The People vs. Fritz Bauer (2015)

The People vs. Fritz Bauer is the English title of a German historical and biographical drama (based on a true story) about Fritz Bauer, a German and Jewish lawyer, who lived and worked for most of his life in Germany, and a strong opponent of the Nazi regime. Here is some basic information about this drama, which premiered in 2015:

** Original German title: Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer

** Director: Lars Kraume

** Writers: Lars Kraume and Olivier Guez

** Language: mostly German; on occasion English

** Released on DVD in 2015 – no English subtitles!

** Released on DVD with English subtitles in 2017

** Run time: 105 minutes

The cast includes the following:

** Burghart Klaussner as Fritz Bauer (1903-1968) – chief prosecutor in the state of Hesse 1956-1968

** Ronald Zehrfeld as Karl Angermann – a prosecutor (a fictional character)

** Sebastian Blomberg as Ulrich Kreidler – a prosecutor

** Jörg Schüttauf as Paul Gebhardt – a Federal Criminal Police officer

** Michael Schenk as Adolf Eichmann (1906-1962) – a former high-ranking Nazi official

** Tilo Werner as Isser Harel (1912-2003) – chief of Mossad 1952-1963

** Matthias Widenhofer as Zvi Aharoni (1921-2012) – a Mossad agent

Since this drama is based on a true story, the basic facts are part of the public record. They are not a secret. Therefore I feel free to mention some of them in this review.

While this drama is based on a true story, it is not a documentary film. It is a dramatized version of events. Not everything happened exactly as shown here. But the basic story is true.

Fritz Bauer (born in 1903) was a Social Democrat and a strong opponent of the Nazi regime. In 1933 he was arrested and sent to a concentration camp. One year later he was released. In 1935 he went into exile. First in Denmark and from 1943 in Sweden.

In 1949 he returned to Germany. By this time the country had been divided into two countries. Fritz Bauer settled in West Germany. In 1956 he was appointed as chief prosecutor (attorney general) in the state of Hesse. He held this position until his death in 1968.

This drama does not cover Fritz Bauer’s life from the beginning in 1903 to the end in 1968. It covers only a short but significant part of his life: the time from 1957 to 1960, when he attempted to find the location of Adolf Eichmann.

In 1957 Bauer received a letter from Argentina. It was written by Lothar Hermann, a refugee from Germany, whose daughter Sylvia dated a young man called Klaus for a while. Hermann had come to Argentina in 1938. His daughter was born in 1942.

When Sylvia talked about Klaus, Hermann became convinced that Klaus was the oldest son of Adolf Eichmann, one of the most-wanted war criminals. Hermann had heard that Bauer wanted to prosecute Nazi war criminals. This is why he decided to write the letter to Bauer.

When Bauer got the letter, he was not sure what to do. If he alerted the German authorities or Interpol, they might warn Eichmann, and if this happened, he would disappear again. Instead Bauer decided to go to Israel and contact the Israeli secret service, Mossad. At first, Mossad was not ready to act. In 1959, Bauer travelled to Israel again and urged Mossad to act. This time they decided to act.

In 1960, Eichmann was captured by a team of Mossad agents who secretly transported him to Israel. In 1961 he was put on trial in Jerusalem. He was found guilty. In 1962 he was executed. However, the trial of 1961 and the execution of 1962 are not included in this drama, because it ends in 1960.

What do reviewers say about this historical drama? Here are the results of three review aggregators:

** 61 per cent = Meta

** 71 per cent = IMDb

** 76 per cent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)

** 86 per cent = Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)

According to the reviews, this movie is good, but not great. I agree. This movie has a significant flaw: the director and the writer decided to add a fictional character, the young prosecutor Karl Angermann, even though this was not necessary at all.

I think I know why they did this. Karl is a younger version of Fritz. When Fritz and Karl are talking to each other, it is as if Fritz is having a dialogue with himself.

Karl is married, but Fritz understands that Karl is not really interested in women; he is interested in men, and this is a big problem, because it is illegal in Germany.

The relevant law (paragraph 175) was introduced in 1871 and revised by the Nazi regime in 1935. It was still on the books in West Germany after the war. It was not repealed until 1994, four years after the unification of East and West Germany.

Fritz tells Karl to be careful. Do not get caught! If you are caught, you will be in trouble!

Even though I understand why the fictional character Karl Angermann was introduced, I still do not think it was a good idea. It is a distraction. There are too many scenes with Angermann. Having this fictional character in the drama was a poor decision.

I like this drama, and I want to give it a good rating, but as you can see, there is a significant flaw, which cannot be ignored; which cannot overlooked. I have to remove one star because of this flaw. Therefore I think it deserves a rating of four stars.

PS # 1. The following article is available online: Ofer Aderet, “An inside look at Israel’s operation to capture Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann,” Haaretz, 15 April 2012.

PS # 2. For more information about how Eichmann was captured in Buenos Aires in 1960, see the following first-hand accounts:

** The House on Garibaldi Street by Isser Harel (1975)

** Eichmann in my Hands by Peter Z. Malkin (1990)

** Operation Eichmann by Zvi Aharoni (1997)

PS # 3. The following movies focus on how Eichmann was captured in Argentina in 1960:

** The House on Garibaldi Street (1979) (based on Isser Harel’s book)

** The Man Who Captured Eichmann (1996) (based on Peter Malkin’s book)

** Operation Finale (2018) (available on Netflix)

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Poster for the German version of the movie

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