17/12/25 – On Tuesday, 6 January at 8:15 p.m., ORF 2 (24 hours in advance on ORF ON) will broadcast the latest episode of ‘Die Toten von Salzburg’. In the twelfth case, ‘Die letzte Reise’ (The Last Journey), Patricia Aulitzky makes her debut as the new investigator. Together with Michael Fitz, Fanny Krausz and Erwin Steinhauer, she must solve the death of a tour guide in the Hallein salt mine. The episode was directed by Erhard Riedlsperger and produced by Heinrich Ambrosch (Satel Film).
The corpses of a tour guide are found in the Hallein salt mine. It is a proverbial borderline case: the upper half of the body is in Germany, the lower half in Austria. But this time, neither Salzburg nor Traunstein wants to take on the investigation. Mur (Michael Fitz) is as good as won a cruise, Russmeyer (Fanny Krausz) is rehearsing for a musical role, and Seywald (Erwin Steinhauer) is attending a ‘Less stress in two weeks’ seminar with René (Michael Schönborn) to save their relationship. It is only when their new colleague from Salzburg, former investigator Ludovika ‘Lu’ Frey (Patricia Aulitzky) – who fled Salzburg in her twenties but has now returned to care for her mother, who has dementia – arrives early for work that things start to move forward.
Rebel vs. local hero
In the twelfth episode, Patricia Aulitzky joins the tried-and-tested Salzburg team of investigators. ‘Lu has a love-hate relationship with Salzburg – a reflection of her inner conflict between her origins and her return. She approaches her new job with her usual professionalism, spiced with a good dose of sarcasm. For me, Lu is direct, athletic, slightly rebellious and has a dry sense of humour,’ says Aulitzky, explaining her role. The encounter with her Bavarian colleague also promises to be exciting. ‘The first encounter between the two is anything but smooth – they lack understanding for each other, not least because they tick completely differently: Lu comes from an international investigative environment, while Mur is firmly rooted in Bavaria as a true local hero. But it is precisely in these contrasts that their potential for development lies – both professionally and personally.’
In addition to the popular main cast of Nikolaus Barton, Helmut Bohatsch, Sebastian Edtbauer, Michael Schönborn and Natalie O’Hara, this time Dany Sigel, Edi Jäger, Julia Rosa Peer, Michael Fuith, Ronald Seboth, Jonathan Beck, Maximilian Modl, Nayana Heuer, Runa Schymanski, Max Ortner, Beate Constanze Pitronik, Alyssandra Singh, Hans Sandhu and Torsten Hermentin also appear in front of the camera. The screenplay was written by Stefan Brunner. Erhard Riedlsperger took the director’s chair, while Kai Longolius was responsible for the spectacular images. Filming took place in April/May 2025, this time in Hallein and the salt mines in Bad Dürrnberg, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Kapuzinerberg, the cathedral square and Café Bazar, among other locations.
Ratings success on ORF and ZDF
The final episode of the popular crime series ‘Mord in bester Lage’ attracted an average of 927,000 viewers when it premiered on ORF 2 on 12 March 2025, achieving a market share of 32 per cent (12+), the highest figure since 2016. On ZDF, where the new episode will be broadcast on 28 January, the episode also achieved an excellent 25 per cent market share in the spring with 6.25 million viewers.
Produced according to strict guidelines
Satel Film is a production company licensed (UW1481) by UZ 76, the Austrian eco-label for green producing. Therefore, ‘Die Toten von Salzburg’ is also produced according to these green guidelines.
‘Die Toten von Salzburg’ is a production of Satel Film in co-production with ORF and ZDF, funded by FISAplus, Film in Austria (ABA), Fernsehfonds Austria, the Province of Salzburg and the City of Salzburg.
Credit: ORF/Satel Film/[M] J. Landsiedl [F] Neumayr/C. Leopold
