Der Mann aus der Pfalz (2009)

The film opens with documentary footage of Helmut Kohl from 1989, which actor Thieme comments on in the background while playing Helmut Kohl. Shortly afterward, the main dramatic narrative begins. CDU Secretary-General Heiner Geißler is expecting to enter into a discussion with Kohl, as the CDU has split into supporters and opponents of Kohl. Geißler belongs to the latter group. Helmut Kohl has to be admitted to a hospital in Bonn because of a prostate condition. The first flashback takes place in 1947 in Oggersheim, where the young Kohl meets the young Hannelore Renner at a dance class; she will later become his wife. Later in the flashback, a few years on, Kohl has risen to become deputy chairman of the Young Union of Rhineland-Palatinate, which he helped build, and voices strong concerns and reservations at a state CDU party conference about the party leadership, dominated by Catholics and obstructing reform, most of whose members still come from the old Centre Party. The story then returns to 1989 and Kohl’s discharge from the Bonn hospital. Next comes the CDU party conference in Bremen, which Kohl attends despite his doctors advising against it. At the press reception afterward, he announces ahead of schedule that the Hungarian border has been opened. This scene leads into a flashback to 1966. There, former Chancellor Adenauer gives a speech at the CDU party conference in Rhineland-Palatinate. He makes clear that he wants a change of leadership in the CDU’s state party leadership in Rhineland-Palatinate. He also openly backs Kohl as the candidate to succeed Altmeier as minister-president and party chairman. Then it is November 10, 1989. Chancellor Kohl wants to address the people of West Berlin the day after the Wall opens, but the crowd simply drowns him out. He believes the citizens are conspiring against him and shortly afterward gets into his car, pelted with fruit and vegetables, and talks with his office manager, Juliane Weber, about the current situation. After this incident, Helmut Kohl announces the Ten-Point Programme for German unity before the Bundestag without consulting his coalition partner, the FDP, or the foreign minister it has appointed, Genscher. Following this move, a meeting is arranged with François Mitterrand to discuss possible German unity with France’s support. Mitterrand gives the go-ahead for such a plan, and Kohl has reached his main goal: German unity.