/ Cinema Quadrat / Movie / german / 15+ yrs /
“Der lange Atem” documents how Chancellor Adenauer used untruths and undemocratic means to push through the rearmament of West Germany against the will of the vast majority of the population in the 1950s. The focus is on the reports of Oskar Neumann, an opponent of remilitarization who had been imprisoned in a concentration camp during the Nazi era. Neumann was sentenced to three years in prison in a treason trial in 1954 for his work on the ‘Main Committee for Referendums’, which called for a referendum on remilitarization. Newsreel clips, photos and sound recordings take us back to the atmosphere of the 1950s.
Western Germany 1981. 95 Minutes, 16mm, s/w, Written + Directed by: Christoph Boekel, Beate Rose. Camera: Gérard Samaan, Christoph Boekel, Klaus Stanjek. Assembly: Christoph Boekel, Beate Rose.
Awards: Preis der deutschen Filmkritik 1982
Christoph Boekel is a director, author and producer of documentary films who frequently deals with the subject of war in his numerous films. He graduated from the Munich University of Television and Film and was a co-founder of the Documentary Film Working Group and the Munich International Documentary Film Festival.
Photos: from the family archive of Christoph Boekel