Of Detective Role Models: Patrick Kurtz, Owner of Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt, in an In-Depth Interview – Part 4

For the format “M19 – the long interview” on the radio station Mephisto 97.6, Patrick Kurtz, owner of Kurtz Investigations Frankfurt, spoke for an hour with editor-in-chief Paula Drope about the detective profession. In the fourth part, the focus is on fictional role models for our Frankfurt private detectives. You can find the third part about observations by detectives here.

Cliché: Do Detectives Have Arch-Enemies?

Paula Drope: “I cannot get around it, I still have to ask a cliché question about detectives.”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “Yes, gladly.”

 

Paula Drope: “Do you have an arch-enemy, straight out of a book?”

 

Patrick Kurtz (laughs): “No. Not that I know of, at least.”

 

Paula Drope: “You would normally know if you had an arch-enemy.”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “Not necessarily. Perhaps one is someone’s arch-enemy without knowing it and without that other person being one’s own arch-enemy. That seems more likely to me.”

 

Paula Drope (laughs): “That brings us to your second music request. It is the song Madman by Peter Cornell. Why did you choose this track?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “Peter Cornell is the brother of Chris Cornell. Chris Cornell is one of my favourite musicians of all time. I find all the projects he ever started excellent, apart from one album that he unfortunately produced with Timbaland. Through Chris Cornell I discovered Peter Cornell, who has now released his first solo album. I believe that was last year, initially only as an MP3 download. He is still completely unknown. It is great that he was able to realise it at all. Because he is so unknown and because I still think his music is great, I would like to have it played here.”

 

Paula Drope: “Madman by Peter Cornell.”

Detective Stereotypes | Keyword: Sherlock Holmes

Paula Drope: “Welcome back to M19, the long interview on Mephisto 97.6. My guest, the detective Patrick Kurtz, and I have been talking the whole time about life as a private detective in Frankfurt. Now we have to come to role models, and who could be a greater role model than Sherlock Holmes and, ultimately, his many successors in novels? Do you have such a role model for the detective profession? Is Sherlock Holmes the role model?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “He is definitely my favourite fictional detective. I have a whole lot of memorabilia in the office, complete editions in English and German, a pipe stand with a Sherlock Holmes emblem, pictures, of course DVDs and Blu-rays, CDs, audio CDs, all sorts of things.”

 

Paula Drope: “If you look at these fictional characters, on the one hand there is this pipe-smoking detective wearing a trench coat in foggy London, and on the other the single, rough, whisky-drinking detective from the Bronx. You yourself smoke a pipe, you told us earlier, since you were 14. Do you perhaps have something in common with these stereotypes after all?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “With the American stereotypes of private detectives, rather less so. With the British ones, especially Sherlock Holmes, rather more, because I also spend a lot of time sitting in my armchair, smoking a pipe and enjoying a book. However, I play the guitar, not the violin [laughs]. There are some points of overlap, but they are not reflected all that strongly in the actual work, because Sherlock Holmes operates on genius-level deductions that are not necessary for us, as our cases are structured quite differently. We do not have to solve mysteries, but mostly deal with things that can be observed by our detectives in Frankfurt.”

 

Paula Drope: “Do you sometimes appear a bit eccentric to your staff in your detective office?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “I cannot tell you that, you would have to ask them, or rather: you would have to ask them yourselves.”

Tips from Fiction for Everyday Professional Life as a Private Detective?

Paula Drope: “Which of these detective images is rather unrealistic?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “Above all, the image of the detective as a lone fighter. That is simply hardly feasible today, because, as mentioned earlier, you need relationships with authorities and many other contacts, and of course with colleagues. Without them, it does not work.”

 

Paula Drope: “You have already said that you have Sherlock Holmes in all sorts of versions standing around in your office. I would assume you are a big fan?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “Yes.”

 

Paula Drope: “Have you perhaps learned something from these books and maybe been able to apply things to your everyday work as a detective in Frankfurt?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “I think that as a teenager I was able to take a great deal from them, especially in terms of logical thinking and problem-solving. Probably more subconsciously. It is not the case that when I actually became a detective, I looked at Sherlock Holmes books and checked what I could adopt. I did try that to some extent with the Sherlock portrayal by Benedict Cumberbatch, but I reached my limits there [laughs]. I think you do pick up something subconsciously, but consciously I did not select anything specific.”

 

Paula Drope: “On the other hand, do you also like reading a Swedish crime novel now and then?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “So far, rather less. It is on my list, but I have not often managed to get around to it.”

 

Paula Drope: “But in general, you would still do so?”

 

Patrick Kurtz: “Yes, of course, when I have time. I do not have much time.”

Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt

c/o AT Büro Center

Mainzer Landstraße 341

60326 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Tel.: +49 69 1201 8431

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de

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