Die Spiegel-Affäre (2014)
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Directors
Cast
Sebastian Rudolph, Francis Fulton-Smith, David Rott, Johann von Bülow, Franziska Schlattner, Franz Dinda, Max Hopp, André Hennicke, Gerald Alexander Held, Nora Waldstätten
After a Der Spiegel article challenges the Bundeswehr’s defense strategy, police search the magazine’s Hamburg offices.
The story
On October 26, 1962, police occupy and search Der Spiegel’s editorial offices in Hamburg’s Press House. The raid follows an article by Conrad Ahlers in the magazine’s October 8 issue, which argues that the Bundeswehr strategy advocated by Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauß could not repel a potential Warsaw Pact attack. Its conclusion draws partly on results from the NATO exercise Fallex 62. Feeling pressured by the journalists, Strauß persuades Chancellor Konrad Adenauer to authorize the search, bringing the magazine’s reporting into direct conflict with government authority.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
On October 26, 1962, police occupied and searched the editorial offices of the news magazine Der Spiegel in Hamburg’s Press House. Federal Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauß felt so pressured by the journalists that he persuaded Chancellor Konrad Adenauer to authorize the search. The October 8, 1962, issue of Der Spiegel featured an article by Conrad Ahlers titled “Conditionally Ready for Defense,” which argued that the Bundeswehr defense strategy advocated by Strauß would not be able to repel a potential attack by the Warsaw Pact. This conclusion was based, among other things, on the results of the NATO exercise Fallex 62. Several Der Spiegel editors were arrested on suspicion of treason and bribery, as it was suspected that the journalists had obtained their information through payments. The attack on press freedom provoked fierce public protests, and during the affair the Adenauer cabinet, made up of the CDU, CSU, and FDP, broke apart. The arrested Der Spiegel editors were gradually released, and after a total of 103 days in pretrial detention, Der Spiegel publisher Rudolf Augstein was finally free as well.
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