Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer

Up to the present day Germany is uncomfortable with playing a major role in World politics. This uneasyness is attributable to the atrocities of the Second World War almost 80 years ago. It is hard to imagine that from mid 1950 to mid 1960, that is in the period of "das Wirtschaftswunder" just after the Second World War, Germany tried very hard to forget the past and look the other way. Only when the generation of the "baby boomers" began to ask their parents difficult questions in the second half of the sixties this period of silence game to an end.

In mid 2010 two films were made about this period of silence. First in 2014 "Im Labyrinth des Schweigens" (Giulio Ricciarelli) and a year later "Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer" (Lars Kraume). The first film is about the preparation for the "Auschwitz trial" in the first half of the 60's. "Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer" is about the hunt for Adold Eichmann in teh second half of the 50's.

The two films are interrelated. "Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer" can be seen as the prequel to "Das Labyrinth des Schweigens" because Fritz Bauer is in this film the boss of Johann Radmann (the main character).

In "Das Labyrinth des Schweigens" the silence is mostly passive (looking in the other direction) and the young main character is taken by surprise by it. In "Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer" the silence is more active (consciously sparing war criminals, however not going that far and being that organized as described in "The ODESSA file" from Frederick Forsyth). Fritz Bauer is experienced enough to be very aware of this active resistance. He knows that priorities have shifted from the Second World War to the Cold war. Statements of a war criminal in court could well form a political risk for the young state of West Germany. It's no coincidence that Fritz Bauer has more confidence in the Israeli Mossad than in his own colleagues to catch Eichmann!

Fritz Bauer is played by Burghart Klaussner, an experenced actor who played for example also in "The white ribbon" (2009, Michael Haneke). He does an excellent job. He plays Bauer partly as a sort of grumpy old man, bit like inspector Frost.

"The People vs. Fritz Bauer" (2015 release from Germany; 105 min., original title "Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer") brings the dramatic retelling of the circumstances within which Hesse Attorney General Bauer prosecuted former Nazis in post- WWII Germany. As the movie opens, we are reminded it is "Frankfurt in the late 1950s", and we get to know Fritz Bauer. In the opening scene he almost drowns in his bath tub (an accidental overdose of sleeping pills, it turns out). But the incident has caused concern with others. One of Bauer's State Attorneys (i.e. more junior prosecutor) invites Bauer to the country side. "Do you like to hunt?" he asks, to which Bauer replies "Yes, but not animals", ha! Indeed Bauer is working feverishly to track down Adolf Eichmann. At this point we're 15 min. into the movie but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: first, this is NOT a bio-pic of Fritz Bauer. Indeed, we get little to no background information as to his life prior to 1957 or after 1960 (starting and closing points of the movie). In a way, this is unfortunate, as an unsuspecting viewer may not fully realize the importance of this man in German politics. Second, the movie's central theme that "the people" or "the state" (as the original German title reads) is against Bauer is somewhat misleading. It's really the German political establishment, which was riddled at the time with former Nazis, which tries to stifle Bauer's efforts. This theme was something of a taboo in Germany for decades following WWII. Just last year there was another German movie, also involving Bauer, called "Labyrinth of Lies", which also addressed this. Thirdly, strictly from a film viewing perspective, the production is rather "dry" and at times it feels like watching a European TV drama. But I nevertheless enjoyed it quite a bit. Last, the movie also spends quite a bit of time looking at one of Bauer's closest aides, State Attorney Angermann. At the end of the movie, there are some announcements about what became of Bauer. But inexplicably nothing is said about what became of Angermann. Not sure how that could've happened (and leading me to deduct one further star from my overall rating).

"The People vs. Fritz Bauer" opened this weekend without any pre-release advertising or hype at my local art-house theatre here in Cincinnati. The Tuesday early evening screening where I saw this at was not attended well (1 person besides myself), which is a shame. Hopefully this is the type of movie that will find a larger audience once it gets exposure on Amazon Instant Video, and eventually is released on DVD/Blu-ray. If you are in the mood for a true historical drama about an important episode of German politics post -WWII, I can readily recommend that you check this out.

In general, the story of Eichmann is a seminal story to understanding the 20th century, and the depth of evil in the Nazi state. AS ardent noted the banality of Eichmann's evil, especially the cold bureaucratic elements the machine he helped create to murders of innocents by the millions is a truly instructive warning.

In addition to Ardent, faithful films in German and in English of the Wannsee conference, as well as Wiesenthal relentless and heroic should be read or seen by all.

This film however, just can't help but throw in Washington and the CIA on several occasions. The filmmakers just have to deploy the time worn European crutch of raising an Americans bogeyman and it ruins the film's claim to veracity. In fact, the Us with all its flaws had nothing to do with the creation and enabling of Eichmann, and in fact Eichmann was a very German and European creation.

In 2006 stories started to come out that the W. German intelligence and the CIA had known he was in Argentina. In fact subsequent to that in 2011 that claim was shown false. The claim they know he was there is like the claim FDR knew an attack would be at pearl harbor. Pearl was listed, but so were many other places. Same with Eichmann and his location., there was intelligence he was in a dozen places. In fact Guy Walters blows away this tin foil hat conspiracy theory repeated in the film back in 2001.:

blogs. telegraph.co.uk/ news/ guywalters/ 100071101/ the-west- Germans -and-the- Americans -really-did- not -know-where- eichmann-was/

(remove spaces in the URL as IMDb was rejecting it as too long)

The idea that the CIA or the US in anyway blocked the W. Germans or Israeli on Eichmann is also simply bogus. What the now largely released documentation of the period shows is the US was more focused and concerned with reducing the international isolation of Israel, and while Eichmann's abduction was utterly just, it was illegal under international law, and in fact Israel was excoriated for the abduction in the Security council. In fact the abduction of Eichmann had realty increased the influence of the nationalist, anti Semite and deeply anti American Tacuara Nationalist Movement. Raising concerns about that is not some smoking gun of US or CIA complicity.

It is a shame to see an otherwise good film touching an important part of the history of a European and German created holocaust and aftermath flawed by worn and bogus misrepresentation and blame shifting.

That's metaphorically and literally speaking of course. One might also add that it can be a pun too. But while my summary line is definitely on the light side, the movie is not. And it couldn't be with the story it wants to tell. Germany has an obvious history with Nazis and the subsequent hunt for them. Or sometimes neglect in hunting them down for various reasons.

This movie shows one of many cases and one man who was determined to bring as many to justice as possible. Despite and through all obstacles that were before him. So this is a story (thriller) that has quite a bit going for it. It's really well made and well acted too and the suspense is there, from the start until the end. There's also a lot of award talking going on about this, if that is something you're interested in

"The People vs. Fritz Bauer" is an interesting film about a mostly forgotten piece of history. It seems that the Attorney General for Hesse (one of the most populous of the German states), Fritz Bauer, learned about the whereabouts of one of the most infamous Nazis in the post-war era. Yet, inexplicably, the folks in the government had very little interest in finding this man, as he could expose many in the Adenaur government who had Nazi ties--something that could prove embarrassing. So Bauer approached the Israelis with the information and ultimately the Nazi scum-bag was caught.

What makes this film so interesting is the ambivalence towards Eichmann in Germany. Instead, the Federal Police seem much more interested in prosecuting homosexuals and preventing Eichmann's capture! Overall, a very interesting portrait of a bygone day. While I knew a lot about the Eichmann capture already, I didn't realize that they might have never found him if it wasn't for Bauer- -and that the Germans themselves couldn't have cared less! Very well made and well worth seeing.

By the way, if you enjoy this film I also recommend you watch another exceptional German movie, "The Nasty Girl". It, too, discusses the German people and their ambivalence about confronting their Nazi past.