Whenever Steiner came

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Movie
Original title Whenever Steiner came
Country of production GDR
original language German
Publishing year 1976
length (2 parts) 176 minutes
Rod
Director Walter Heynowski
Gerhard Scheumann
script Walter Heynowski
Gerhard Scheumann
production Studio H & S
music Reiner Bredemeyer
camera Peter Hellmich
cut Dear Vishnewski

Whenever Steiner Came Out is a two-part documentary by the H & S studio by Walter Heynowski and Gerhard Scheumann from 1976 .

action

In 1971 Rolf Steiner was transferred from Uganda to Sudan as a prisoner . Here he is surrounded by press and film people, which begs the question of who this man is. The citizen of the Federal Republic of Germany , born in 1933, is used to standing in front of cameras. The film begins with a written declaration from Steiner that he was in no way compelled to make his statements and that Studio H & S is a film company from the GDR . This letter was signed on August 1, 1971 in Khartoum , where the interview recordings were made.

His military career began at the age of 18 in the French Foreign Legion . The very first theater of war shaped him for the rest of his life. He is deployed in Indochina as a commanding officer whose main task is to conduct operations in the rear of the enemy. A large part of his group consists of renegade soldiers of the communist Việt Minh , he himself has the rank of sub-lieutenant . He does not want to be reminded of his participation in the battle for Điện Biên Phủ and he does not want to talk about it either. He learned individual fighting methods in Indochina, but he does not understand a historical lesson, the voice from the off notes.

After returning from Indochina, Rolf Steiner is deployed with the Foreign Legion in Algeria , where an uprising for independence in the mountains begins at that time . Its job is to carry out police actions against the rebels . When it comes to military equipment, there is no comparison in the Algerian war with Indochina, because here they are supplied with the latest weapons, even modern helicopters and airplanes are no problem. Steiner becomes a trainer of a special unit for combat swimmers and paratroopers , which makes a name for itself through its particular brutality. He himself has parachuted over 300 times. He also reports how they proceed against the Algerian fighters on Tunisian territory, whose retreats are there. Under international law , however, this is only possible if you knowingly make a mistake on the map, otherwise it would not be permissible to undertake an operation on the other side of the border. For the sake of form, however, there are disciplinary penalties. Officially, however, is a deployment in 1956 on the Suez Canal , when his unit marched into Egypt . His highest rank in the Foreign Legion is first lieutenant and the dangerous bonuses clearly exceed his salary.

After a few years in Europe, which he spent primarily in France , where he married and made his services available to the secret services , he was drawn to a new theater of war. In 1967 Steiner left Europe on a secret mission in order to lead an entire division in bloody skirmishes on the African continent under the sign of the skull . In Biafra he takes citizenship of the country and is promoted to colonel . However, this mission only begins with a small commando, which has to carry out actions behind the enemy lines and gets bigger and bigger until it reaches the strength of a division with 17,900 soldiers. The cause of this Biafra war is a territorial reform in Nigeria , in which the military governor of the south-east region Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu proclaims the independence of Biafra. Since this is about a lot of oil , the Nigerian state does not want to recognize Biafra and marches in with its troops. Steiner and his division do not belong to the normal army, but report to the head of state Ojukwu, with whom he also has a personal friendship. Rolf Steiner repeatedly emphasizes in the interview that oil is the real main reason for the war, which, as he claims, is being extended by about a year with his help. After the collapse of Biafra, the former Biafran officer Steiner, with the support of the German embassy in Gabon , returns to Germany as a civilian citizen.

The next secret assignment leads Rolf Steiner back to Africa. In Rome , church supporters of the southern Sudanese population asked him for support in the 15-year struggle against the Sudanese government troops. Further negotiations on this will then be conducted in Germany together with the British secret service. From Kampala in Uganda , where the Deutsche Lufthansa office is Steiner's contact point, he is also flown with a Lufthansa charter plane to South Sudan, because entry by land is excluded due to the roadblocks there. His first job is to explore runways for planes that are supposed to bring military supplies for the Anya-Nya rebel army . Since these do not exist, they are built with Steiner's support. He was not in command of military operations at this time, because his task was to conduct investigations, which also included relations with the internationally unrecognized government of South Sudan. In order to morally justify his commitment to himself, he takes citizenship of South Sudan. This first stay, during which he also appears as a military instructor, lasts about six to seven weeks, after which he returns to Germany.

Here he has the first flag of South Sudan, which he designed himself, made. Steiner also designed a national emblem, which found its way into the letterheads and stamps of the South Sudanese government made in Germany. On such a letter, Steiner received his appointment as Supreme Commander of the Army. Associated with this are several powers of attorney that entitle him to act on behalf of the South Sudanese government. Now Steiner is going to South Sudan a second time, now also for the American secret service. He tries to combine the individually and scattered rebels into uniform formations of a common army. To make that happen, he hands the Americans a wish list of military equipment worth about $ 10 million. When Steiner was on his way to Germany again, he was arrested in Uganda and extradited to Sudan in January 1971. Here he is sentenced to death for his activities as a mercenary. In negotiations, the special commissioner of the federal government, Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski , achieved the promise that Rolf Steiner would be extradited to the Federal Republic of Germany.

At the end of February 1972, negotiations in Addis Ababa lead to a reconciliation between the warring parties, who are committed to the Sudanese unitary state and regional autonomy for the three southern provinces. The former rebel army of South Sudan will be transferred to the regular army of Sudan.

Production and publication

The film is enriched with many documentary recordings from Rolf Steiner's locations where he can often be seen himself. Larger film sections serve to uncover the connections between politicians, associations, church dignitaries, private individuals and secret services with Steiner's activities.

In a public event in the Berlin Café Sibylle on March 27, 2019, during which the show was also shown whenever the Steiner came , the director and author Walter Heynowski answered the questions of the audience. Since some of the answers also concern the production and publication of the film and are of general interest, but no easily accessible documents according to Wikipedia: Documents are available at all times , the option of the discussion page is used for information. Mr. Heynowski quoted from some documents stored in the Federal Archives .

Web links

Individual evidence