The laughing man
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The laughing man |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1966 |
| length | 66 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Walter Heynowski , Gerhard Scheumann |
| script | Walter Heynowski, Gerhard Scheumann |
| production | DEFA studio for newsreels and documentaries |
| camera | Peter Hellmich, Horst Donth |
| cut | Dear Vishnewski |
| occupation | |
| |
The Laughing Man - Confessions of a Murderer is a documentary in black and white by GDR directors Walter Heynowski and Gerhard Scheumann about the mercenary Siegfried Müller known as " Congo Miller" from 1966.
action
During the interview , “Major” Siegfried Müller, known and notorious under the name “Kongo-Müller”, sits in uniform against a black background. As a mercenary, he was involved in the suppression of the Simba rebellion in the Congo in the early 1960s . As a contemporary document, the film appears particularly macabre due to the contradiction between the friendliness of the man, who at first glance appears sympathetic, and the brutality and cruelty of his deeds, for which he obviously feels no remorse .
The title of the film is explained by the man's permanent grin, who continually speaks to alcohol throughout the interview and even has difficulty articulating himself towards the end. Müller by no means bragged about atrocities, but emphasized the peacefulness of his approach, although the credibility of these statements appears dubious not only because of his laughter, which can be interpreted in many ways. The filmmakers confirm this impression at crucial points by cutting authentic sound and photo material into the film, through which torture and murders - also by Müller himself - are witnessed.
Quotes
- Everyone in the Congo knows me too. Major Müller, everyone knows where he is. All you need to do is write: “Major Müller, Congo” - always arrives.
- First of all, it was necessary to show the blacks that whites were there. Because whites still have a fantastic reputation in Africa today.
- I started drinking again in the Congo. It just came about because there was nothing else. I don't want to drink bog water, that's normal.
- I am against spilling blood, as I proved in the Congo.
- I am against shooting negroes . Because I have the feeling that we not only have a responsibility for white people in Europe, but we also have a responsibility for black people in Africa.
- I am a defender of the West, the Christian, or the Western Hemisphere. And then everything else ends, all ideology or whatever.
- I am for the liberation of all people, whether it is the Prussians or the Congolese.
- The Goethe-Institut totally understood what the Congo was all about.
- We fought for Europe, for the idea of the West, for Liberté, Fraternité and so on, you know those sayings. Because for me Africa is nothing more than the defense of the West in Africa.
background
Walter Heynowski and Gerhard Scheumann formed the most famous documentary film team in the GDR as H&S. With Siegfried Müller it was possible for the first time to get a well-known western mercenary in front of the camera. Heynowski and Scheumann had made Müller believe, however, that it would be a West German film team, since Müller did not know how to assign German television broadcasting to the GDR. The international press reported about Müller in advance because his unit in the Congo had increasingly committed disciplinary misconduct. The film material from that time was shown in The Laughing Man in the form of cutscenes in the ongoing interview.
The film was shot on November 10, 1965 in a television studio in Munich . Siegfried Müller received a fee of 10,000 D-Marks for this.
First performance in the GDR was on February 9, 1966 in the DFF program . The cinema release in the GDR was on March 18, 1966. As a continuation or supplement to the movie, the 60-minute television film PS about the laughing man was released in 1966 , which was first broadcast in the GDR on September 13, 1966 in DFF 1 .
After the film was released in the GDR in 1966, it was successfully exported to 37 countries around the world, but it was banned in the Federal Republic of Germany . After visiting the Leipzig Trade Fair in spring 1966, the pacifist Helmut Soeder from Freiburg brought a copy of the film to Germany and was able to show the film in a private screening on September 9, 1966. When Soeder wanted to show the film to friends in Emmendingen for a second time on September 11, 1966 , the criminal police were present and pointed out to Soeder that, under the Shipment Act of May 24, 1961, he was obliged to submit films from socialist countries to the Frankfurt Federal Office for Commercials Economy to submit for review. A complaint to the Federal Constitutional Court was unsuccessful.
Awards
- The film won the special jury award at the Leipzig International Documentary Film Festival in 1966.
- In 1966 Peter Hellmich, Walter Heynowski and Gerhard Scheumann were awarded the Joliot-Curie-Medal in gold and the National Prize, 2nd class.
Reviews
“Portrait of Siegfried Müller (called 'Kongo-Müller'), of German descent, who achieved notoriety in 1964 as a major in the Congolese army and mercenary leader who 'finished' the renegade Equatorial Province in ten weeks. Alcoholic and laughing in a friendly manner, he describes his career and reveals a criminal mercenary mentality . Since he believes he is available to answer questions from West German journalists, he makes no secret of his anti-communist worldview. His interviewers, in turn, use his statements about angry and polemical attacks against West Germany. The sometimes impressive film, with which Heynowski & Scheumann became internationally famous, exposes the subjective approach of its makers and their actual political goals; a prime example of 'directed documentarism'. "
“Congo miller is certainly a strange phenomenon. [...] A murderous fellow with a winning smile! A genocide practitioner who can have a polite conversation! This figure is bursting with contradictions that arouse interest in her studies. Kongo-Müller does not fit into the stereotype of the mercenary that we all carried around with us to a greater or lesser extent. "
"Through [...] 'The Laughing Man' Siegfried Müller, a completely marginal figure in the mercenary deployment in the Congo, was stylized as a 'Congo Miller' to the type of the modern mercenary: cynical , brutal, but at the same time jovial and thoroughly intelligent. If mercenaries are still a topic in Germany today, a photo of the 'laughing man' appears in the press. "
literature
- Christian Bunnenberg: The "Congo miller". A German mercenary career . Lit-Verlag, Münster 2006, ISBN 978-3-8258-9900-4 (Europa-Übersee; Vol. 19).
- Walter Heynowski, Gerhard Scheumann: The laughing man. Confessions of a Murderer . Verlag der Nation, Berlin 1966.
- Rüdiger Steinmetz, Tilo Prase: Documentary between evidence and pamphlet. Heynowski & Scheumann and the Katins group . Volume 2 of materials, analyzes, contexts. Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2002, ISBN 3936522464
Web links
- The laughing man in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The laughing man on Youtube
- The laughing man at filmportal.de
- Censorship of DEFA films in the Federal Republic of Germany Article by the Federal Agency for Civic Education on bundestag.de
- Mercenary legend "Kongo-Müller": Legionnaire on the media front for one day
- The banned documentary. With film clip. In: Tages-Anzeiger from November 1, 2011 (10 minutes)
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. Heynowski / Scheumann: The laughing man, p. 23
- ↑ Eike Frenzel: Legionnaire on the media front. Der Spiegel , May 19, 2010, accessed on November 11, 2011 .
- ↑ Willi Winkler: Recipe for a clean skull. Süddeutsche Zeitung , October 30, 2011, accessed on November 11, 2011 .
- ^ Authorities / GDR film: Laughing man
- ↑ BVerfG, decision of April 25, 1972, Az. 1 BvL 13/67, BVerfGE 33, 52 - censorship.
- ↑ The laughing man. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Film review appearances or being or the speaking heads
- ↑ Torsten Thomas, Gerhard Wiechmann: Modern Landsknechte or Military Specialists? The “rebirth” of mercenaries in the 20th century in the Congo, 1960–1967 . In: Stig Förster, Christian Jansen, Günther Kronenbitter (eds.): Return of the Condottieri ? War and military between state monopoly and privatization; From antiquity to the present . Schöningh, Paderborn 2009, ISBN 978-3-506-76754-7 , pp. 265–282, here p. 282