The great Bellheim

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Movie
Original title The great Bellheim
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1993
length (105 + 110 + 120 + 120)
455 minutes
Age rating FSK No age limit
Rod
Director Dieter Wedel
script Dieter Wedel
production ZDF , Active Film, Corona Film
music Michael Landau ,
David Knopfler
camera Edward Kłosiński
cut Tanja Schmidbauer
occupation

The big Bellheim is a four-part German television film by Dieter Wedel from 1992, which was broadcast on ZDF in 1993.

action

Part 1: The world of department stores

Peter Bellheim, the former head of the Bellheim department store chain , is celebrating his 60th birthday. At the age of 57, he handed over the management to his successor Richard Maiers, the son of his late business partner David Maiers, and today he only holds the largest block of shares in Bellheim AG and the chairmanship of the Supervisory Board . He is spending his retirement in Marbella with his wife . During his birthday party, Richard Maiers told him that the Bellheim chain was in financial difficulties and had to close individual branches in order to survive economically. In the head office in Hanover , the poor attitude to work is evident: salespeople like Charly Wiesner steal from the company, incorrect prices are entered in the cash register and amounts are incorrectly billed.

At Hannoversche Kreditbank, one of Bellheim's lenders, the bank clerk in the securities department Gudrun Lange receives the tip from Klaus Berger, who is in love with her and an employee of the bank's credit department, to buy Bellheim shares. It is not the department store that is important, but the real estate owned by the AG , as many of the ailing branches are centrally located in the most important cities in Germany. The ambitious Lange passed this tip on to Karl-Heinz Rottmann, CEO of the JOTA trading group. Rottmann was previously employed by Bellheim, but was fired because of unclean business. He sees his time for revenge coming and instructs Lange to buy Bellheim shares under the hand.

Peter Bellheim sits down with his friend Erich Fink, a former auditor and financial advisor and a retiree at 67. Together they plan to maintain the Bellheim department stores through modernization and restructuring and thus prevent staff and branch reductions. The first cases of corruption are uncovered and the CFO and central buyer are dismissed. Bellheim's successor Maiers is now trying to implement his restructuring concept and Bellheim is getting further reinforcements: Herbert Sachs, former CEO of the department store giant Kaufstadt and responsible for all purchasing and has now been retired for twelve years.

Part 2: The Alliance of the Gang of Four

Mario Adorf played Peter Bellheim

Bellheim hires the former union boss and Max Reuther, who has also been retired for a long time, as personnel manager, who always brings his Rottweiler with him to the Bellheim house. After initial quarrels with Fink, who is allergic to dog hair, and Sachs, who had taken Reuther's girlfriend many years ago, the gang of four forms and friendships develop.

Meanwhile, Rottmann continues to work on the destruction of the Bellheim Group. With fake sales of shares and targeted tips to the press , he drives the Bellheim share price into the basement. Lange helps him, meanwhile promoted to head of the securities department, who secretly and illegally procures information on the liquidity of the Bellheim Group with the stolen code card of her colleague Klaus Berger from the Hannoversche Kreditbank and forwards it to him. At the same time, it tries to get other Bellheim AG shareholders to sell their blocks of shares. Consul Tötter had to name her a client and passed it off as ALPAG KG - a subsidiary of the Swiss Zöllikon, which in turn belongs to Rottmanns JOTA AG. The gang of four now knows who is targeting Bellheim AG. In addition to professional problems, Peter Bellheim now also has personal problems: He uses the physical distance to his wife for a cautious affair with decorator Andrea Wegener.

Part 3: The Conspiracy

An extraordinary meeting of the Supervisory Board is due to set the course for the future of Bellheim AG. In the run-up, both Bellheim's Gang of Four and Richard Maiers try to get as many members of the supervisory board as possible to their side. Maiers hopes to enforce the closure of seven branches, while Bellheim seeks investments to reorganize the company. He travels to Hong Kong to win his business partner Chun Doo Heh, head of the Doo-Kem-Industries group, to partially finance his plans. The financing of the other two thirds has already been secured. Only a few days later does he receive the redemption promise.

At the meeting of the retail trade association in Hanover, the gang of four met Rottmann and exposed his Bellheim share purchases and thus takeover plans to the press. At the same time, Bellheim announced that the financing of its planned renovations was in place. The press coverage is enormous and the price of the Bellheim shares rises sharply shortly before the supervisory board meeting. The Supervisory Board approves Bellheim's plans for the restructuring. Bad news reaches them in Milan, where the four buy goods for Bellheim: Hannoversche Kreditbank, as one of the three financiers of the transformation, withdraws its promised support. Bellheim has no choice but to give the bank its own block of shares as security, that is, to provide a risky guarantee with its own assets . Gertrud Maiers, one of the major shareholders of Bellheim AG with 12% of the shares, who was repelled by Bellheim going it alone in the redesign , sells her block of shares to Rottmann, who pays for her with JOTA shares. With high JOTA share purchases by Swiss banks, he artificially increases the price of JOTA shares. Gertrud Maiers only receives a small number of overvalued JOTA shares, which means that Rottmann also earns from the Bellheim shares.

Meanwhile, the seller Charly is planning to open his own boutique not far from the Bellheim department store in Hanover .

Part 4: The settlement

Kortum department store in Bochum, in the film the main branch of the Bellheim Group in Hanover

Charly and saleswoman Mona, whom he was able to win as a partner in his boutique, experience the difficulties of starting a business . Bellheim experiences the difficulties that a lover brings: Andrea feels left alone by him and his wife Maria, who flew in from Marbella to Hanover, realizes that her husband is cheating on her. She leaves disappointed and bitter.

In a restaurant, Dr. Urban, the head of the Hannoversche Kreditbank and Bellheim friend, Lange and Berger sit together flirting. He becomes suspicious and orders a revision in Lange's department. Lange reacted in panic and, in fact, bank manager Urban reported irregularities. Before he can examine it himself, however, he dies. Berger, to whom the files are handed over, does not report Lange because he would also have to sacrifice himself. Richard Maiers, meanwhile, submits his resignation - he wants to get into the real estate business, but will keep the position on the Management Board of Bellheim AG until the upcoming general meeting . At the meeting, Rottmann, who now owns more than half of all Bellheim shares, announced that Maiers had resigned as CEO and that he, Rottmann, was not planning any takeover of the ailing Bellheim AG. Rather, he will sell all the shares in his possession.

The share price drops dramatically over the next few hours. The new head of the Hannoversche Kreditbank Dr. Müller-Mendt, a Bellheim opponent and member of the JOTA AG supervisory board, demands that Bellheim repay the bank loans within five days. Otherwise, Rottmann is interested in the takeover of Bellheim AG - albeit at a low price. Bellheim rejects the takeover offer. Fink, Sachs and Reuther break into Fink's former company, an auditing and financial advisory company, at night and check the account transactions of Rottmann's JOTA AG. They come across Rottmann's bogus deal with the Swiss bank, which had artificially increased the JOTA AG share price. Since such sham deals are prohibited in Germany, the gang of four has something against Rottmann in their hands - at a meeting they ask for Rottmann's Bellheim share package at the current price. The next day, Rottmann is to publicly make a takeover offer from Bellheim AG, thus increasing the share value and withdrawing the offer a few days later. The gang of four can later sell the cheaply bought shares from Rottmann at a higher price and Rottmann can pay the lower share price within two weeks. Since Rottmann's machinations would otherwise be exposed, he agrees to the semi-legal deal. Bellheim AG is saved. Rottmann is later sued by Gertrud Maiers, who at the same time makes his cheat public. Bellheim sells its block of shares to Chun Doo Heh at a high price. After Rottmann resigns as Chairman of JOTA AG, Chun Doo Heh also takes over the majority of the shares in JOTA AG and unites both groups into one trading group - the goal that Rottmann had pursued in vain. Bellheim is duly celebrated when he says goodbye to his employees, whose jobs are now secured. Bellheim finally reconciles with his wife Maria and retires with her in Marbella. Together with Fink, Sachs and Reuther, he is also successfully continuing to build the holiday complex in which he had previously invested unsuccessfully.

Production and Background

The multi-part series was shot in 1991 and 1992. The production costs totaled 17 million marks. The Bellheim department store in Hanover was actually the Kortum department store in Bochum , which no longer exists. Other locations were the Schwager department store in Holzminden and the Milano restaurant in Hanover . The Villa Silva near Uslar , today a conference center, served as the residence of Peter Bellheim ; as his Spanish residence a villa on Calle Alce in Los Monteros, east of Marbella . Herbert Sachs' residence in the film is Villa La Collina on Lake Como , JOTA is based in the office building at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt . Karl-Heinz Rottmann's modern villa in Frankfurt is actually a villa in Klüsenerskamp in Dortmund-Brünninghausen .

There is a discrepancy with Max Reuther, who has lived “with his son in Lüneburg ” since his retirement, at least that's what Peter Bellheim tells his friends over dinner. When Bellheim visits him at home, his homeland reveals itself as a small town in a hilly landscape, which does not suit Lüneburg, but rather Holzminden. Reuther is an amateur actor in a theater group. Bellheim and Reuther meet for the first time at the Polle castle ruins , where Reuther is currently rehearsing. The walk that followed took place in the old town of Holzminden (including Hintere Strasse).

The plot of the film takes place shortly after the political change , as "Miss Bellheim 1991" is chosen in the film. The multi-part series was shown for the first time on January 1, 3, 4 and 6, 1993 on ZDF . In September 2004 the big Bellheim came out on DVD.

Originally, Klaus Schwarzkopf played the role of Dr. Erich Fink. After his sudden death in June 1991, Heinz Schubert took over the role. The scenes that were still shot with Schwarzkopf had to be shot again. The production was posthumously dedicated to Klaus Schwarzkopf. Director Dieter Wedel can be seen in a cameo as a real estate agent. As the Minister-President of Lower Saxony at the time, the later Chancellor Gerhard Schröder made a guest appearance.

Since some of the scenes that were important for the original overall context fell victim to the cut, some of the storylines in the film are partly incomprehensible. It is noticeable, for example, that in one of the last scenes after the company was rescued , Bellheim receives a bouquet of flowers from Rottmann's Hong Kong managing director, who now apparently works for Bellheim. A scene was cut out in which Rottmann's managing director in Hong Kong, disappointed by Rottmann's unscrupulous actions, passed on Rottmann's plans to Bellheim and his gang of four. In the 1992 book on the film, which Dieter Wedel and Verena C. Harksen wrote largely precisely to the script, scenes that were omitted from the film can be reproduced.

Before the film was broadcast on Arte, there was a discussion in the program conference about whether the film should be broadcast. Dr. In 1992, Hanne Landbeck, then deputy program manager and authorized signatory of ARTE Deutschland TV GmbH, was the only female member of the program conference to criticize the fact that "there was no female role in the film with any significance whatsoever. It was ... mainly big, often also physically voluminous men ... for their struggles against and with one another - and for big money. Women either played the role of lovers like Renan Demirkan , or that of the intriguer like Leslie Malton. "

reception

The Fischer Film Almanach found that director Dieter Wedel had with the Great Bellheim "[presented] a European prestige production that not only withstood international standards, but can also be regarded as setting the standard." The lexicon of international films wrote that The Great Bellheim was dignified and offers its four "graying" main actors the opportunity to demonstrate their acting skills. The film offers "rock solid entertainment", even if the numerous subplots "ramify the plot a little too much". The basic message of the film was praised: “Even in old age competitive performance can be achieved.” Der Spiegel praised the fact that the film did not show old age: “How four musketeers a. D. without horse and sword, vacillating between self-doubt and self-irony, compete against the evil outside and the resignation inside, that shows ... Dieter Wedel ... as exciting as touching. "

Barbara Sichtermann wrote in the weekly newspaper Die Zeit that especially the third and fourth part of the series “apart from singing joy (' Capri-Fischer '), a thousand niggles and worry lines had nothing to offer ..." Business comedies in general "have to constantly struggle with the problem to translate the moves of hero and opponent for the audience and to show the professionals at work in such a way that everyone can follow. When breaking into a bank it is easy to do, when founding a bank (or a department store branch) the viewer is often at a loss. ”The film also fails on this cliff, so over time it gets lost in“ private stuff and subplot ”. Only the villains were convincing on the floor of the bank and stock exchange. It's like life and it's not entertaining enough. "

Although the mini-series was generally well received in the German press, there was also criticism of various scenes that were based on American models. Dieter Wedel was accused of having taken over individual scenes from the American film Wall Street ; the figure of Karl-Heinz Rottmann, played by Heinz Hoenig , shows similarities to the figure of Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas . The same applies to the role of Leslie Maltons as Gudrun Lange, which reflects the character of Bud Fox in Wall Street . Quotations from both films would partly be similar.

Other similarities were recognized in films such as Tin Men from 1987 - scenes with Mario Adorf and Renan Demirkan are similar to those with Richard Dreyfuss and Barbara Hershey - or Citizen Kane by Orson Welles and in James Clavell's novel "Noble House".

When it was first broadcast on ZDF in 1993, the multi-part show had an average audience rating of 21.3%; this corresponded to around 11 million viewers.

Awards

literature

  • Verena C. Harksen , Dieter Wedel: The great Bellheim. Based on the television film by Dieter Wedel ( novel version ). 61-80. Thousand. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1993, 339 pages, ISBN 3-596-11273-7 .
  • Christian W. Thomsen, Gerd Hallenberger (ed.): The great Bellheim. A German television production with international ambitions . Siegen series, Volume 131: Media Studies. Winter, Heidelberg 1996, 120 pages, ISBN 3-8253-0375-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marked by life . In: Der Spiegel, No. 53, December 28, 1992, p. 173.
  2. ↑ http://www.villa-silva.de/ Homepage Villa Silva
  3. ^ Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Villa La Collina
  4. ↑ Verena C. Harksen, Dieter Wedel: The great Bellheim . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1992.
  5. ^ Walter Schobert, Horst Schäfer (eds.): Fischer Film Almanach 1994. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-596-12229-5 , p. 144.
  6. ↑ The great Bellheim. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  7. ↑ Marked by life . In: Der Spiegel, No. 53, December 28, 1992, p. 172.
  8. ↑ a b c Barbara Sichtermann: Thousand Zipperlein . In: Die Zeit, January 15, 1993.
  9. ^ "Bellheim": Reunion with "Wall Street" . In: Der Spiegel, No. 3, January 18, 1993, p. 183.
  10. ↑ Meckel, Miriam: Television without borders? Europe's television between integration and segmentation, Wiesbaden 1994, p. 122; Footnote 133.
  11. ↑ ZDF experiences a quota debacle with a production of 27 million marks shortnews.de, from January 16, 2002 (The "quota debacle" refers to the multi-part "Die Affäre Semmeling", the "Big Bellheim" as a counterexample and quota king is juxtaposed.)