Two nine-year-old boys were murdered in 1969 in Eberswalde ( Frankfurt (Oder) district ). The Murder Investigation Commission (MUK) was set up under the leadership of Inspector Heinz Gödicke of the Criminal Investigation Department and Stefan Witt, Major in the Ministry for State Security . All relatives and acquaintances of the victims were questioned on a large scale, but this did not provide any clues as to who the perpetrator was. The fact that both bodies bore numerous small knife wounds, which were not fatal, led Gödicke to suspect that the murderer was sadistic and mentally ill. The case of the child murderer Jürgen Bartsch , which had recently come to public attention in the Federal Republic of Germany through the media, gave rise to his suspicions. But the State Security, in the person of Witt, did not allow this idea to continue, because such a thing could not and must not happen in the German Democratic Republic . Additional tension arises between the investigative duo when the secret relationship between Witt's partner, the elementary school teacher Carla Böhm, and Gödicke comes to light. Witt, who is loyal to the party line, announces the dissolution of the MUK and has the case filed away as unsolved.
Gödicke, who promised one of the victims' fathers that he would find the murderer of his child, continues to investigate for months. But he is unable to prevent a third child murder. Witt, who has since been promoted to colonel, appears again and is told by Gödicke that he is responsible for the death of this child.
Gödicke goes on the offensive and questions the children in the Eberswalde school. One boy gives him a tip about a young man in his twenties. The inspector compares the list of animal abusers, which was compiled in the course of the investigation in 1969 but never evaluated, with the list of people who were present at the funeral in 1969. He comes across Erwin Hagedorn, born in 1949. He works in the Eberswalde Mitropa restaurant at the train station, which explains to the investigators why, according to the investigation, a knife was used professionally as a murder weapon. When Gödicke and his colleague Georg Thom from the People's Police visit the suspect, he confesses: "I am the one you are looking for."
Since Hagedorn confessed to all three murders and even after the reenactment of the crime there was no doubt about his guilt, he was sentenced to death. Gödicke tried to speak up for him, as he believed him to be mentally ill and therefore not guilty, but the judge did not listen to him. After a request for clemency by the then Chairman of the State Council of the GDR, Walter Ulbricht , was also rejected, Hagedorn was executed on September 15, 1972 in the Leipzig penitentiary by an unexpected close-range shot to the back of the head with a pistol.
Cheating Notes
At the beginning of the film, the cop has sex with his partner's wife, BDSM-style (he ties her to the bedpost). We see her boob briefly here.
At 35:33, the cop ties his partner's wife to the bedpost again but this time, he pulls out a knife, uses it to rip her shirt open, and runs its pointy end on her face, her neck, and her chest. Apparently, he does it to get a reaction from her husband, who I think has discovered their relationship at this point, when she comes running to him. The next day, her husband reacts by beating him up.
Leave a Reply