Tatort: New Cologne crime episode features prepper scene and real bunker

The latest episode of the long-running German crime series ‘Tatort’, titled ‘Die letzten Menschen von Köln’, aired on September 20, 2026. The 96th installment features investigators Max Ballauf and Freddy Schenk as they navigate a plot involving a murder and the discovery of a World War II bomb in Cologne.

A central element of the episode is the investigation into the disappearance of Elara Schmidtke, the sister of a murdered vocational teacher. The plot leads the detectives to a secretive survivalist or ‘prepper’ community conducting workshops in a Cold War-era civil defense bunker located beneath the Kalk Post subway station in Cologne.

To enhance the atmosphere, the production utilized the actual historical bunker, which was designed to shelter over 2,000 people. Actors Klaus J. Behrendt and Katharina Schüttler described the filming conditions in the underground facility as “very oppressive, very cold and dark.”

The episode achieved significant viewership, reaching 7.38 million viewers with a 30.8 percent market share, though it also sparked online debate regarding its portrayal of the prepper subculture.