The girl - what happened to Elisabeth K.?

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Movie
Original title The girl - what happened to Elisabeth K.?
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 2014
length 75 minutes
Rod
Director Eric Friedler
script Eric Friedler
Silke Schütze
production Thomas Beyer
camera Thomas Schäfer
cut Sophie Kill
occupation

The girl - what happened to Elisabeth K.? is a German documentary from 2014 by director Eric Friedler about Elisabeth Käsemann , murdered in 1977, who was imprisoned and tortured by the Argentine military dictatorship while the German national soccer team was at the same time on a friendly match in Buenos Aires and later on the World Cup Prepared in Argentina in 1978 . The film criticizes the indifference and inaction of the responsible German politicians and sports officials and raises the question of how apolitical sport can be.

content

During the Argentine military dictatorship (1976–1983) , more than 30,000 people were abducted and murdered in Argentina who were opponents of the military junta or who were considered to be such by it. After a coup against the democratically elected government of Isabel Martínez de Perón , General Jorge Rafael Videla came to power in 1976 . Shortly afterwards, the military began a brutal hunt for journalists, critical students, left-wing intellectuals, trade unionists and supporters of Perón.

On March 8, 1977, the German Elisabeth Käsemann was captured by the military. She had lived in the country since 1971 and studied economics and attended a theological seminar in the capital, Buenos Aires . Her father Ernst Käsemann was a professor for Protestant theology at the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen . In a letter to her parents, she wrote that, in view of the problems and misery in the country, she could not imagine returning to the "luxury problems of Europe" as long as she could help here. The military interpreted her voluntary work in the slum settlements and her social commitment to the poor as opposition work. She was taken to the El Vesubio concentration camp (a secret prison where political opponents were held and tortured ), about 40 km from Buenos Aires .

Two days later, a close friend of Käsemann's, British theology student Diana Austin, was also brought to the camp, where she heard Käsemann's screams while she was being tortured. In addition to various types of torture, an electric rod called a picana was often used in El Vesubio , in which the victims were tied to a metal table and then given electric shocks with the rod - preferably in sensitive areas such as the mouth, tongue, breasts and genitals. In addition, women detained in the camp were sexually humiliated by the guards and regularly raped.

A former prison guard named Roberto Zeolitti (67-year-old at the time of filming and sentenced to 18 years in prison for crimes against humanity) said that Käsemann was clearly shown the torture and that she was kept on the floor in her cell in a kind of dog pen.

Diana Austin was released the next day under pressure from the British government. The German Foreign Ministry under Hans-Dietrich Genscher had been informed of the case of Elisabeth Käsemann by March 22, 1977 at the latest, but did nothing. Diana Austin informs Käsemann's parents and flies to New York City on April 3, where she gives Amnesty International a detailed report on the camp and the torture methods , which is also sent to the press and the German government. In May 1977 the German national soccer team traveled to the country of the military dictatorship to play a friendly match with the Argentinian team. According to an article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung on April 6, 1977, the general public in Germany was also informed about the case.

Käsemann graduated from high school in the mid-1960s and began studying at the Free University of Berlin in 1966 . At that time the FU was one of the centers of the student movement . At student protests, she demonstrated alongside Rudi Dutschke against the Vietnam War and criticized the gap between rich and poor. After considering how she could best stand up for the oppressed and the poor, she decided to go to Latin America, began an internship abroad in Bolivia in September 1968 and then went to Argentina to study and do social work.

In 1977, Hans-Dietrich Genscher was Federal Foreign Minister in the coalition government in West Germany led by Chancellor Helmut Schmidt ; his two parliamentary ministers of state were Klaus von Dohnanyi and Hildegard Hamm-Brücher . It is the time when politics was made with fear of terrorism and everything was subordinated to the supposed fight against terrorism. Apparently they came to the wrong conclusion that people like Elisabeth Käsemann, who stand up for the poor and the oppressed and oppose a military dictatorship, can only be left-wing terrorists. In an interview, Dohnanyi explains that it was wrong to bring a peaceful and socially committed woman close to terrorists. Jörg Kastl , at the time the German ambassador to Argentina , shows no remorse and defends his wrong assessment even after the fact.

Kastl maintained close contacts with the military junta and the secret services that were responsible for murder and torture in the country. A secret service officer even used rooms in the German embassy and an Argentine police officer organized the security. Other embassies, such as those of Great Britain and France, refused to cooperate and these countries nevertheless managed to liberate their compatriots from prison camps through diplomatic interventions, as did Austria and Spain. At the time, the ambassador also claimed, in response to an official request, that no one knew anything about Ms. Käsemann, although she was officially registered in Buenos Aires and had her German passport renewed at the German embassy six months earlier.

Even other states like Holland, Finland and Great Britain have already complained in Argentina about the imprisonment of Germans, only Germany not about their own nationals.

Hamm-Brücher and von Dohnanyi declared that at the time they probably didn't dare to contradict the boss (Genscher) and the foreign minister simply didn't want to know about the case. He didn't even want to set up an internal crisis team, as is usually the case.

DFB President Hermann Neuberger , whose voice also had weight within FIFA , did not want to refer to the Argentine military dictatorship as a dictatorship, and even praised General Videla's tough crackdown. Despite knowing about the case of Elisabeth Käsemann, he refused any action or diplomatic talks by the DFB or FIFA with regard to the German held in the torture prison and prevented the team from being informed about the case.

In addition to the inaction on the political level (such as negotiations, official protest notes , recall of the ambassador or threats to close the Goethe Institutes in Argentina) as well as in the field of sport, the close contacts between German business and Argentina were not used as a lever. For example, the German Siemens group has just introduced color television in Argentina for the upcoming soccer World Cup. After the US under Jimmy Carter placed an arms embargo on the country, Germany was also the largest arms and arms supplier. German arms deals to Argentina were even secured with state Hermes guarantees . And Mercedes-Benz gave every Argentine national player a Mercedes in the spirit of good relations.

On May 20, the German pastor Armin Ihle, who worked in Argentina in 1977 and had contacts with the military junta through church circles, sent the German embassy one last offer of a meeting with the Argentine federal police that the Germans could also be ransomed. The German embassy did not react and did not start negotiations. Ihle explained that ignoring the offer ultimately led to the death of Elisabeth Käsemann, as it was now certain that Germany would not care what happened to the Germans.

On the night of May 23-24, 16 prisoners, including Elisabeth Käsemann, were taken to an empty house in the suburb of Monte Grande . Shortly afterwards, several vehicles with soldiers pulled up who were told there were dangerous terrorists in the house. Horacio Verstraeten, who was 18 years old at the time, stated that an officer gave the order to shoot and that the soldiers then emptied their magazine in the dark. The next day, the junta spreads the propaganda that there was a firefight in Monte Grande with terrorists, including the German. The Argentine federal judge Daniel Eduardo Rafecas explains that the weakened victims, who were handcuffed and shot blindfolded, had no way of defending themselves. An autopsy carried out later at the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen confirms that Käsemann was executed on May 24th from close proximity with four shots in the neck and back.

Federal judge Rafecas is also certain that if a German politician had campaigned for her release, she would not have had to die. On June 3, Ambassador Kastl reported her death to the Foreign Office. But the German public continues to learn nothing of the murder of the Germans. In the German embassy there will be a reception for the German national team and a discussion with the DFB President, in which he will be informed. In the interest of "good mood" for an insignificant friendly game, Neuberger ignores the murder and withholds the information from the team. Elisabeth Käsemann's death will only be officially announced after the game on June 6th.

After the German embassy transferred Käsemann's body to Germany, her family is supposed to settle the bill. Even after the murder of Elisabeth Käsemann, the German authorities refused to acknowledge her mistake. Genscher does not contradict the representations of the military dictatorship; instead, Germany adopts the junta's version as its own. In the end, the German police were commissioned to film Käsemann's funeral in Tübingen in order to capture the people around the "terrorist".

Hildegard Hamm-Brücher had to admit retrospectively that she had lied during Question Time in the Bundestag when she announced there on October 20, 1977, “In Argentina, as everywhere in the world, the federal government has given no opportunity to unequivocally for the observance of human rights to enter ". In addition, she said “there is no doubt about the Argentine account that Elisabeth Käsemann was killed in a terrorist action in a firefight with security forces.” Although it was not true, she felt obliged to read what was dictated to her have.

Genscher had already promised the filmmakers an interview in June 2013, which, however, did not take place by the time the production was completed, despite multiple inquiries. DFB President Wolfgang Niersbach canceled his interview at short notice. The former Federal Chancellor Schmidt was not willing to participate in the documentation.

background

  • The film title refers to a statement made at the time by Hans-Dietrich Genscher who, when asked about the case, is said to have only said “Oh, the girl Käsemann” and did not want to deal with it any further.
  • In May 2013, MPs Hans-Christian Ströbele and Renate Künast for the Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen parliamentary group again directed a so-called minor question in the German Bundestag with 24 questions to the federal government in order to clarify the Käsemann case and answer the question of responsibility to clarify. However, the federal government could not answer everything satisfactorily and pointed out that it would be the task of historical research to assess the case and the responsibilities. Director Eric Friedler later stated that this request made him aware that the case had not been dealt with even decades later.
  • In addition to the specific case, Friedler also wanted to ask the fundamental question: "Can you just let a World Cup, Olympic Games or other festivities take place anywhere in the world and ignore the things that happen in the respective country?"
  • The television film was produced by Polyphon Film- und Fernsehgesellschaft on behalf of NDR and SWR and was first broadcast on ARD on June 5, 2014 at 10.45 p.m. The first broadcast also marked the anniversary of the Argentina-Germany friendly game, which took place 37 years ago at the La Bombonera stadium in Buenos Aires.

Reviews

“First sport, then business, but never morals: With" Das Mädchen ", the multiple award-winning documentary filmmaker Eric Friedler reveals the failure of politicians and the German Football Association in the case of the young German Elisabeth Käsemann who was murdered in 1977. [..] So a young woman became a victim of narrow-mindedness, terrorism hysteria and practical politics because she stood up for other people. "Today it would be very different," believes Klaus von Dohnanyi. A mistake, as Qatar and Brazil show. "

- Daland Segler - Frankfurter Rundschau

“The frightening thing is: One phone call might have been enough to save Käsemann's life. A call from Genscher , a call from Kastl , even a call from Neuberger , who could have demanded: "There is only a football game if you let the woman go." The call did not materialize, which leads the then South America correspondent of " Spiegel ", Hellmuth Karasek , to call the DFB President a "collaborator". "

- Oliver Creutz - star

“The German ambassador at the time, Jörg Kastl, who died a few months ago but was still ready to provide information about the film, makes it clear that he still assumes that Elisabeth Käsemann was to blame for her death. More precisely: their left political ideas. In the case of the student Klaus Zieschank , who was also murdered in Argentina , Kastl had claimed that he had moved in "left-wing terrorist circles" - a lie. Kastl later made a great diplomatic career. "

- Bernd Pickert - The daily newspaper

“The German Football Association (DFB), which had been specifically informed about the Käsemann case, kept the subject under cover. If only because, as a football official explains in the film, you felt obliged to the Argentines, who, through their work in international bodies, were responsible for the 1974 World Cup in Germany. One hand washes the other. A year later Udo Jürgens smacked "Buenos Dias, Argentina" as the official song for the 1978 World Cup with the national team . A serenade for the junta, so to speak. [..] "Das Mädchen" is a disturbing, irreconcilable documentary that, shortly before the World Cup, effectively reinterprets an old saying: Sport is murder. "

“How politically or apolitically people thought and acted in connection with sport could be seen in 1978, just one year after Elisabeth Käsemann's murder, during the World Cup tournament. Hermann Neuberger, at the time the DFB President, was not ashamed to receive the former Wehrmacht officer and later Nazi escape helper Hans-Ulrich Rudel in the quarters of the German national soccer team. And Berti Vogts , at that time captain of the German team, praised Argentina as "a country in which there is order. I have not seen a single political prisoner." "

- Martin Weber - Berliner Zeitung

“Friedler's remarkable film is also a definition of realpolitik. [..] Ambassador Kastl sounds like a mixture of the Bild newspaper and the famous man from the street when he says that it is actually quite right for these long-haired leftists to get acquainted with the stern hand. "She undoubtedly belonged to the Argentine 68ers, who sometimes shied away from a little," says Kastl, he spreads and insinuates and claims; a cynical and cold old man. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Interview with director Eric Friedler about the film on Deutschlandradio on June 5, 2014
  2. Small inquiry: German Bundestag, printed matter 17/13630 (PDF file, 103 kB) on bundestag.de from May 17, 2013
  3. Eric Friedler: "The Elisabeth K. case is still relevant today!" ( Memento from July 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on NDR.de from June 3, 2014
  4. SWR2 Culture Talk : Murder in the Shadow of the World Cup on SWR.de on June 5, 2014
  5. How the Foreign Office and the DFB in Argentina failed in Der Tagesspiegel of June 4, 2014
  6. How (un) political can football be? in Stuttgarter Zeitung on June 5, 2014
  7. "If you shouldn't be outraged ..." in Frankfurter Rundschau from June 3, 2014
  8. When Germany tolerated a torture murder in the World Cup country in Stern from June 5, 2014
  9. ARD documentary: Leiche im Keller in Die Tageszeitung from June 5, 2014
  10. ARD documentary about Argentina's junta: football and crime in Spiegel Online from June 5, 2014
  11. TV tip “Das Mädchen”: Sport and a murder in the Berliner Zeitung from June 2, 2014
  12. ^ Death due to political inactivity in Süddeutsche Zeitung on June 5, 2014