Tannöd

A Mystery by Andrea Maria Schenkel

Stage adaptation by Maya Fanke & Doris Happl

Württemberg State Theater Esslingen (WLB)
Directed byChristoph Biermeier 
Set & Costumes byClaudia Rüll Calame-Rosset 
Music byThomas Unruh 
Dramaturgy bySarah Frost

“The devil took them,” the villagers say, when the entire Danner family is found dead on a remote farm in Tannöd. Six people were brutally murdered in a single night. Fear spreads: There are no traces, no clues, no certainty about the motives. Was it divine punishment, a carefully planned robbery-murder, or perhaps belated revenge for wrongs suffered? 

Even before the crime, Tannöd must have been a place of horror. Rumors of violence and incest circulate in the village, but in public, an ironclad silence reigns. It is only the cold-blooded murder that breaks the paralysis: through mosaic-like flashbacks and inner monologues, an oppressive web of relationships gradually comes into focus. Behind the façade of piety and rural idyll lie fear, dependence, and old wounds. Each sentence feels like a ray of light shining into a room that has long been locked away—and yet the core of the events remains eerie, unsettling, and almost impossible to grasp. 

An unsolved murder case from 1922 served as the basis for Andrea Maria Schenkel’s novel *Tannöd*. However, she relocated the events to the postwar period, thereby creating not only a crime story but also a portrait of a society in which people remained silent rather than facing the truth. The confines of village life feel just as oppressive as the shadows of the past. The direction lends the story a dark, atmospheric pull—a crime thriller that becomes a social chamber drama and lingers long in the mind.