Introduction

The People vs. Fritz Bauer (German: Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer) is a 2015 German biographical drama film directed by Lars Kraume, chronicling the German Jewish prosecutor Fritz Bauer’s post-war capture of former Holocaust planner Adolf Eichmann. It was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.

Outline

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 Adolf Eichmann from Argentina to a German court. However, since the BKA and Interpol are not responsible for political crimes, Bauer is considering engaging Israeli intelligence service Mossad.

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 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. 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 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, as there are extensive arms deals between the FRG 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. Bauer, who temporarily thought of giving up, then plunges into the Nazi investigation, which eventually leads to the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials.

Cast

• Burghart Klaußner as Attorney General Fritz Bauer
• Ronald Zehrfeld as Prosecuting Attorney Karl Angermann
• Jörg Schüttauf as Paul Gebhardt
• Sebastian Blomberg as Ulrich Kreidler
• Lilith Stangenberg as Victoria
• Michael Schenk as Adolf Eichmann
• Stefan Gebelhoff as Willem Sassen
• Pierre Shrady as Eberhard Fritsch
• Götz Schubert as Georg August Zinn
• Nicole Johannhanwahr-Balk as Vera Eichmann
• Tilo Werner as Isser Harel
• Dani Levy as Chaim Cohn
• Matthias Weidenhöfer as Zvi Aharoni
• Laura Tonke as Fräulein Schütt
• Arndt Schwering-Sohnrey as Prosecuting Attorney Kügler
• Daniel Krauss as Prosecuting Attorney Vogel
• Rüdiger Klink as Heinz Mahler
• Andrej Kaminsky as Police Officer

Production & Filming Details

• Director(s):
  • Lars Kraume
• Producer(s):
  • Barbara Buhl … co-producer: WDR
  • Dina Dada … assistant producer
  • Christoph Friedel … co-producer
  • Jörg Himstedt … co-producer: HR
  • Thomas Kufus … producer
  • Georg Steinert … co-producer: ARTE
• Writer(s):
  • Lars Kraume … (screenplay)
  • Olivier Guez … (screenplay)
  • Tanzir Islam Britto
  • Brian Cordray … (story consultant)
• Music:
  • Christoph Kaiser … (as Christoph M. Kaiser)
  • Julian Maas
• Cinematography:
  • Jens Harant
• Editor(s):
  • Barbara Gies
• Production:
  • Zero One Film
  • Terz Film (co-production)
  • Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) (co-production)
  • Hessischer Rundfunk (HR) (co-production)
  • ARTE (co-production)
• Distributor(s):
  • ARP Sélection (France, 2016)(theatrical)
  • Alamode Film (Austria, 2015)(theatrical)
  • Alamode Film (Germany, 2015)(theatrical)
  • Albatros Film (Japan, 2017)(theatrical)
  • Alfa Films (Argentina, 2016)(theatrical)
  • Caramel Films (Spain, 2016)(theatrical)
  • Cinéart (Netherlands, 2016)(theatrical)
  • Cohen Media Group (United States, 2016)(subtitled, theatrical)
  • Look Now! (Switzerland, 2015)(theatrical)
  • StraDa Films – Seven Films (Greece, 2017)(theatrical)
  • The Klockworx (Japan, 2017)(theatrical)
  • Alamode Film (Germany, 2016)(Blu-ray)
  • Alamode Film (Germany, 2016)(DVD)
  • Alive Vertrieb und Marketing (Germany, 2016)(release through, DVD)
  • Cohen Media Group (United States, 2017)(Blu-ray)
  • Cohen Media Group (United States, 2017)(DVD)
  • New Select K.K. (Japan, 2017)(DVD)
  • Scanbox Entertainment (Finland, 2017)(Blu-ray)
  • Scanbox Entertainment (Finland, 2017)(DVD)
  • Transeuropa Video Entertainment (TVE) (Argentina, 2016)(subtitled version, DVD)
  • Twin Pics (Netherlands, 2016)(DVD)
  • Yleisradio (YLE) (Finland, 2020)(TV)
• Release Date: 07 August 2015 (Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland).
• Running Time: 105 minutes.
• Rating: R.
• Country: Germany.
• Language: German.

Video Link(s)