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IMDbPro

Die Anwälte - Eine deutsche Geschichte

  • 20092009
  • 1h 32m
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
209
YOUR RATING
Die Anwälte - Eine deutsche Geschichte (2009)
  • Documentary
Depicts a section of Germany's history from the 1968 movement beginning with the year 2009 on the basis of a portrait of lawyers Otto Schily , Hans-Christian Ströbele and Horst Mahler .Depicts a section of Germany's history from the 1968 movement beginning with the year 2009 on the basis of a portrait of lawyers Otto Schily , Hans-Christian Ströbele and Horst Mahler .Depicts a section of Germany's history from the 1968 movement beginning with the year 2009 on the basis of a portrait of lawyers Otto Schily , Hans-Christian Ströbele and Horst Mahler .
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
209
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • Birgit Schulz
  • Writer
    • Birgit Schulz
  • Stars
    • Horst Mahler
    • Otto Schily
    • Hans-Christian Ströbele
Top credits
  • Director
    • Birgit Schulz
  • Writer
    • Birgit Schulz
  • Stars
    • Horst Mahler
    • Otto Schily
    • Hans-Christian Ströbele
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 2User reviews
    • 14Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Photos

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    Top cast

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    Horst Mahler
    • Selfas Self
    Otto Schily
    • Selfas Self
    Hans-Christian Ströbele
    Hans-Christian Ströbele
    • Selfas Self
    • Director
      • Birgit Schulz
    • Writer
      • Birgit Schulz
    • All cast & crew
    • See more cast details at IMDbPro

    Storyline

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    User reviews2

    Review
    Top review
    9/10
    Lawyers and German history
    Germany does not have a tradition of jokes about lawyers. Any Brit or American will definitely come up with three or four jokes like

    • My father is a lawyer. - Honest? - No, the regular kind.


    But Germans, after all, do not have a sense of humour - or do they? Watching this film, you might definitely think they do.

    This film is a documentary about three lawyers, Horst Mahler, Otto Schily and Hans-Christian Stroebele, who were active in the "APO" movement (an opposition movement outside Germany's parliament) and who used to defend RAF terrorists like Gudrun Ensslin, Ulrike Meinhof and Andreas Baader later on.

    You see old film material and even a few scenes from old "Tagesschau" news about demonstrations against the Vietnam War, and how the student Benno Ohnesorg is killed during a demonstration against the Shah's visit. This all influences the three lawyers and turns them against the state with its brutal police force. But hey, this was the 1960s and 1970s.

    Later on, Mahler and Schily get more and more mainstream, and it is quite spooky to see Schily making speeches in parliament (and occasionally sounding a bit like Hitler) and turning more and more right-wing. So he quits the Green Party and joins the Social Democratic Party and becomes a law-and-order man when he is Minister of the Interior. Mahler's development is even eerier, because he, formerly a member of the RAF, turns into a fully-fledged (neo-) Nazi who denies the Holocaust and is therefore sent to prison.

    The only lawyer who has not turned into a joke of his former self is Stroebele, who sticks to his left-wing pacifist ideals. This is probably why he is the only Green politician who is directly elected to Germany's parliament and does not get his seat because of the Green Party's percentage in the elections.

    I very much liked this film because it gives you a good idea of the late 1960s and 1970s in Germany - a time I am highly interested in. I can still well remember the RAF times, seeing the "Wanted" posters in every German post office, and I was in Heidelberg when the RAF tried to kill US Army General FJ Kroesen.

    For everyone interested in Germany's post-war history, this is a must-see. I'm a brainy girl, not a brawny man, and so I found this film much more thrilling than any action film on offer.
    helpful•10
    1
    • Pippi_langstrumpf
    • Nov 20, 2009

    Details

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    • Release date
      • November 19, 2009 (Germany)
    • Country of origin
      • Germany
    • Language
      • German
    • Also known as
      • The Lawyers - A German Story
    • Filming locations
      • Berlin, Germany
    • Production companies
      • ARTE
      • Bildersturm
      • Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Gross worldwide
      • $8,944,720
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 32 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby SR
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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