 Show The People vs. Fritz BauerDirected by Lars KraumeBiography, Drama, ThrillerR1h 45m
Fritz Bauer is a mass, and a mess, of contradictions: crafty yet principled, loyal yet friendless, brooding yet driven. Sometimes he charges ahead, other times he bumbles along, usually engulfed in a cloud of tobacco smoke. Burghart Klaussner, playing him in “The People vs. Fritz Bauer,” delivers a masterly performance as this complicated man. Appraising the film isn’t nearly as complicated. From start to finish, it’s absorbing. A historical drama that radiates suspense, it often recalls “Munich” and “Bridge of Spies” (in which Mr. Klaussner played a role). Not to get carried away — “Fritz Bauer” doesn’t have the immediacy or the range of those movies. Yet it has their mood, and that’s more than enough reason to watch. Based on real people and events, this tale finds Bauer, a German Jew, serving as an attorney general in West Germany in 1957. Part of his work is to track down former Nazi officials, and he’s increasingly thwarted by superiors and underlings who are still sympathetic to the Third Reich. Bauer receives word that the war criminal Adolf Eichmann may be hiding in Argentina, setting off an investigation that leads to death threats and more obstructions. Everyone here — ally or enemy — has an agenda, a motive, a secret, an excuse. Now that he’s so close to finding Eichmann, Bauer has become both obsessed and exhausted. “If Eichmann gets away, I won’t have the strength to do this anymore,” he says. He’s helped by an underling, Karl Angermann (a fictional character, well played by Ronald Zehrfeld), who begins to doubt his assignment once he learns that capturing Eichmann involves leaking information to Israel and the Mossad. Such a treasonous act could put both these investigators in jail. “If we want to do something for our country, we’ll have to betray it in this case,” Bauer tells Angermann. The film, directed by Lars Kraume, won a clutch of German film awards, including best picture and best screenplay (written by Mr. Kraume and Olivier Guez). It’s a study in slow-build, though by being so deliberate it risks being slow moving. Script aside, Mr. Kraume captures the glances and motions that lay bare a character’s thoughts. He’s fond of the gruff and curmudgeonly Bauer, yet sentimentality is scarce while the double-crossings are surprising and the dry humor is welcome. Handsomely shot by Jens Harant — Cora Pratz is the production designer, Esther Walz the costumer — the film plumbs several ambiguous areas. (The final scene is set against black-and-white wallpaper that blends into shades of gray, an apt if overstated visual.) Some of those ambiguous areas are political. But the most conflicted place seems to lie in the heart of Fritz Bauer. “The People vs. Fritz Bauer” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian) for sexual innuendo. It is in German, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes.
The title character of “The People vs. Fritz Bauer” was a fascinating man whose career as a prosecutor, trying to expose the crimes of the Nazis, certainly deserves the dramatic treatment director Lars Kraume gives it here. A Jew born in Germany, Fritz Bauer had begun a legal career that was interrupted when he was sent to a concentration camp in the 1930s. After managing to extricate himself, he spent the war years in Denmark and Sweden, then returned to Germany and the law in the late ‘40s. Bauer reached the peak of his renown in the early ‘60s when he prosecuted commanders of Auschwitz in a public trial. Though it may seem shocking now, relatively little public examination of the Holocaust had occurred in Germany since the end of the war. Many former Nazis occupied high positions in German society and officialdom. Though Bauer was accused of pursuing vengeance as a Jew, he insisted his efforts were motivated not by the past but by the future: he wanted to educate German young people so that the horrors their ancestors committed were never repeated. “The People vs. Fritz Bauer” concerns not this trial but a more hidden episode in Bauer’s career that occurred five years earlier. The tale opens in Frankfurt in 1957, when Bauer (Burghart Klaußner in a vivid, forceful performance) is discovered passed out in his bath from an overdose of alcohol and sleeping pills. His enemies in the establishment, who resent and fear his dogged pursuit of former Nazis, seize on this as a possible reason to force him into retirement. Rumors have it he intended suicide. “I have a pistol,” he replies. “If I want to kill myself, there won’t be any rumors.” The prosecutor’s survival means he can pursue a uniquely compelling case: the capture of Adolf Eichmann, a key implementer of the Holocaust. The chase begins when Bauer receives a letter from a German in Argentina who says he know where Eichmann is because his daughter has begun dating the Nazi’s son. The information is persuasive, but it’s also a problem: if Bauer takes it to Interpol or the German intelligence service, it’s very likely Eichmann will be alerted and flee. Instead, he goes to Israel and presents his evidence to the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service. They appreciate his efforts but say they are preoccupied with Israel’s Arab enemies, and besides, they’ve had reports of Eichmann’s whereabouts from all over the world; to pursue this lead, they would have to have confirmation from a second source. Bauer has his work cut out for him when he returns to Germany, and it’s surrounded by dangers. If he’s discovered colluding with the Israelis, he can be charged with treason. And there’s a more personal peril: In Denmark, police reports exist showing that he visited male prostitutes when he lived there. In Germany, the notorious Paragraph 175, by which the Nazis criminalized most homosexual behavior, is still in the books. These two areas of concern converge when Bauer confides his hunt for Eichmann to a sympathetic young prosecutor, Karl Angermann (Ronald Zehrfeld, a charismatic actor who will be known to U.S. audiences from Christian Petzold’s “Barbara” and “Phoenix”), who in turn shares some of his own secrets with Bauer. Angermann is an invented character, and the story elements that involve him are the only major areas where the film diverges from history. Unfortunately it shows: While there’s dramatic power in the relationship between the two prosecutors (thanks in part to the strong work of the two actors playing them), some of the revelations about the younger man feel contrived and overly melodramatic. Kraume’s mounting of this tale, while capable enough, is also rather staid and conventional. (A sharper, more forceful rendition of somewhat similar Cold War material can be found in Steven Spielberg’s “Bridge of Spies,” in which Klausnerr also appeared.) But there’s no question that this story was worth telling. Throughout, Bauer intends to bring Eichmann to trial in Germany, as a way of exposing the whole Nazi hierarchy. But the government of Konrad Adenauer doesn’t want some of its members’ pasts revealed, while the U.S. is disinclined to upset an important ally. Eichmann, of course, was tried and executed by Israel. Bauer’s role in his capture was not revealed until many years later.
Godfrey CheshireGodfrey Cheshire is a film critic, journalist and filmmaker based in New York City. He has written for The New York Times, Variety, Film Comment, The Village Voice, Interview, Cineaste and other publications. Now playingFilm CreditsThe People vs. Fritz Bauer (2016)Rated R for some sexual content. 105 minutes Latest blog posts
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about 24 hours ago CommentsWer war Dr Fritz Bauer?Fritz Bauer ist ein deutscher Jurist. Als hessischer Generalstaatsanwalt setzt er sich in der Nachkriegszeit für die Verfolgung von NS-Verbrechen ein. Bauer bringt die Frankfurter Auschwitz-Prozesse in Gang und ist an der Ergreifung des Holocaust-Organisators Adolf Eichmann beteiligt.
Wo ist Fritz Bauer begraben?Fritz Bauers Urne wurde auf dem Friedhof Örgryte gamla kyrkogård in Göteborg beigesetzt.
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