Last night on Tatort, Inspector Borowski of Kiel had his hands full when eine Leiche showed up in a septic system. Then, not five minutes later, up popped another one, and before the show was over, Inspector Borowski himself had almost become eine Leiche as well. Die Leiche is a corpse or cadaver of a human or an animal. Unlike the picturesque English, Germans do not keep their skeletons in the closet, a charming Halloween expression that wouldn’t work at all well in reality. No, the Germans have eine Leiche im Keller–a corpse in the cellar. That’s a much more practical place to stash a body.
Clare B. Dunkle
