Tanja von Anstetten

Tanja von Lahnstein
Miriam Lahnstein as Tanja von Lahnstein
Verbotene Liebe character
Portrayed by	Miriam Lahnstein
Duration	1995-1998, 2001, 2004-2015
First appearance	Episode 109 21 June 1995
Last appearance	Episode 4664 26 June 2015
Created by	Rasi Levinas
Introduced by	Ariane Krampe
Classification	Present; regular
Profile
Occupation	Businesswoman Co-CEO of Ligne Clarisse Lahnstein Member of the Board of Directors of Lahnstein Enterprises
Home	Königsbrunn Castle Düsseldorf, Germany
Father Walter Wittkamp † Mother Annegret Wittkamp † Brothers Thomas Wittkamp † Sisters Meike Breuer Husband Ben von Anstetten † (1995-1996) Rajan Rai † (1997) Henning von Anstetten † (2001) Ansgar von Lahnstein (2008-2011) Sebastian von Lahnstein (2011-2013) Ansgar von Lahnstein (2013-) Sons Hannes von Lahnstein Daughters Emma von Lahnstein Stepsons Nick Brandner Stepdaughters Kim Wolf

Tanja von Lahnstein (née Wittkamp, formerly von Anstetten, Rai and von Lahnstein) is a fictional character from the German soap opera Verbotene Liebe (Forbidden Love), played by actress Miriam Lahnstein. She made her first appearance on-screen on 21 June 1995 and left after three years in May 1998. Lahnstein returned to the role in 2001, where she was seen from 24 April to 5 October. She came back another three years later and reappeared on 16 April 2004. Lahnstein left the show for a short time, while being on contract, from June 2005 to March 2006 and from March to December 2007 during the pregnancy of her two children. She left again in December 2009 and returned in April 2010.

Only months after the show started, then 21-year-old Miriam Lahnstein was cast in the role of Tanja Wittkamp. A blonde beauty, who comes home from boarding school to see that her parents are broke and have to sell their stud farm. Aristocrat Christoph von Anstetten buys most of the horses, one of them Tanja's favorite. Jan Brandner sees the young woman crying over her lost and gets Christoph to promise that Tanja is always welcome to Castle Friedenau to visit her horse. For Tanja the ticket in a new world, where money rules and you can have a lot of influence. It doesn't take Tanja long to show her true colors, starting schemes and love affairs out of calculation and her own interest.

In the beginning, Tanja starts off with little schemes and using people to get what she wants. That sort of changes, when Tanja murders her second husband and former stepson Rajan Rai to get the fortune of her first husband Ben von Anstetten. With her first murder committed it seemed that the end of Tanja is near. The soap villain murders two other characters, Cleo Winter and Tim Sander, before leaving the show. Tanja returns three years later to make several attempts to murder again - but without a success. After a plane crash, Tanja seems to be dead, but shows up three years later, in 2004, very much alive. Without further explanation it is mentioned that Donald Rush, who Tanja works for, cleared her criminal record and the authorities have no evidence whatsoever against Tanja, in spite of a few witnesses from her past being still alive. Tanja murders again in her first year back, putting the blame on one of the murders on Bernd von Beyenbach. Even though Bernd has an alibi, Tanja is never connected to the murder. Miriam Lahnstein then had to leave the show due to her first pregnancy, which led to making the character of Tanja pregnant as well. Actress and character return to the show nine months later with Tanja in a convent. She tries to maintain the pretense that she had changed, but it doesn't take long before she returns to her old self. But now with the character having a little son, Tanja is depicted as being less extreme and is not involved in any subsequent murders; the executives wanted to bring out the human aspect of her character and present her as both mother and villain. One year after her return, Miriam Lahnstein was expecting her second child which led to her leaving the show once more. This time without an on-screen pregnancy. Instead Tanja kidnapped her son and then faked her own death with the help of Adrian Degenhardt. In the following months Adrian had several telephone conversations with Tanja. A few of them with Miriam Lahnstein's voice. Tanja returned from the dead in December 2007 and is arrested for the first time for faking her death and kidnapping her son. But Tanja blackmails Ansgar von Lahnstein, the child's father, and gets off with only a suspended sentence. In fall 2008, TPTB wanted to show the human side of Tanja once again and opened up about Tanja's childhood with the presence of her mother. The result was an explanation that Tanja had to undergo psychiatric care for two years, after her father blamed her for the death of her younger brother, Thomas. The storyline received varied feedback from viewers. Some argued the show should stop trying to portray Tanja more humanely, while others welcomed the added dimension to the character. The critique of one-dimensionality has been oft fought by the character and seems to have been the justification for showing Tanja as a mother and a woman with a tragic past. One year after Tanja's past was revisited, the writers struck a balance that allowed them to use both sides of the character. She is now portrayed as a mother and a woman with a troubled past, knows how to use her sex-appeal to her advantage, is cunning and should not be crossed because she will do anything, even kill, to get what she wants. At the start of 2011, Tanja is shown to be vulnerable, when she develops feelings for Sebastian von Lahnstein. Tanja seems to be honest towards him and lets him know why she seems so messed up. To Sebastian, Tanja even admits that she doesn't want her kids to be anything like her.