The People vs. Fritz Bauer

{{Infobox film

| name = The People vs. Fritz Bauer

| image = The People vs. Fritz Bauer.png

| caption = Theatrical release poster

| director = Lars Kraume

| producer = Thomas Kufus

| writer = Lars Kraume
Olivier Guez

| starring = Burghart Klaußner
Ronald Zehrfeld

| music = {{Ill|Christoph M. Kaiser|de}}
{{Ill|Julian Maas|de}}

| cinematography = {{Ill|Jens Harant|de}}

| editing = {{Ill|Barbara Gies|de}}

| distributor = Beta Cinema

| released = {{Film date|2015|8|7|Locarno|2015|10|1|Germany|df=yes}}

| runtime = 105 minutes

| country = Germany

| language = German

| gross = $2.8 million{{cite web| url=https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Staat-gegen-Fritz-Bauer-Der-(Germany)#tab=box-office|title=Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer (2016) - Financial Information |publisher=The Numbers |accessdate=5 December 2019}}{{Mojo title|id=4193400|title=The People Vs. Fritz Bauer}}

}}

The People vs. Fritz Bauer ({{langx|de|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.{{cite web |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/people-fritz-bauer-der-staat-813278 |title='The People vs. Fritz Bauer' ('Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer'): Locarno Review |accessdate=30 August 2015 |work=The Hollywood Reporter|date=7 August 2015 }} It was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.{{cite web |url=https://variety.com/2015/film/news/sandra-bullocks-our-brand-tom-hiddlestons-i-saw-the-light-to-premiere-at-toronto-1201572271/ |title=Sandra Bullock's 'Our Brand Is Crisis,' Robert Redford's 'Truth' to Premiere at Toronto |accessdate=5 December 2019 |work=Variety|date=18 August 2015}}

The film won the awards for Best Film, Best Direction, Best Screenplay, and three more at Deutscher Filmpreis (″Lola″) 2016. The film also won the Best Documentary Audience Award at the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival 36.{{cite web| url=https://pjff.org/audience-award-winners/| title=Audience Award Winners: CineMondays 2016 - Best Documentary| publisher=Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival| access-date=5 December 2019| archive-date=3 October 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191003191526/https://pjff.org/audience-award-winners/| url-status=dead}} It was listed as one of eight films that could be the German submission for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards, but it was not selected.{{cite news |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/toni-erdmann-fritz-bauer-german-916807 |title='Toni Erdmann,' 'Fritz Bauer' Among German Oscar Hopefuls |work=The Hollywood Reporter |last=Roxborough |first=Scott |date=3 August 2016 |accessdate=4 August 2016}}{{cite news |title=Oscar hopes: Germany chooses comedy 'Toni Erdmann' over Nazi films |url=https://www.dw.com/en/oscar-hopes-germany-chooses-comedy-toni-erdmann-over-nazi-films/a-19502113 |date=25 August 2016 |work=Deutsche Welle}}

Plot

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
{{Interlanguage link multi|Michael Schenk|de}} as Adolf Eichmann
{{Interlanguage link multi|Stefan Gebelhoff|de}} as Willem Sassen
Pierre Shrady as Eberhard Fritsch
{{Interlanguage link multi|Götz Schubert|de}} 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
{{Interlanguage link multi|Arndt Schwering-Sohnrey|de}} as Prosecuting Attorney Kügler
{{Interlanguage link multi|Daniel Krauss|de}} as Prosecuting Attorney Vogel
{{Interlanguage link multi|Rüdiger Klink|de}} as Heinz Mahler
Andrej Kaminsky as Police Officer

Book

{{cite book |last=Steinke |first=Ronen |date=2020 |title=Fritz Bauer: The Jewish Prosecutor Who Brought Eichmann to Trial |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington |isbn=978-0-253-04687-1}}