The secret of freedom
The Secret of Freedom is a German television film by director Dror Zahavi , which was broadcast for the first time on January 15, 2020 on Das Erste .
action
Berthold Beitz, Alfried Krupp's foster son and a powerful man in the steel company, commissioned Golo Mann, Thomas Mann's son, to write a book about the Krupp family. Previously, editorial journalists had started to write a biography about Beitz, which he did not like, because much was not presented in his mind. In a commissioned biography he hopes for a "croup-fair" representation of the family. The company currently has the worst balance sheets since the end of the war and a little recovery is urgently needed. He secretly plans to sell company shares to Iran and wants to make up the family with the book. At the same time, he hopes to enhance the image of the Krupp group even more, as he essentially wants to sell the name Krupp to the Iranians .
Historian Golo Mann actually has enough to do, but Beitz's offer seems appealing to him. Especially since he will get out of his sleepy Swiss domicile because he will spend many days in Germany and talk to Beitz. Even at the first of these conversations, man has the feeling that despite all the influence he has gained over the years, the businessman is plagued by a guilty conscience. Beitz reports on his time in Poland, where he had to make decisions as a young managing director of a company that was important to the war effort. Like Oskar Schindler , he also saved Jews, but wisely not enough. The injustice that had happened to the people there shaped him and plunged him into a dichotomy in which respect for Alfried Krupp had always prevailed so far. Mann expresses his amazement that he is loyal to Krupp, as a convicted war criminal, but that he put his own life in danger in order to save Jews. Beitz sees no contradiction in this, because through Alfried Krupp he has the power that he has today. He had given them to him and for that he is eternally grateful. In Poland he had experienced what it means to have no power. To see how crowds of people and animals were crammed into trains and he could only get a few out of there. Since he had experienced this, he had resolved to get as much power as possible, because only those who have power can prevent such injustice.
Beitz and husband spend a lot of time together. When Beitz wants to travel to a former plant that was nationalized in the GDR, he offers Mann to come with him, but he refuses. Beitz meets with the highest head of state in the GDR, but also makes a detour into his very private past and the place where he spent his childhood. He also remembers an accident in which he almost drowned. Likewise, a young woman appears to him again and again in the distance, a Jew whom he was ultimately unable to save in Poland because he had to bow to state power. Since Beitz is preoccupied with this phenomenon and does not allow it to come to rest, he exchanges it with Mann, knowing that he has also written ghost stories. Man advises Beitz to “talk” to the young woman. He tries and that is visibly close to him, so that in the end he cannot speak at all.
After Golo Mann had finished all the chapters so far after 8 years, Beitz unexpectedly informed him that the book would not meet his expectations and that it could not be published. Man is upset because he doesn't want to be censored for putting the truth on paper. So they parted ways and they happened to meet again at the airport when Beitz wanted to travel to Israel in order to accept the award that he was given 17 years ago, but which he did not want to accept at the time. His wife had advised him to do it so that they might finally get rid of "their ghosts". Obviously Else Beitz also had these symptoms.
“The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage. "
background
The film was shot from May 6, 2019 to June 21, 2019 under the working title Berthold Beitz - a restless life .
reception
Audience rating
The first broadcast on January 15, 2020 was seen by 2.97 million viewers in Germany and achieved a market share of 9.8 percent for Das Erste .
criticism
Thomas Gehringer from tittelbach.tv wrote: “On the one hand, the film is determined by the intellectual dialogue between Beitz and Golo Mann, there are few highly dramatic highlights or twists. On the other hand, a certain amount of prior knowledge is basically necessary, because many historical contexts such as the importance of the Krupp Group, including its involvement in National Socialism, are only roughly reflected. And anyone who has never heard of the Mann family will take the aged Katia [...] simply for a sick, despotic mother. Women inevitably only play supporting roles in this film with two male main protagonists. "
At the Frankfurter Rundschau , Tilmann P. Gangloff said: “The cast of the main role is emblematic of the film's claim: Bechtolf has been in front of the camera on various occasions, but is essentially a stage actor and director. The dialogues also sound quite literary and remote from life. Especially at the beginning some scenes seem a bit stiff, especially since the supporting actors are not all convincing. "
Oliver Junge from the FAZ said: “In a historical dialogue drama, the manager Berthold Beitz and the historian Golo Mann struggle to deal effectively with the past.” “The duel between the verbose silent and the silent revelator, who of course have a lot in common , is a pleasure from acting alone. "
SWR2 came to the conclusion: “The film gains tension where it gives the two impressive actors Edgar Selge as Golo Mann and Sven Eric Bechtolf as Bertold Beitz scope. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen very often because the script is too busy packing historical background information into bulky dialogues. The film vacillates again and again between economic history and psychological study. [...] In the end, 'The Secret of Freedom' appears as great material that was largely given away in 90 minutes of television entertainment. "
Willi Winkler of the Süddeutsche Zeitung stated: “Only when the wage clerk breaks away from his assignment, when it is no longer about an expensive anthem, only when Golo Mann is allowed to look as beaten as he is as the son of the unreachable, famous Nobel Prize winner It was likely that the film breaks away from the praline kitsch in which he likes to indulge. "
Web links
- Berthold Beitz - a restless life in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The secret of freedom at crew united
- The secret of freedom. In: Film Wednesday in the first. DasErste.de, accessed on January 13, 2020 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ - The secret of freedom on celeo.de, accessed on January 15, 2019.
- ↑ The secret of freedom at crew united
- ↑ Niklas Spitz: Prime Time check: Wednesday, 15 January 2020. Quotenmeter.de , January 16, 2020 accessed on 16 January 2020 .
- ↑ Sven-Eric Bechtolf, Selge, Orlac, Zahavi. And yet a contradicting character at tittelbach.tv , accessed on May 20, 2020.
- ↑ Tilmann P. Gangloff: "The Secret of Freedom": Ghosts of the Past at fr.de., accessed on May 20, 2020.
- ↑ Oliver Junge: Stahlharte Veriegungen , accessed on May 20, 2020.
- ↑ "The Secret of Freedom" - moderately successful film about Berthold Beitz and Golo Mann at swr.de, accessed on May 20, 2020.
- ↑ Willi Winkler: Two men struggle for freedom from the past at sueddeutsche.de, accessed on May 20, 2020.