Zettl (2012)

Gossip reporter Baby Schimmerlos has fallen victim to a motorcycle accident in Berlin. His former chauffeur, Max Zettl, a failed journalism-school student, would do anything to finally get his media career moving. He manages to win the favor of publisher Urs Doucier, who had actually planned to start a new Berlin gossip magazine with Schimmerlos. Doucier now appoints Zettl editor-in-chief of the magazine and leaves the city. Armed with this position, the funding, and the publisher’s trust, Zettl sets about building a newsroom. He succeeds in recruiting wheelchair-using photographer Herbie Fried for the new venture. Together, they search for a lucrative story for the zero issue of the magazine, which they have named The New Berliner. Zettl’s girlfriend Verena, who is also the secret lover of German Chancellor Olbrich “Olli” Ebert, puts Zettl and Fried on a hot trail. The chancellor has not been seen in public for weeks and, in a television interview conducted by phone, pretends to be abroad, while he is actually being treated at a private clinic in Berlin, where he eventually dies. Zettl and Fried get drawn into the power play between the two politicians, Scheffer and Gaishofer, and help keep the chancellor’s death hidden from the public for a few more days. In exchange, Zettl obtains explosive information about Berlin’s mayor, Veronique von Gutzow. She is transgender and is planning to undergo gender-affirming surgery at the clinic where the chancellor died. Publisher Urs Doucier had fallen in love with her and had also come to Berlin because of her, so he is now disappointed that his future bride is having surgery. This makes his stay in Berlin pointless, and with his departure Zettl also loses the editor-in-chief position he loves. He is to be transferred to Cameroon and made ambassador there. Just as he is checking in at the airport with Verena, however, he is called back: he has been appointed the new government spokesperson.