The branch manager of a bank has disappeared without a trace. The inspectors Lena Odenthal (Ulrike Folkerts) and Johanna Stern (Lisa Bitter) find old gold coins in the trunk of his car, which apparently come from the time of the Nibelung. Has he found the legendary Rheingold that people have been searching for for centuries? The director of the Nibelungen Museum in Worms (Heino Ferch) confirms the authenticity of the find. This makes it clear: it is about immeasurable wealth. And it doesn’t stop at one crime…
The legendary Nibelungen treasure has stimulated the imagination of artists and soldiers of fortune for centuries. According to legend, the sneaky Hagen von Tronje sank it in the Rhine in the 5th century, where it has slumbered undiscovered ever since. This is how an anonymous poet tells the story around 1200 in the “Nibelungenlied”. In the middle of the 19th century, Richard Wagner was inspired to create what is probably his greatest work: the four-part opera cycle “Der Ring des Nibelungen”. Similar to Wagner’s major work, this “crime scene” is also divided into four sections, which are titled “Das Rheingold”, “Die Walküre”, “Siegried” and “Götterdämmerung”. The characters’ first names are Hagen, (Brünn)-Hilde or Albrecht Dürr – only an “e” prevents the names from being the same as the Renaissance painter Albrecht Dürer, whom Wagner admired. If you want, you can discover many hidden allusions and references in this thriller. If you don’t feel like it, you can just watch a crime thriller.
This “crime scene” puts a lot of effort into giving the story a structure that can be reconciled with the four parts of Wagner’s “Ring.” The rigor and tension of the actual criminal case sometimes falls by the wayside.
Johanna Stern’s children are taking part in an opera performance of the “Ring”, which is why the investigator is already familiar with the material. Meanwhile, her colleague Lena Odenthal is the rich wife and goes in search of the Rheingold in the antique shop.
Even those who have never had anything to do with Richard Wagner’s “Ring des Nibelungen” will enjoy this “crime scene”. Turn on.
Lena Odenthal and Johanna Stern recently investigated these cases:
