Rosalie Thomass debuts as new detective in the Franconian Tatort "Gottesgarten"

A new partner for Voss

Rosalie Thomass (39) joins the Franconian Tatort team as Emilia Rathgeber, called Emmy, a detective from Upper Bavaria who works with Felix Voss (Fabian Hinrichs, 51) for the first time in "Gottesgarten", the twelfth episode of the series according to NZZ. Stern describes her as bringing blue nail polish, plenty of empathy and snacks, and says her energy quickly rubs off on the reserved Voss. Der Standard calls her hands-on and pragmatic, a contrast to the more otherworldly Voss. The case is their first together, and it follows a change in the team: Spiegel Online reports that Dagmar Manzel left the series in 2024, after her character Paula Ringelhahn had worked alongside Voss for almost ten years.

In an interview with spot on news, Thomass described her character in one sentence:

“I would say she is curious, open, practical, humorous and empathetic.”

The case

Elias Schaller (Moritz Bock), who performed as Stella according to Die Welt, is found dead with his throat cut in a Nuremberg hotel rented by the hour. Stern reports that Voss and Rathgeber first treat the death as a violent crime in the red-light milieu. Their inquiries lead them to Gottesgarten, a rural area near Lichtenfels, where the victim's parents, played by Horst Kummeth and Jule Gartzke, react very differently to their son's death. Spiegel Online says the family kept quiet about the son's sexuality and about an abuse he suffered as a teenager at a party. NZZ notes that a person in a hooded top flees the scene, that the clues are otherwise sparse, and that viewers learn early who is under the hood, while the investigators visit the family only late in the episode.

Critical reception

The reviews largely praise the new pairing. Tages Anzeiger's review says Thomass convinces as a detective. Stern calls the debut a promising start and praises the show's understated tone, while criticising one line spoken by a sex worker as a cliché and the party scenes for needing more extras. Spiegel Online finds the scenes in which Voss and Rathgeber slowly get closer among the best moments of the episode, but calls the provincial and party scenes mostly flat. Die Welt says the staff change works in Franconia, unlike in Kiel, which it calls a warning example. In Spiegel's review, Eli Wasserscheid's character Wanda Goldwasser is passed over for promotion, and when her superior says she was due for it after ten years, she corrects him that it has been eleven.

The wider season

Tages Anzeiger notes that new investigators are due in Munich and Vienna, and later in Cologne, after changes in Frankfurt and Kiel. NZZ reports that Axel Milberg's Borowski handed his place in Kiel to Mila Sahin (Almila Bagriacik) in a double episode, and that Laurence Rupp joins as a new investigator in Vienna from early 2027. The broadcast was set for 20:15 on Das Erste and ORF 2. Stern gives the date as 24 October, while Der Standard points to 25 October.