"Tatort: ​​Zugzwang": Checkmate for forensic pathologist Steinbrecher

In their fourth-to-last case, Munich detectives Leitmayr (Udo Wachtveitl, 66) and Batic (Miroslav Nemec, 70) barely escape with their lives. Their longtime forensic pathologist Dr. Mathias Steinbrecher (Robert Josef Bartl, 52) is less fortunate – in a deadly intrigue at an international chess tournament, he is poisoned with nerve poison. It seems that detectives and viewers will have to make do without their characterful sidekick from now on.

Dr. Steinbrecher's exit in this action-packed Sunday crime thriller couldn't be more heroic and haunting: In order to save the life of an American chess ace, he snatches a pipette contaminated with the nerve agent Novichok from his grasp at the last second. The pipette fatally breaks in his hand, bringing him into contact with the deadly substance.

Theatrical death struggle in front of the bathroom mirror

As a coroner, he knows full well that he now has only a few minutes left to live. His actor, Robert Joseph Bartl, uses these minutes to portray an impressively desperate death throes in front of a bathroom mirror, pulling out all the stops in his acting skills. At the end of this performance, the coroner lies dead on the tiles, and the paramedics who were called in can unfortunately do nothing for him.

The fact that Bartl succeeds in his alleged serial death so impressively has to do not least with the fact that as an actor he is primarily at home in the world of high-class theater, where he is one of the most renowned and original actors.

Impressive stage career

Born in 1973 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria, the artist with the impressive eyebrows trained as an actor in the 1990s at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna, under the tutelage of film legend Klaus Maria Brandauer (81) and star mime Samy Molcho (88), among others. His engagements subsequently took him to the Burgtheater Vienna, the Schauspiel Frankfurt, and the Bayerische Staatsschauspiel, finally to the Vienna Theater in der Josefstadt, where he has been a permanent ensemble member since the 2019/2020 season. There he is currently appearing in a production of the John Steinbeck classic "Of Men and Mice."

Since 2014 in the Munich "Tatort"

Since the turn of the millennium, Bartl has repeatedly ventured into the world of television, appearing in shows such as "Die Rosenheim-Cops" and "Polizeiruf 110." In 2014, he joined the Munich-based "Tatort" team in the role of forensic pathologist and opera lover Dr. Mathias Steinbrecher.

The death of the forensic pathologist played by Bartl appears to coincide with the announced departure of his criminalistic superiors. After 35 years and 100 solved cases, the popular "Tatort" detectives Ivo Batic and Franz Leitmayr will retire in 2026. They will be succeeded by their loyal young colleague Kalli Hammermann (Ferdinand Hofer, 31), along with newcomer Carlo Ljubek (48).

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