Bier Royal (2018)

After the death of Franz-Xaver Hofstetter, patriarch and owner of the long-established Munich family business Arnulfbräu, a dispute over inheritance and succession breaks out over the company’s future direction. On one side is his second wife and former secretary, Gisela, who is devoted to traditional brewing. Opposing her is Vicky, Franz-Xaver’s daughter from his first marriage, who returns to Munich from the United States after several years with basketball star “Magic” Dan Dawson. She never really got over the fact that Gisela became her father’s new wife just a few weeks after her mother’s death. Investigative celebrity reporter Renate Rottmann regularly reports on the machinations of Munich’s beer dynasties in her newspaper column, Bier Royal. Under the terms of the will, Gisela owns 45 percent of the company’s shares, while Franz-Xaver’s children, Vicky and Patrick Hofstetter, each own 25 percent. The remaining five percent belong to the workforce. Patrick, Gisela’s son, who had previously shown no interest in the brewery, demands a seat on its supervisory board. Vicky refuses to accept the will because her father had promised her mother that he would leave 50 percent of the shares to Vicky. She considers selling her stake to the American Tannhäuser Corporation, but gives Gisela the first chance to buy it. However, Gisela cannot afford to acquire the shares because she has already invested in a new facility. Vicky therefore demands Gisela’s managing director position, and Gisela subsequently moves to the supervisory board. Dr. Erich Maxlhuber remains co-managing director; he is on Gisela’s side after she covered up his private withdrawals from the company. Rosa Seidl, the Hofstetters’ longtime housekeeper, tells gossip reporter Rottmann, among other things, that Patrick Hofstetter was already four years old when Vicky’s mother died. With a series of unconventional ideas for change, such as vegan organic white sausages at the brewery, Vicky wants to make the brewery more modern, sustainable, and environmentally friendly. Through her plans and her promise to create new jobs, she tries to win over the employee representatives and Patrick Hofstetter. Vicky plans to finance the investments by selling the land where the old facility stood. However, her plan is rejected with Patrick and Gisela’s votes. Gisela refuses to provide Rosa with any more financial support for her recently deceased dog after Rosa claimed in a newspaper interview that she had had an affair with Franz-Xaver. Rosa then offers Vicky her support in the power struggle against Gisela. Vicky tells Patrick that he suffered epileptic seizures as a child. Dr. Knoll had looked after him and taken photographs of him. Gisela caught him doing so, but did not report Dr. Knoll. Knoll later served as the medical expert when Franz-Xaver drew up his will—according to Rosa, at a time when he was no longer mentally capable of doing so. Knoll confesses his pedophilic tendencies to Vicky. She demands that he sign a retraction of his false certificate, or else his inclination could become public knowledge. Vicky then demands voting rights from Gisela as well; she does not want to contest the will in court, to avoid damaging her reputation. In the press, Gisela announces her move to the supervisory board, while Renate Rottmann tries to investigate the real reasons behind it. She discovers that Maxlhuber wears cufflinks bearing the initials H. G., for Hermann Göring. Maxlhuber then shows her his cupboard of other Nazi memorabilia, and they spend the night together. Mayor Ines Mangfall demands the old facility’s plot for a housing project proposed by Vicky, after the city had made a plot available to Arnulfbräu for its new facility at a very favorable price. However, Vicky does not feel bound by the personal agreement between her father and the mayor and plans to sell the land to the highest bidder. After a block of Arnulfbräu shares loses a great deal of value, the bank demands new collateral from Vicky worth 21 million; otherwise, the loan will be called in. She also wants to get rid of a stake in a bacon producer that Maxlhuber had invested in, because it conflicts with her company’s philosophy. Maxlhuber gives Rottmann information that Arnulfbräu is on the verge of bankruptcy. He asks her to publish the story before Vicky can sell off the shares. Maxlhuber wants revenge on Gisela and Vicky after being forced out of the company. Rottmann agrees, but in return demands ten percent of any profit he may make. To push forward the sale of the brewery, Maxlhuber meets with Jim Taylor of the American Tannhäuser Corporation. If the deal goes through, Maxlhuber is to receive a commission. Vicky plans to use the proceeds from the land sale to secure the loan, postponing the eco-friendly relaunch until later. Vicky begins an affair with Markus Brandt, her brewmaster and employee representative. Her husband Dan admits that he slept with his assistant, Ruth. Gisela meets call boy Oleg Lenkov at a wellness hotel and is subsequently ridiculed in the press. After Dr. Knoll’s suicide, Patrick suffers another epileptic seizure at his grave. Mayor Ines Mangfall denies Arnulfbräu the Oktoberfest license it had long been sure of receiving; Gisela sees this as her friend Ines’s revenge for the property deal that had fallen through earlier. Vicky asks Gisela to persuade the mayor to change her mind. Maxlhuber had hoped for more from his affair with Rottmann, and angers her by saying she is too old for him. Rottmann then tells Gisela about Maxlhuber’s activities, and Gisela fires him. The bank refuses to accept the proceeds from the sale of the old plot as collateral because the sale has been blocked by the courts. At the meeting with the bank, Patrick presents guarantees totaling 15 million from acquaintances in his BDSM club, a weapons manufacturer, and a pharmaceutical entrepreneur—sources that conflict with the company’s new philosophy. A sale of the company, as suggested by the bank, is out of the question for Gisela, Vicky, and Patrick. Dan, Vicky’s husband and a successful businessman in soybean cultivation, proves to be their last hope. He invests his wealth in the family business. Vicky discovers that she is pregnant. Besides her husband, Markus Brandt could also be the father. When Gisela finds out, she wants to persuade Dan to transfer half of his shares to the baby. Patrick, his girlfriend, and Oleg Lenkov get Dan drunk so that he will sign a deed of gift, but their plan fails. Vicky eventually gives birth to twins, one of whom is dark-skinned.