Fictional sleuth Angela Merkel debuts in Italy

Show depicts former German Chancellor as a murder detective

An unlikely crime series depicting German former Chancellor Angela Merkel as a small-town amateur detective premiered Friday in Italy, reported DW. Italian viewers appeared to be abuzz with anticipation — and some surprise — ahead of the broadcast of a two-part television series that portrays Angela Merkel as an Agatha Christie-style sleuth.

The show, which premiered on July 12, features German actor Katharina Thalbach as the former chancellor, who has adopted the postpolitics persona of a modern-day Miss Marple. Miss Merkel and the Murder in the Castle aired the first of two episodes on the Italian television channel Rai2 on Friday evening.

The series is not an Italian creation, but was made by a Hamburg-based film production company and first aired by German broadcaster RTL in March last year.

After leaving political office, the alternative reality Miss Merkel has settled down in the Uckermark district of eastern Germany, where the real-life ex-chancellor grew up and later bought a holiday home. She lives with her husband, Joachim Sauer, and her bodyguard, Mike, but grows bored with retirement and starts investigating criminal cases — to the chagrin of both men.

While the murder mysteries should actually be solved by local police inspector Hannemann, his laziness means he does not even want to see the most obvious inconsistencies. The second episode, Murder in the Cemetery, airs in Italy next week.

Italy’s Corriere Della Sera newspaper noted “a certain buzz and surprise on social media” after a clip was posted on X. The writer of the thrillers, David Safier, told the newspaper that the idea was born in 2019. “I had met my agent in the morning, and we talked about Angela Merkel. It was clear by then that she would not run again for election,” he said.

Later that day, the author watched US detective series Columbo on television: “I immediately understood that I had found the idea for the next book.”

The other main source of inspiration is Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, whose name is reflected in the title. Safier has so far released three books based on the idea, the first two of which have already been adapted for television, with a third, Murder on the High Seas, not yet reaching the small screen.

A fourth book in the series is set to be published in November, the same month Merkel’s autobiography Freiheit (Freedom) is set to hit the bookshop shelves.