Im Schatten der Macht (2003)

Note: The feature film’s plot is partly fictional. Its portrayal therefore does not correspond in every respect to the known historical facts. In the spring of 1974, Chancellor Willy Brandt is on an election campaign tour of northern Germany aboard a special train. He is accompanied by journalists, bodyguards and his party aide Günter Guillaume, who has already been suspected of being an East German spy for a year. Guillaume is portrayed as a kind of “jack-of-all-trades,” looking after everyone and, in particular, Brandt’s personal needs. Brandt knows of the suspicion surrounding Guillaume, but has followed the advice of Günther Nollau, president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, and Hans-Dietrich Genscher, the politically responsible Federal Minister of the Interior, to leave Guillaume in his position until sufficient evidence has been gathered. Brandt makes no changes to the suspect’s responsibilities and acts as though nothing is amiss. This is not difficult for Brandt, since from the outset he has not taken the suspicions against Guillaume seriously and, over time, has pushed them out of his mind. Brandt himself is shown to be in poor condition. In foreign affairs he is at the height of his international standing, but there is already palpable discontent within his cabinet. The investigation has been dragging on for a long time without producing usable results, making Hans-Dietrich Genscher increasingly nervous. He pressures Nollau either to finally expose Guillaume or to call off the investigation. Like Genscher, Nollau fears for his own career and, despite the lack of evidence, hands the case over to the Federal Prosecutor General. The latter immediately issues a search warrant. Although he has not failed to notice that he is under surveillance, Guillaume returns from his holiday in the south of France to Bonn. At that point, the Federal Prosecutor General has the Federal Criminal Police Office move in. When arrested, Guillaume says, “I am a citizen of the GDR and its officer. I ask you to respect that!”—thus identifying himself immediately, against all protocol. His wife, Christel, is arrested along with him. Guillaume asks to speak with the Chancellor. When this is denied, he remains steadfastly silent from then on. As part of the investigation, security officers from the Chancellor’s escort detail are now also questioned. Questions are asked that could be highly damaging to the Chancellor: “On what occasions was Guillaume present? For example, when the Chancellor received visitors in hotels or on the special train, or held background briefings, especially with female journalists? What did Guillaume witness, and what might he have reported to East Berlin?” The answers make it clear that Guillaume is alleged to have “provided women” for the Chancellor. Herold, head of the Federal Criminal Police Office, informs the Interior Minister, and then also Nollau, president of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Nollau hastily seeks out his friend and mentor Wehner and, agitated, describes what he sees as the dramatic situation. East Germany could use these sex scandals to humiliate the federal government “to the bone”; the Chancellor is now vulnerable to blackmail. In Nollau’s view, Brandt must resign before the scandal erupts. Herbert Wehner does not object and remains silent. He is due to meet the Chancellor tomorrow. The Chancellor has by now been informed about what he calls a “fabrication of vivid imagination and half-truths.” He wavers between dejection, depression and even thoughts of suicide on the one hand, and optimism, determination to persevere and a fighting spirit on the other. He considers going on the offensive with a cabinet reshuffle. Genscher, who as Interior Minister is certainly responsible, is unlikely to leave voluntarily. The alliance with the FDP makes it impossible to dismiss Genscher, since he is Walter Scheel’s designated successor as Foreign Minister; Scheel is soon to be elected Federal President. The film presents indications that details of the amorous affairs have already been leaked to the opposition and the tabloid press. On the evening of May 4, on the sidelines of a meeting of SPD and trade-union officials in Bad Münstereifel, Wehner and Brandt have a private, one-on-one conversation. Wehner urges Brandt, with a degree of ultimatum-like pressure, to make his own decision within 24 hours. Brandt leaves the conversation, which ends in icy silence, with the impression that Wehner and the parliamentary group will not support him in the way needed to weather the affair. That very night, he decides to resign. When he tells the SPD’s senior officials the next morning, Schmidt loses his temper: he does not want to become Chancellor this way. Brandt notices that Wehner remains silent during these conversations. Brandt still hesitates to send the resignation letter he wrote the previous evening to Federal President Heinemann. His hesitation is portrayed as a burden and a strain on everyone involved, both inside and outside the Chancellery. During this time, Genscher also appears once in the anteroom, but does not speak to the Chancellor and leaves again. Finally, Bahr, who is closest to Brandt politically and personally, advises the Chancellor to resign while he is still in control of the process. Brandt would not be able to withstand another campaign of attacks and defamation like those he had faced in 1961 and 1965. But if he resigns with dignity now, no one can stop him from becoming the leading figure of European social democracy. In the film, Bahr thus becomes the decisive catalyst for the resignation. On the evening of May 6, Brandt finally sends his chief of staff, Grabert, to Heinemann with the resignation letter. He shares a farewell drink with his closest confidants. As he leaves the Chancellery, his chief bodyguard tearfully asks for forgiveness: he was forced to make the statements about Brandt’s private life. After the first reports of the resignation have gone out over the ticker, a torchlight procession of a hundred young people makes its way that night to the Chancellor’s pavilion on the Venusberg. Brandt does not appear before them.