“Tatort” star Martin Brambach: “Have nice memories of Dresden”

For millions of TV viewers, he is known as commissioner Peter Michael Schnabel in the Dresden “Tatort”, but Martin Brambach connects far more with the Saxon capital than his role. Born in Dresden, the actor spent a “very, very happy childhood” before moving to Berlin at the age of six. Now he has with “Nice to meet you, Dresden!” (Polyglott) even published its own travel guide about his hometown.

In an interview with Spot on News, the actor, who has been living in Recklinghausen in the Ruhr area for many years, reveals his deep connection to the city on the Elbe. He also talks about East-West clichés and reveals how the dynamics at the Dresden “crime scene” have changed after the exit of his colleague Karin Hanczewski (43).

Martin Brambach: This is something very special. I grew up in Dresden for the first years and spent a very, very happy childhood there. Happiness only stopped when I moved to Berlin when I was six years old. There I tipped into the rough reality, so to speak. But before that we lived incredibly beautifully in an almost village corner in Dresden, with old half -timbered houses directly at the forest area. I enjoyed such beautiful memories and such a free childhood that Dresden already plays a big role in my head for me. I combine large, homeland feelings with Dresden. I am always completely charged when I’m in the city.

Brambach: Of course I am at home in everyday life in the Ruhr area. But I also enjoy the time in Dresden. The travel guide also had two small selfish motifs: one was that I wanted to know more about the history of my family. My father comes from Dresden, went to school there, experienced the bombing and the reconstruction, the GDR. I wanted to know everything exactly, because I am very interested in this exciting personal piece of contemporary history. We then spent a few very nice days in Dresden and also visited the places of my childhood.

The other motive was that I wanted to get to know Dresden even better. Unfortunately, there is little time when filming the “crime scene”.

Brambach: That could be. But of course I feel very comfortable here in the Ruhr area, I like the down -to -earth mentality of the people and it is also a bit cheaper to live here. As beautiful as I live here, I probably couldn’t afford it in Dresden. (laughs)

Brambach: I used to be sporadically in Dresden, mostly in transit and not so targeted. And suddenly you have the privilege that you can spend time in your hometown and are also paid for it. That changed a lot. Already after the first days of shooting I went to where I grew up. Then the memories came.

Brambach: Of course you have a different touch and deal with it very differently. We also had a case in which my figure supports the Pegida. Of course, you worry more than when I now play a police officer in Hamburg. The fact that there is a political explosive in his hometown, let’s say, that is more concerned with you. One is looking for explanations for it. I also talked to people who go to the Pegida and people who resist, again, have to tell me stories. You deal more intensely.

Brambach: I hope both. My figure is responsible for traditional, but Belabel is very worthy of value and conservative. And then there are the colleagues on the other side. We try to tell stories that play in today and which also show the contradictions of the city. That is the wonderful ambivalence: a conservatism, but also a modern side. At the same time, this is a city that has a strong education bourgeoisie with a great history. This is a great tension.

Brambach: As an actor or artist, you always live from clichés because you have to enlarge things. At my first Dresden “crime scene” it fell a bit on our feet. There was a figure that was too clichéd to the people in Dresden. Of course, one tries to make sure that you capture things in their reality. It is always contradictory and never easy.

After the elections, the East is now more identified with AfD and on the right, but that has very complex roots. We are all the citizens of a country. We have to see that we can get together than to divide. If the people in Munich or Cologne like to watch the “crime scene” from Dresden, this is a step towards better understanding.

Brambach: I came to the West in 1984 when I was 17 and went to high school again in Hamburg. There was no interest in the fact that I came from the GDR, hardly anyone was interested in politics. But at some point someone asked me if we actually had escalators in the GDR. That was a moment when I was confronted with a cliché – I then replied that we had a single one, but it didn’t always work. (laughs) He believed that.

That’s how it is with clichés, of course you always have something. There are lovable and malignant clichés, in the best case you try to stand over it. You can hardly defend yourself that you always see something typical. Our brain works like this: We always form patterns and always clearly assign things.

Brambach: Of course we are not a tourist advertising. At the Dortmund “crime scene” it was the case that the mayor complained how his city was portrayed. We have not yet experienced anything like that. We tell interesting, sometimes polarizing cases about human abysses. So far I have the feeling that the encouragement in Dresden is great.

Whether this is really changing the image of Dresden – the difference between cities in Germany remains. But because you see things again and again, you get used to it, accept differences much more and see: The talking funny dialect. This is a cultural people, the Saxons. They like to eat well, they have wine. The beak is sometimes funny. (laughs) So we are already trying to break a lance for Dresden.

Brambach: Of course it is like this: we play figures. Cornelia does not speak dialect now, she doesn’t try to play a typical Dresden policewoman, but represents a great commissioner. What she does here would probably work in another city, in another format. But sometimes I try to take a little dialect in so that there is a location and the place of action is not arbitrary. The way I think it is nice when in Munich’s “crime scene” is spoken by Bavarian or in Berlin.

Brambach: I think that’s a little sad. I got on perfectly with Karin. We both had so much fun playing together, improvising. We have now shot in the new case without Karin. Of course, that’s something different, even for my figure. Before that, Schnabel had the two women in front of them, so the friction was simple. Then the picture was very clear: the arms, overwhelmed man.

But now we are working on two episodes that are also very exciting. For one I am very in the foreground, which also has a different tonality. In this case, it is about the past of Schnabel. It’s about things that trigger him very much. It has a completely different temperature, but it is still the same figure. It will be exciting – let’s see how he arrives at the people.

In the other, Cornelia is more in focus, which has become a real thriller. I think the appeal lies in the variety. That people are always a little surprised: the beak can also be more serious. We are still looking for how the dynamics will develop. This year we are turning a case, we’ll see where the trip is going. But we had a lot of fun together. At the end of the day it always stands with the scripts anyway. And ultimately the audience will decide.