For the magazine programme “Im Blick” of the broadcaster Rhein-Main TV, Robert Murrmann interviews private investigator Patrick Kurtz in the office of Kurtz Investigations Frankfurt. Below is a transcript of the interview. Here is the link to the video (German only).

Three Questions for a Detective

Question 1: What qualities does a good detective need?

Patrick Kurtz: “To become a detective, in my opinion one should have brains – that is very important. Staying power, in other words a great deal of patience. The ability to concentrate: If you have to focus for many hours on one point where perhaps nothing at all is happening, then that is exhausting, then that is mentally demanding. So you need this patience and ability to concentrate.

 

What has often helped me is physical fitness. It makes things easier for me during observations, for example, especially during foot surveillance, to keep a good distance and thus remain unobtrusive without losing visual contact, because I can catch up quickly, because I am flexible and also not afraid to climb over a wall or a fence if it is legal and purposeful. And accordingly I also consider physical fitness important.”

Question 2: What prejudices do you encounter daily in your work?

Patrick Kurtz: “Many people, of course, think of things like the Trovatos and Carsten Stahl. We also have to deal with that in certain client enquiries. We have to get these silly ideas out of their heads, because they think we could engage in all sorts of antics that violate the personality rights of the subject. For example, using directional microphones at greater distances, eavesdropping on people – that sort of thing is a no-go in our profession, we have no rights for that whatsoever. Also, for instance, photographing into private rooms, catching someone at a rendezvous – infidelity – ideally even photographing under the bedcovers. These are the kind of things we are, of course, not allowed to do.

 

And accordingly, false expectations are sometimes created through television, and people come to us with false expectations.”

Question 3: How exciting is the profession really?

Patrick Kurtz: “The level of excitement in our job varies enormously, completely individually from case to case. Many cases are really dreadfully boring. You sit in the car for hours, sometimes 10 hours, 12 hours, and that over several days, without anything truly relevant happening. It is simply an enormous amount of waiting. And that is, of course, the point at which the job is also strenuous and not necessarily a pleasant one.

 

But of course there are always extremely exciting cases as well. Sometimes because of the facts of the case, meaning when it is not necessarily the standard stories like infidelity – we have seen that a thousand times, and it is not necessarily the case that we experience something new over and over again. And then there are cases in which a lot simply happens. When a lot happens, then it is fun. When the subject moves around a lot and you have to follow with the vehicle, always having to stay focused so as not to lose them in traffic or in the pedestrian zone, depending on the circumstances of the case, then that is simply exciting and then it is fun. But that is not necessarily the everyday situation.”

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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