Meister des Todes (2015)

Peter Zierler, a young father in a quiet little town in Württemberg, works for the arms manufacturer HSW, just like his father and most of his friends. Deeply rooted in the HSW family, Peter takes the manufacture and sale of weapons for granted. His boss, Alexander Stengele, has just been promoted to head of sales. He enjoys the confidence of the company’s managing director, Heinz Zöblin, and is currently tasked with persuading the military and police in Mexico to adopt HSW’s latest generation of weapons. As Alex’s companion, Peter gets the chance to travel to Mexico, where the excellent marksman impressively demonstrates the qualities of a new assault rifle. Otto Lechner is working there on the company’s behalf, and through him Peter learns the tactics of doing business abroad: the importance of relations with the German embassy, cultivating contacts among the generals, and dealing with the relevant ministries in Mexico City. The HSW employees do, in fact, manage to put together a major deal. Back at the company headquarters, everyone is delighted. However, because of human rights violations, Mexico does not meet the requirements of the War Weapons Control Act, and the deal is in danger of falling through. Only after an agreement is reached with the authorities to exclude from the delivery the provinces most severely affected by the drug war in a declaration of end use does the export become eligible for approval and the Mexico deal go through. Alex and Peter travel to Mexico again to train the end users. They also work in provinces that are officially off-limits. This trip comes as a shock to the young weapons expert. He sees how deadly reality can be there, and that the weapons supplied by his company are being used in it. During a demonstration by opposition students, tensions between the protesters and the extremely nervous police escalate. Peter watches in disbelief as shots are fired. A young woman and a man are shot with the HSW rifles that have just been handed over to the police, and die there in the street. Peter is deeply shaken, all the more because his colleagues Alex Stengele and Otto Lechner do not share his horror. It takes great effort for him to get through his assignment in Mexico. Back in Germany, he cannot get what he experienced out of his mind. No one at the company wants to hear his objections. Instead, Alex Stengele and managing director Zöblin try to get him back on track. But Peter cannot go back, even though this turns him and his wife, Maria, into outcasts in their town. HSW offers him a severance package tied to a confidentiality obligation and an exorbitant contractual penalty. Peter turns it down. When one evening he and his family are even shot at, he goes on the offensive. He decides to speak out publicly against HSW’s export practices. A peace activist becomes his contact and also helps him get his family to safety. The public prosecutor opens an investigation. As a result, Alex, Peter’s immediate supervisor at the company, comes under intense pressure. When he is blamed for the illegal exports to Mexico, he too is prepared to take a stand against HSW. They become valuable witnesses for the public prosecutor’s office. But Peter and his family’s lives will never be the same again.