lake and its meadows are open to walk around.
Sources
- Tatort: Mörderspiele
- Locator:
- Handlung; Produktion
- Aasee (Münster)
- Locator:
- Introduction; Mordfall Rohrbach
- Tatort: Mörderspiele
The 33rd case for Thiel and Boerne, Schlangengrube, premiered on 27 May 2018. This time Thiel goes undercover as an animal keeper, and the whole story is set in the zoo, so the investigation plays out among the enclosures and the keepers he works alongside. The Allwetterzoo is a park-like zoological garden in Münster that visitors can still walk through today.
Visitor guidance: A working zoo; check opening times before you go.
Sources
- Allwetterzoo Münster
- Locator:
- Introduction; Medien
- Allwetterzoo Münster
