Acquittal for lack of evidence
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Acquittal for lack of evidence |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1962 |
| length | 94 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Richard Groschopp |
| script |
Carl Andrießen Lothar Creutz Richard Groschopp |
| production | DEFA |
| music | Wolfgang Lesser |
| camera | Günter Haubold |
| cut | Helga Krause |
| occupation | |
| |
Acquittal for lack of evidence is a German feature film from 1962 from the DEFA studio for feature films by Richard Groschopp .
action
In the Auditorium Maximum of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich , the founder, co-editor and editor-in-chief of the newspaper Südkurier Alexander Steinhorst was awarded an honorary doctorate on the occasion of his 50th birthday at the end of the 1950s . The reasoning states that the publicist has been an integral part of the history of Bavaria since 1945. In addition, the voice of the democrat, whose social recognition reached the summit, also carries weight in national and international politics. In his private life he lives in a high level of prosperity, which is not affected by the divorce from his wife. His current partner is the actress Monika Goslar, who is still married to the photographer Schmitt-Goslar, who does not want to get divorced. This plays the main role in the play Ölzweig by Ewan MacColl , which Steinhorst's son Thomas is responsible for and directing and for which the father creates the financial prerequisites.
At about the same time, the board of the Bavarian CSU meets to discuss the upcoming elections. It also comes up that in addition to the previous budget , 17 million marks more are available, thanks to the commitment of the economic service. The lawyer and CSU legal advisor Dr. Fabricius asks whether this matter is being handled with great caution, as he suspects that the Südkurier has already got wind of the matter, because the donation violates Article 21 of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany . Furthermore, Dr. Fabricius that Steinhorst wants to found a new weekly magazine for which this topic would be a good start. But he also emphasizes that there are not only opponents of the CSU in the Südkurier , which is why he is then instructed to sound out the situation in the newspaper. Then there is only the reference to Thomas Steinhorst, who is staging a dubious play in the State Theater, which consists of a mixture of left-wing radicalism and pornography.
The first path of his new task leads Dr. Fabricius as publishing director and co-owner of the Südkurier Amplinger. This comes directly from a violent dispute with Steinhorst about the future of the newspaper and the planned new review , which is to start with a report on the prohibited party funding. The gentlemen understand each other immediately and promise each other support. During the conversation, Dr. Fabricius that Steinhorst was divorced because of a relationship with a colleague. After further research , he contacted the photographer Schmitt-Goslar, who was supposed to contact the said colleague Bruni Greiner. Since she needs money for her BMW Isetta in order to pay an installment, she immediately agrees to model him. After this meeting, Miss Greiner and Schmitt-Goslar go to a bar to celebrate. Here Bruni tells that she tried to contact Steinhorst four times because she wanted to ask him for money because he had already helped her financially. She indicates that she needed the sum at the time for an abortion and he suspects that the child would have been von Steinhorst. With this news, the photographer immediately goes to Dr. Fabricius.
Immediately after the contact pressure of the new journal look around with the revelations on party funding, Alexander is arrested Steinhorst and because of " fornication with addicts accused". Dr. Fabricius continues to work in the background on the downfall of the editor-in-chief. Even his son is affected, because first his play is canceled in the State Theater and then the operator of a small stage that he has rented in the meantime gives him notice. In prison, Steinhorst and his lawyer Dr. Roth states that everything points to character assassination, which is why a release on bail was refused. During the trial it emerges that there was a sexual connection between Bruni Greiner and the editor-in-chief, but there was no dependency because he was not her superior. Furthermore, it turns out that the expected child Miss Greiner was conceived by her boyfriend at the time and that Alexander Steinhorst was out of the question in terms of time. Therefore the court comes to the judgment: "acquittal for lack of evidence".
Friends and colleagues turn away from Steinhorst for fear of their own careers, the press greedily rushes to the fact that the acquittal was not due to proven innocence. His business partner Amplinger makes him responsible for the losses incurred in connection with the new magazine Umschau and dismisses him. His bank balance, his shares in the Südkurier and his valuable violin collection are seized. Even his lawyer Dr. Roth resigns the mandate , only his son and Monika Goslar are still with him. Alexander Steinhorst, however, is socially ruined and he sees no other way out than suicide .
Production and publication
The scriptwriters got the inspiration for this film from the case of the editor-in-chief and shareholder of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Werner Friedmann , who was accused in 1960 of "fornication with addicts".
Acquittal for lack of evidence was shot as a black and white film and had its premiere on May 24, 1962 in the Berlin Colosseum cinema . The film was broadcast on German television on May 3, 1963.
Reviews
Dr. M. Jelenski describes the film in the Berliner Zeitung as both entertaining and enlightening. Overall, it can be assigned to the good middle class.
In New Germany , Horst Knietzsch writes that the film is not so much characterized by external cinematic tension, but rather knows how to captivate through the almost meticulous recording of the anatomy of character assassination.
In the Neue Zeit , HU says:
“Besides, one would have wished for the film to be even more haunting in many ways, with fewer external features and therefore fewer white telephones, but more psychologically intensive. A certain tendency towards catchy clichés has not always been avoided by the director. The actors are also mostly limited to external appearances. "
The Lexicon of International Films writes that this is a technically quite successful contribution by DEFA to unmasking contradictions in West German party democracy.
literature
- F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 183-184 .
Web links
- Acquittal for lack of evidence in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Acquittal for lack of evidence at filmportal.de
- Acquittal for lack of evidence from the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ↑ From Lola to Lolita. In: Der Spiegel . May 18, 1960.
- ↑ Friedmann was not a victim. In: The time . July 1, 1960.
- ↑ Berliner Zeitung . May 27, 1962, p. 6.
- ↑ New Germany . May 27, 1962, p. 4.
- ↑ New times . June 5, 1962, p. 4.
- ^ Acquittal for lack of evidence. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed February 5, 2019 .