RIP Martin Lüttge

"Tatort" Commissioner Flemming

Martin Lüttge is dead

He became known in the early 1990s as the thoughtful "Tatort" Commissioner Flemming.  Now Martin Lüttge has died at the age of 73 years.

Spiegel

2/27/2017

He assumed a heavy inheritance.  When Martin Lüttge appeared in 1992 as Commissioner Bernd Flemming, he was supposed to fill the gap, which had been torn by the departure of Götz George in the role of Horst Schimanski.  The WDR was now seeking a successor to the Ruhr area.

Lüttge did not even try to emulate the sympathetic rascal George: Instead of finding himself in the proletarian primal mud of Duisburg, his Flemming in bourgeois Düsseldorf, instead of seeking relaxation at one-night stands, he retired after his work on his farm far from of the city.

Lüttge's television director Flemming was more of a thoughtful type.  And when he did not think about it, he would sweat on his farm in the sauna.  Instead of using his biceps, he developed his brain.

Great performance as a fist

The actor was born in Hamburg and had a considerable physical presence.  At the end of the fifties he went to England, where he worked in the acting industry, playing in theaters.  Back in Germany he attended the Neue Münchner Schauspielschule.

As a theatrical actor, Lüttge always filled the stage, for instance as Faust in the production of Claus Peymann at the Staatstheater Stuttgart 1977. Previously he was active at the Munich Kammerspielen and at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus. In 1978 the farmers and colleagues established a theater on a farm in Mehring near Burghausen, which became known as Theaterhof Priessenthal.

Lüttge was featured in major television productions such as "Der Lord von Barmbeck" (1973), "Die Wannseekonferenz" (1984) or "In the Shadow of Power" (2003).  He played his role as a "Tatort" commissioner Flemming only a relatively limited time, overall he appeared in 15 assignments.

Nevertheless, his Düsseldorfer Fernsehenhrevier also has a certain significance for the current "Tatort" Germany: As Klaus Flemming-Sidekick, Klaus J. Behrend played first roles in the role of Max Ballauf , the investigator who is still active in Cologne's "Tatort".  Just the 20th anniversary of this TV-station was celebrated .

Lüttge, however, was active his last years in another German TV show: until 2013, he had a fixed role in the series "Forsthaus Falkenau".  As his agent reported, Martin Lüttge passed away last Wednesday in Schleswig-Holstein.  He was 73 years old.

LUTTGE, Martin

Born: 7/7/1943, Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

Died: 2/22/2017, Plön, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

Martin Lüttge’s western – actor:

The Blue Hotel – 1973 (Johnny Scully)