''The People vs. Fritz Bauer'' (german: Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer) is a 2015 German
biographical
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
directed by
Lars Kraume
Lars Kraume (born 24 February 1973) is an Italian-born German film director, screenwriter and producer. He has directed 35 films since 1996.
Biography
Born in Abruzzo, Italy, to German parents.
Career
Kraume has directed numerous television prod ...
, chronicling the
German Jewish
The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...
prosecutor Fritz Bauer's post-war capture of former Holocaust planner
2015 Toronto International Film Festival
The 40th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 10 to 20 September 2015. On 28 July 2015 the first wave of films to be screened at the Festival was announced. Jean-Marc Vallée's ''Demolition'' starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Naom ...
.
The film won the awards for Best Film, Best Direction, Best Screenplay, and three more at ''
Deutscher Filmpreis
The German Film Award (), also known as Lola after its prize statuette, is the national film award of Germany. It is presented at an annual ceremony honouring cinematic achievements in the German film industry. Besides being the most important ...
'' (″Lola″) 2016. The film also won the Best Documentary Audience Award at the
Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival
The Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival (also known as the Gershman Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival (GPJFF)) is an annual film festival in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States that presents movies and film-related programs about the Jew ...
36. It was listed as one of eight films that could be the German submission for the
Best Foreign Language Film
This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards.
Best Actor/Best Actress
*See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
Bauer's driver finds his boss unconscious in the bathtub. He is taken to the hospital, while the police, politically motivated, suspected a suicide attempt. His opponents - especially Attorney General Kreidler and Paul Gebhardt of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) - triumph.
During Bauer's recovery, a file disappears from his office. He then cites the prosecutors and asks them about progress in the prosecution of Nazi criminals. However, the prosecutors can not show anything. The young prosecutor Karl Angermann reminds Bauer that he received the file in question with the request of him, Bauer, to draft a statement. Bauer gets the feeling that he can rely on the young man, and invites him to a meeting on the weekend to his home, because he imagines in his authority as "in the enemy country". Bauer wants to bring
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
to a German court. However, since the BKA and
Interpol
The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cri ...
are not responsible for
political crime
In criminology
Criminology (from Latin , "accusation", and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'' meaning: "word, reason") is the study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in both the ...
s, Bauer is considering engaging Israeli intelligence service
Mossad
Mossad ( , ), ; ar, الموساد, al-Mōsād, ; , short for ( he, המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים, links=no), meaning 'Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations'. is the national intelligence agency ...
.
With the receipt of a letter from Argentina, Bauer learns that Eichmann lives there under a different name. He passes on the letter to the Mossad and speaks in Israel as well. The Mossad boss
Isser Harel
Isser Harel ( he, איסר הראל, 1912 – 18 February 2003) was spymaster of the intelligence and the security services of Israel and the Director of the Mossad (1952–1963). In his capacity as Mossad director he oversaw the capture and co ...
already checked this trail, but wants Eichmann to be abducted only if Bauer has a second proof.
Angermann asks Bauer for advice on the sentence in a homosexual trial. After Bauer's reference to a similar process, Angermann then demands a sensationally low penalty. Victoria, a friend of the defendant, thanks Angermann and invites him to the nightclub "Kokett". Angermann falls in love with the woman, who turns out to be
transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...
. At the same time, the BKA has photos of sexual activities between them and tries to blackmail him with them.
When Bauer discovers that the former Nazi Schneider at
Daimler-Benz
The Mercedes-Benz Group Aktiengesellschaft, AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German Multinational corporation, multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It ...
works in the human resources department for South America, he puts pressure on him to obtain Eichmann's code name in Argentina. He directs this to the Mossad to confirm the first lane. Eichmann is abducted in the sequence in Argentina by the Mossad and abducted to Israel. Bauer's application for extradition of Eichmann is rejected by the federal government under
Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (; 5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a Germany, German statesman who served as the first Chancellor of Germany, chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the fir ...
, as there are extensive arms deals between the
FRG FRG may refer to:
* Family Readiness Group in the United States Army
* Federal Republic of Germany
** West Germany
* FMN reductase (NAD(P)H)
* Friendship Radiosport Games
* Functional renormalization group
* Guatemalan Republican Front
The Insti ...
and Israel and is feared by possible statements of Eichmann in front of a German court, a government crisis, as many former Nazis are represented in the state apparatus up to the Cabinet.
Angermann cannot be blackmailed with the compromising photos and turns himself in for violating
§ 175
Paragraph 175 (known formally a§175 StGB also known as Section 175 in English language, English) was a provision of the Strafgesetzbuch, German Criminal Code from 15 May 1871 to 10 March 1994. It Criminalization of homosexuality, made homosex ...
. Bauer, who temporarily thought of giving up, then plunges into the Nazi investigation, which eventually leads to the
Frankfurt Auschwitz trials
The Frankfurt Auschwitz trials, known in German as ''der Auschwitz-Prozess'', or ''der zweite Auschwitz-Prozess,'' (the "second Auschwitz trial") was a series of trials running from 20 December 1963 to 19 August 1965, charging 22 defendants unde ...
.
Cast
*
Burghart Klaußner
Burghart Klaußner (born 13 September 1949) is a German film actor. He received acting training at the in Berlin.
Klaußner had engagements at Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin, Hamburger Kammerspiele and at the theaters in Cologne
Cologne ...
as Attorney General
Fritz Bauer
Fritz Bauer (16 July 1903 – 1 July 1968) was a German Jewish judge and prosecutor. He was instrumental in the post-war capture of former Holocaust planner Adolf Eichmann and played an essential role in beginning the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials ...
*
Ronald Zehrfeld
Ronald Zehrfeld (born 15 January 1977) is a German actor. His movie roles include '' Barbara'' (2012), ''Inbetween Worlds'' (2014), and ''Phoenix'' (2014).
Career
Zehrfeld made his film debut in 2005 with a lead role in Dominik Graf's ''The R ...
as Prosecuting Attorney Karl Angermann
*
Jörg Schüttauf
Jörg Schüttauf (born 26 December 1961) is a German actor. He studied at the Theaterhochschule Leipzig. Since 2002 he has starred in the Hessischer Rundfunk version of the popular television crime series ''Tatort''.
Filmography Film
* 1985: ''E ...
as Paul Gebhardt
*
Sebastian Blomberg
Sebastian Blomberg (born 24 May 1972) is a German actor. He has appeared in more than forty films since 1997.
In 2008 he played Rudi Dutschke in The Baader Meinhof Complex (''German: Der Baader Meinhof Komplex)''. Dutschke was the most prominent ...
as Ulrich Kreidler
*
Lilith Stangenberg
Lilith Stangenberg (born 14 August 1988) is a German stage and film actress. For her performance as Ania in the 2016 film ''Wild'' she won the Preis der deutschen Filmkritik The Preis der deutschen Filmkritik is a prize given by the German Film ...
Willem Sassen
Wilhelmus Antonius Sassen (born 16 April 1918 – died 2002) was a Dutch Collaboration with the Axis Powers during World War II, collaborator, Nazism, Nazi journalism, journalist and a member of the ''Waffen-SS''. He became known around 1960 as " ...
* Pierre Shrady as
Eberhard Fritsch
Eberhard Ludwig Cäsar Fritsch (born 21 November 1921 in Buenos Aires, Argentina; died 25 November 1974 in Salzburg, Austria) was the editor and publisher of the pro-Nazi monthly magazine in Argentina '' Der Weg'' (''The Way'') (founded 1947) which ...
Isser Harel
Isser Harel ( he, איסר הראל, 1912 – 18 February 2003) was spymaster of the intelligence and the security services of Israel and the Director of the Mossad (1952–1963). In his capacity as Mossad director he oversaw the capture and co ...
*
Dani Levy
Dani Levy (born 17 November 1957) is a Swiss filmmaker, theatrical director, screenwriter and actor.
Biography
Levy was born to a Jewish family in Switzerland in 1957.
Zvi Aharoni
Zvi Aharoni ( he, צבי אהרוני; 6 February 1921 – 26 May 2012) was an Israeli Mossad agent instrumental in the capture of Adolf Eichmann.
Biography
Hermann Arndt (later Zvi Aharoni) was born in Frankfurt an der Oder, Germany. He imm ...
*
Laura Tonke
Laura Tonke (born 14 April 1974 in Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within ci ...
as Fräulein Schütt
* as Prosecuting Attorney Kügler
* as Prosecuting Attorney Vogel
* as Heinz Mahler
See also
* ''
Labyrinth of Lies
''Labyrinth of Lies'' (german: Im Labyrinth des Schweigens) is a 2014 German drama film directed by Giulio Ricciarelli. Based on true events, it was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festiv ...