A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES
[woman humming a strange melody]
[humming continues]
[stops humming]
[resumes humming]
[humming cuts out]
We're going to stop, right?
And then? Just forget it?
Keller will be here in an hour. That will be it.
In two weeks, the shifts change again.
We can work out a new strategy.
By then, Melanie's mother will be dead.
You shouldn't have made a promise to her.
[loud clunk]
[inaudible] Breakfast!
[Ludwig] She's fucking crazy.
She knows we're here.
Do me a favour. Get her something from the bakery.
Make no mistake, Karl, I'm not losing my job for this.
Egg, cheese, sausage croissant.
She takes coffee black.
[pulsing music playing]
- [keypad beeping] - [door buzzing]
Room service?
Can I help you?
That's what I was hoping.
Open it.
You'll be given a larger cell, access to the workshop,
and the television you want.
Cigarettes, don't forget.
And I want one for now.
We have one hour, and that's it.
Forever.
No larger cell.
No television. No nothing.
Where is she?
[woman exhales] I'm no good at reading maps.
It's a basic map. Simpler than a cycling map.
I never rode my bike there.
You were there often enough.
Where did you bury Melanie Weiss?
Where did you bury her?
[loud bang]
Show me!
Maybe, if we drive out there again...
Tell me now, or I'll make life hell over the next 20 years for you.
You kidnapped,
assaulted,
killed, and buried her.
If you don't help us find the body,
do you think that you will ever be given
even the slightest chance of anything else?
Her mother's dying.
And she has only asked for this one wish.
She wants to know where her child is so she can organize a proper burial.
Say it. Now.
[hawking phlegm]
I'm hungry.
[door buzzing]
Mmm!
Breakfast.
[chuckling]
I'll make you an offer, Schulz.
You're not in a position to be making offers.
[high-pitched whine]
[haunting music playing]
- [keypad beeping] - [door buzzing]
- This has all been discussed. - Close the door.
If it had, you wouldn't need to say that. What's all this?
That's Claudia Hartmann. Mark Kreutzer's old flame.
The Spreewald Forest Killer. First killers after the Wall came down.
And?
Schulz was in charge of the case. Six minors.
She lured them in, and he assaulted and killed them.
What's she doing here? She's already serving her sentence.
The first of them, Melanie Weiss, was never found.
Her mother is about to die.
Hartmann promised she'd tell us where the body's buried, but we've just sat...
And what legal grounds do we have for bringing her here?
We spoke with the prison warden and the prosecutor. It's been arranged.
Of course, we're not recording it.
Do I make it clear when I say this is forbidden?
We've another three quarters of an hour.
What for?
Then she has to be back in her cell. Before she's missed.
[Hartmann humming strange melody]
Hard or soft?
[gently cracks egg on desk]
[eerie music playing]
Mmm...
What's the offer about?
Mrs. Weiss wants her daughter, and I want mine.
Out of the question.
To me, it sounds fair.
[door slams]
[whirring]
You can be accused of torture for what you're doing and you know that.
And it isn't a threat?
One call from me is all that it takes.
What's holding you back?
That it doesn't even worry you. And you think you're never in the wrong.
And the fact that I was starting to like you.
I stood by Ingrid Weiss, Melanie's mother.
Since day one we've had contact.
That's 21 years.
I answered her call that night when her daughter didn't come home.
I was in the woods when we found the glasses,
pants with sperm from Kreutzer on them...
I went over it for days on end, thinking how to tell a single mother
that her only daughter
was raped and murdered
and had been dumped somewhere.
I supported her during all of this shit.
And when Kreutzer, before the process, alone in his cell,
takes a ballpoint pen and slits his wrists,
she goes to church and lights a candle for him.
Five years ago, she sends a message: she has cancer.
Since then, I've made sure she's had the best treatment.
It's all for nothing. The woman's dying now.
I'll make sure her daughter is properly laid to rest before Ingrid dies.
And then by all means suspend me, or whatever you want.
It doesn't matter now.
[elevator pings]
Morning.
What do they know?
I told them they should stay away, but...
Any others?
Prosecutor Klauss and a couple of people at the prison.
And that's all, yeah?
Yes.
I'll make a suggestion.
You're not feeling too good.
It's totally understandable in your condition.
Go home, as if you were never here.
What has she told you so far?
Nothing, since her arrest 20 years ago.
She talks a lot but says nothing.
Yet you keep issuing threats and yelling. What are you achieving?
You can't negotiate with her.
You can negotiate with anyone.
[Borchert] Hartmann got pregnant before she was arrested
and had the baby during pre-trial detention.
Before she was sentenced she agreed to an adoption.
That shows at least the capacity for empathy is there.
- Anonymously? - I only know what's in the file.
There's nothing in there.
She's living somewhere and has no idea about any of this, at least.
But Hartmann believes you know more?
That you know where her daughter is and what she's called?
I thought we could make her talk.
Now things aren't going your way and you can't give her the name.
Even if we knew, we wouldn't tell her.
She shouldn't be allowed to ruin another life.
Can you see what you can find?
Now?
I'll talk to her.
No. You tell me beforehand and I'll go in.
Why should she trust you?
She knows it's about Mrs. Weiss's daughter.
She wants to see her daughter. I'm also a mother.
ADOPTIONS 1999-2000
I understand, but you won't know what you're talking about.
A woman like Hartmann
is at the very bottom of the social order in the women's prison.
She's learned to defend herself.
An expectant mother going in there, exposing what she's lost? Really?
Hartmann's unpredictable.
If she finds out that we have no idea who and where her daughter is,
then we're fucked.
[Hartmann humming]
[humming]
- [keypad beeping] - [door buzzing]
Good morning.
Would it bother you if I let in some fresh air?
So now they really are bringing in the big guns.
Is the bump real?
Do you want to touch it?
And I thought you couldn't think of anything new, Schulz. Good one!
To you, too.
Ms. Hartmann, you are aware you don't have to be here?
When is your due date?
Fourteen weeks. So they tell me.
Oops.
What happened to your arms?
Allergy. Washing powder.
Have you spoken to a doctor about it?
So, boy or girl?
Girl.
Her name?
Paula.
Mark and I never really had the chance to talk about a name, or anything.
What did you have the chance to talk about?
I see what this is.
The "we're both women so we understand each other" game.
You'd asked me, so I asked you.
Maria.
Maria Magdalena.
Maybe a little old-fashioned. Name makes the person, right?
My impression is that the person makes the person.
You have nothing against chatting here like this, is that correct?
Fine by me. Every night you can take me out of my cell.
I'm not missing anything.
This one's not going to kill it.
You want details about your daughter and you want to contact her, correct?
I can understand.
If you can understand, then go and get them.
I've been asking myself what it would be like...
if my daughter and I couldn't get to know each other.
If I couldn't be there for her when she needed me,
or didn't know if she was safe.
I couldn't bear it.
But everything your daughter knows about you is...
what she's found on the internet, mainly the news articles, at that.
"Claudia Hartmann, murderer of six girls."
How did you imagine it?
That she'd want you,
just like that?
Yeah.
Why, after 20 years, are you now interested? What's it for?
I've had 20 years without being asked.
Have you thought about what will happen?
How your daughter will react when you introduce yourself?
"I helped to kill six young girls before I myself was 25."
I don't know, is that your opener?
Go fuck yourself.
Listen to me.
Your daughter would find out everything about you.
Imagine what you would have to explain to her.
How is she supposed to understand?
Claudia Hartmann, the monster.
This shit sounds the same from Schulz and everyone else. Shut the fuck up.
But I'm not finished here. Have you killed anyone?
Look at the verdict. It's all in there.
Mark Kreutzer took his life so you were convicted for the things that he did,
not as an accessory.
But are you a murderer?
You had nothing to do with the assaults, did you?
What are you saying?
I think that it's important to you that your daughter understands you.
You must want that.
For her to understand who her mother really is.
That you're more than just the monster others think you are.
For fuck's sake,
just tell me my daughter's name and where she lives,
then I'll tell you where Melanie Weiss is, saving ourselves the shit in the middle.
As I said...
at any time, you're free to go.
Or you can try to explain it to me in a way that's clear, so I'll understand.
And if I can understand you...
your daughter might understand it, too.
What do you say?
Why is she showing empathy? She doesn't deserve that.
Keller's approach is good. Hartmann's not in control.
[Hartmann] All right, then.
Let's talk.
What you want to understand?
Why did you do it?
If only I knew!
The girls...
Choosing the girls, getting them in the car somewhere, so that Mark...
Love.
What is it for you, love?
I don't know what it is.
My man and I have been together since school.
It's more of a habit, now, I think.
Trust, and the fear of how it would be if things were different.
Shit, right?
But Mark and me...
I was in my early twenties, living in Prenzlauer, back then.
One day, I was leaving my apartment and there he was, just standing there.
His trousers were all crumpled. I found it sweet.
He didn't know what to make of me and thought I was some techno girl
from the Love Parade or something.
Then one day later, we started to talk.
The fact that at 17 I'd left home, he thought was good.
He said it was interesting.
Was that new for you?
Yeah.
How many men care about anything apart from themselves?
But with Mark it was different.
We bought some beer from the 24-hour shop
and drove in his delivery truck to Müggelsee, to swim.
There, we swam and spent the whole night together until morning.
Sounds good.
Better than that. It was special.
Those moments are rare.
Yeah. And that was mine.
Müggelsee? Romantic, my arse. That's where the girls were dug up.
She means it.
[Keller] What happened after you spent that night together?
And then the next morning, he drove me to work at the canteen in the school.
He'd sometimes come behind the counter and fuck around with me.
So many girls worshipped him.
- Were you possessive of him? - No need. Why?
I was his woman.
The others were just for his ego.
I mean, it was nothing that could threaten what we had.
The relationship? You trusted in it?
Yeah...
I realised much later on that it was a thing he had,
for being someone's first one.
I mean, it's awkward, isn't it?
It's weird...
that the first time would be anyone's turn-on.
How were you able to tell, later on, who was a virgin?
Who flirted, who didn't.
Who was still immature.
In the canteen, people talk.
[Keller] Did you discover his fantasies or did he tell you about them?
That was a year later, I suppose.
The time I threatened to leave him.
You wanted to leave him?
I woke up and he was above me, half inside me.
I tried to make him stop but his hand covered my mouth.
Mark had that side to him. He was always fighting aggression.
It was... as if he was overtaken by energy.
Sometimes the funniest man in the world,
and then depressed and violent.
We had been to a therapist but that didn't help.
He just shut down.
So that night when it happened, he was so ashamed.
He immediately fell to his knees and said that he was sorry.
He didn't want to see the therapist any more,
and that he would tell me everything if I stood by him.
Have you ever seen a man so broken?
At that moment I could have said anything to him.
I said,
"We can do this."
I said, "Tell me what you're thinking and we can do this."
And he said, "I have a thing for younger girls."
The yearbook of schoolgirls?
Yes. Like a catalogue.
Didn't you talk more about it? What he meant?
We didn't talk at all, why would we? It was clear.
I opened the book up and he pointed to the one he wanted.
Melanie Weiss?
Is that enough?
[Ludwig] We've only got half an hour left.
What on earth happened between Hartmann and you?
Keller in ten minutes did more than you in five hours.
After ten years, you must be the person she's spoken most to.
[Keller] How did you arrange it that first time?
I gave it some thought.
The sports center stayed open until eight.
They had training.
In autumn it's darker.
Melanie had always had the local team's volleyball training.
On Thursdays.
She was always the first one to come out.
She obviously didn't like showering with the others. Teenagers at that age...
She had a city bike. Really heavy.
I was nervous he whole week about what would happen.
I saw her in the canteen every day in the morning and afternoon.
And then the Thursday afternoon came.
And she was ill. Absurd!
Mark didn't know what to do.
He got wasted at Tresor the whole weekend,
and when I finally found him I said, "Hey, next week it'll go as we planned."
Then it was all so easy.
Let her tyre down, pretended I was there by chance.
"Hey, Melanie, sorry that you've got a flat tyre, especially as it's dark.
Come on, throw the bike in the car."
Then I said I had to stop to water some flowers at the cemetery.
Only quickly.
We drove for 20 minutes and she didn't suspect that anything was wrong at all.
She talked about this and that.
I could already see Mark behind us on his motorbike,
so yeah, it was serious.
When I drove into the car park, she asked me
if I had any special plans for a new menu,
and I thought, "If you only knew what was about to happen."
No...
Stupidly, I thought, "Shit, I wish he'd keep driving."
He followed you as planned?
I parked, and he got off his motorbike.
At that moment, I just wanted to scream for her to run away,
but I was frozen stiff, and then Mark went round to her side,
and he hit her with his helmet in the face, three or four times.
It was all bloody.
Her head fell forwards. All done.
Ever had a dog?
When it spots you, even from far away, and then runs towards you...
And you look it in the eyes and think,
"Will it jump on me or is it going for my throat?"
Mark reached over, unbuckled her and started to move her.
There were three containers for old glass and old paper...
I remained sitting.
Should I go with him?
Or should I start to clean the car?
I had no idea.
I should have realised that he wouldn't just fuck her and nothing would happen,
but what wasn't clear was the getting rid of her.
I heard everything.
His buckle.
Her underwear.
The passenger-side door was open. It lasted maybe five minutes, no more.
I heard his breathing,
but I hoped that she wasn't really there when he was doing it to her.
Then it was all still.
And I only heard the broken glass under his shoes
as he walked over to me.
He lay down across the passenger seat, his face in my lap.
He said he was sorry, for me.
I stroked his hair, the curls behind his ear.
I comforted him.
He had finally realised what his fantasies meant in reality.
And as I stroked his hair, so did I.
His flies were still open.
I was so sorry.
Were you clear what had happened?
That Melanie was dead?
When we got home, we got in the bath together
and then spent the next day in bed.
Mark was scared that the police would ring the doorbell. But no one did.
We just remained there all day.
Then...
I called in sick. We needed food so I went to the store.
I thought to myself, "It's impossible that no one's coming."
A hundred people must have seen, but there was no one.
By the time I returned to work, Schulz and his lot had already moved on.
No one thought to ask why the canteen lady
had missed three days of work without an excuse.
It was so simple.
Mark and I were closer than ever.
Now ask where she is...
Why is she ignoring that?
Satisfied? Enough reminiscing?
Why not call the police there and then?
Why would I?
If you don't talk about something it's as though it never happened.
I went back to work. So did Mark.
Were you thinking you'd live your normal lives again?
I hadn't thought.
Mark looked after me. He was thankful. We hardly ever went out.
Did you realise a second time would happen?
I was in the bath. In October.
I saw the book, the yearbook,
lying there between the magazines next to the toilet.
He had put little post-its next to the ones he liked.
I thought, what do I do now? Do I say nothing, do I throw it away?
And then, what would he do?
Then he'd go, or he'd... What would he do?
Then I'd be stuck here alone. So I showed him, that evening.
After eating. On the table.
What I don't understand is that it was all done for him.
But Mark, what did he do for you?
Mark and me is understood by no one.
It could be understood that you took all the blame
and he got away with it.
All your needs and wishes were put aside, and his took over.
That's why you think I'll tell you where Melanie Weiss is?
"Because all my needs and wishes were put aside, and his took over"?
Mark and you made recordings of the murders,
of the third and fourth victims, while he was sexually assaulting them.
Yeah. He listened to them.
What I said earlier, about the dog.
When we were fucking.
I wanted to see it. His eyes.
And had he even satisfied you?
Really?
Lick me!
The photos that Mark had taken. One of the girls, there's a photo of her.
That girl was already lying in her grave. Was that something that you wanted?
You want your child.
You shouldn't owe Mark anything any more.
What, you think Mark would tell you?
The only one who could vouch for your innocence before the process
slits his wrists without a second thought and leaves you alone to do the time?
He'd slit you open like a fish and you'd wish you never waltzed in here today.
He took his own life in the moment
when he could have helped you receive a lesser sentence.
No! He took his own life because without me he had nothing to live for.
Had he even once asked about the daughter you'd had?
Anything about her life?
Why would he?
Not one of my letters in all that time had ever reached him.
- What makes you so sure? - He would have answered them.
- Maybe he didn't want to. - No! No.
Say it's not how it was.
They would use their own blood to seal them.
They'd cut the tip of a finger then press it onto the paper until it was dry.
The fingerprint was too clear. To read them, we had to break the seal.
You read them?
We wanted information. But they were just love letters.
[Borchert] What happened with them?
They were burnt.
Keller's losing control.
Give her another minute.
Why didn't you take your own life, then?
I don't know.
Upbringing?
You were thinking of your daughter, weren't you?
Her heartbeat. You can feel every movement inside you.
What are you hoping to achieve by getting to know her?
That she'll forgive you?
Your love for her means more than the past, doesn't it?
What happens if she can't handle the truth about you?
Is it not better for her to hate a stranger that she's read about
than her mother, who she should actually have love for?
Talk to us, Claudia.
For Maria's sake.
Is she doing well?
Better than you could have wished for.
Melanie's mother still has the same wish for her daughter.
A place where she can rest
and be treated with the love and care she's always deserved.
You have the chance to fulfill that wish for her.
So tell us where Melanie is.
[tense music playing]
Where is she living?
In Munich.
Doing what, there?
Studying to be a pharmacist.
A boyfriend?
I'm afraid I couldn't tell you.
Say it...
In the courtroom, as the recordings of the girls were played back,
we could hear that they begged and screamed, everyone was in tears.
While you just sat there. I asked myself, "How is that possible?
Does this woman feel nothing?"
- How much effort does it take to do that? - What?
To not show sorrow.
I know now that you do feel things,
that you can empathise with Melanie's mother's pain.
A lot was going on that night. Young people everywhere.
Parties on the beach. It was warm.
Look at that. Fifteen years old.
I mean, even with everything her mother no longer has, she has this.
I had to give up my daughter there and then,
and no one cared whether I wanted a picture or not.
I was shackled when I gave birth.
My hands, left and right.
I had just enough room with the chains on my legs
to prop them up.
The two officers looked at me as though I was birthing the devil.
I kept screaming at them.
And when it was over, the midwife just took her off.
Not a single glance at my baby. Can you imagine that?
Sounds awful.
No shit.
Give me a photo, and I'll say it.
This will never end.
Karl!
[Ludwig] If you go in there, you'll fuck up everything you've worked for.
Twenty years, you've been living with this, now.
Let her do it.
[tense music playing]
Thank you.
[Keller] Ms. Hartmann?
It's weird.
For a moment, I forgot that we weren't alone.
You just said you were forced to give up your daughter at birth.
In Berlin, there are mother-and-child cells.
Didn't they offer you one like that where you could be with Maria?
At least for three months, until they could be certain
that adoption was the right option for her?
They were afraid I'd do something to her or use her as a hostage.
- What about your relatives? - Who?
Mark's parents didn't believe the child had anything to do with him.
Foster family?
Are you listening? I'm not saying any more. One photo, that's the deal.
Why was your daughter's adoption accepted by you,
when you think all of this is so unfair?
Because I was being fucked over.
I was 25 years old, facing a murder sentence,
meaning a lifetime in jail at the very least.
I was on the front page of every newspaper.
And then one evening, Schulz came with a woman from the adoption agency
and talked at me for hours until I broke down
and finally signed the fucking paper to give away my own child.
Everyone asks why Ms. Hartmann has a problem with him.
He had my child taken from me.
[Keller] Schulz convinced you to do it?
[Hartmann] With exactly the same lines as you.
What do you think you would have done?
You had no right to do that.
What do you have to say about it, Proska?
You should at least say sorry.
Yeah...
I'm sorry, Ms. Hartmann. I didn't know that.
Please spare me.
I mean it. I'm truly sorry.
It's what it is, and I'm who I am. Just give me the photo.
I can't do that.
Why?
I'll start being honest with you.
I cannot say that I care or have any understanding for you.
If we spent more time together, then maybe.
But I want to be honest with you.
We don't have a photo.
We don't know anything about your daughter.
- You were lying. - Yes.
And Schulz, too. The whole time. And I'm sorry for that.
We have nothing, and it's likely we'll never find anything.
You told me she was good.
And you told us you knew where Melanie was buried, but you don't.
It was your first murder. You were still suffering from shock.
Mark Kreutzer did it all himself.
You stayed in the car park until he came back.
How long did it take him? Thirty minutes? An hour?
That's how it was, right? You know nothing.
You said she had a good life!
[alarm sounds]
[Ludwig] Shit!
[panicked voices]
[Hartmann] Get the fuck off me!
[Ludwig] Handcuffs! On the table!
- I'll call for an ambulance. - I'll be fine.
No way.
We're calling it off.
You're going to the hospital straight away.
It's OK. She's not hurt.
Can I do anything for you?
Yes. Please, finally put an end to all this.
Her mother's dying. She deserves to know.
I just started to like you, and now I'm asking
what are you still hiding besides Claudia Hartmann?
A lot, unfortunately.
Water would be good.
Of course.
- [Hartmann] You pigs! - [door slams]
[breathing deeply]
You bastards!
[breathing deeply]
You fucking arseholes!
- You motherfucking arseholes! - We'll leave as soon as we can.
She's crazy. We need her to calm down. She just attacked one of our colleagues.
Yeah, of course you knew that would happen!
We're managing the situation and said she'll be back as if it never happened.
To get her back to Pankow in time, we have to leave now.
[hangs up]
Five minutes.
Then that's it.
- [keypad beeping] - [door buzzing]
[key clicking]
I owe you an apology.
I hate you from the very depths of my heart.
You ruined my marriage.
Made me a terrible father.
You and Mark, for this whole time you've haunted me.
I don't go to my house.
I don't sleep any more.
And I miss everything that is worth living for,
even though it's right in front of me.
Because of you... so I thought.
Yet, sitting here,
I begin to understand that it's not you who's the problem, but me.
I know you hate me, too.
I just want my daughter.
And I had her taken from you.
But I always kept an eye on her
in case you ever found her.
I needed to protect her.
Your Maria Magdalena.
I personally don't think that name suits her.
I'm not lying any more.
This photo is from a drivers license.
She just passed on her first test.
It's all you'll ever get.
[soft piano music playing]
You have the same eyes.
[Schulz] What do you see?
An angel.
And what would she see?
A monster.
Where is Melanie buried?
I don't know.
Come on.
Tell us something.
One day, about a year later, we went for a picnic.
That was just before the fifth one, before Iris.
We hadn't been driving long near the forest when he said, "Look,
her bike's still there."
And it really was there. Melanie's bicycle.
Where was that?
[piano music continues]
[sighs]
Thank you.
What are you doing?
I told you, that's all you'll ever get.
You'll have to rely on your memory.
Until we've found Melanie.
[whirring]
[Keller] Have a look in my handbag.
Don't worry. There aren't any tampons in there.
Inner side pocket.
[machine beeps]
It'll relax you.
What is it?
Rockrose. Works wonders.
That was brave of you, in there.
You shouldn't be saying that to me.
I wasn't brave. I was dumb.
You should go and see a doctor.
That's where I'm going now.
[soft piano music playing]
Take care, Schulz.
Will you be back after your maternity leave?
If you haven't crashed and burned by then!
[elevator pings]
[ping]
[elevator rumbling]
[haunting music playing]