Berlin, October 1972: Before the Moabit Criminal Court fight, two young lawyers in black robes with an angry crowd. They defend and RAF lawyer Horst Mahler member. Your name: Hans-Christian Stroebele and Otto Schily.
The photo from the courtroom is world famous. The filmmaker Birgit Schulz inspired to go to the history of the three RAF lawyers to the bottom and the men to interview any of it: "I find this photo totally remarkable," said the 49-year-old in the EXPRESS conversation: "One wonders whether the were friends. "
The three then welded together, a critical attitude towards the state, today they are at opposite positions: Horst Mahler (73) sits off of sedition and Holocaust denial, a twelve-year prison sentence, Ströbele (70) is regarded as the conscience of the Left Greens, Otto Schily Federal Interior Minister About his work as RAF lawyer, he never spoke - until now.
In Birgit Schulze's film "The Lawyers" (starting in theaters November 19), who led the WDR was Sunday at 18 clock at the Film Forum at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne will be shown beforehand, he breaks his silence: "I felt it my duty to the position present with the RAF, although I distanced myself from. I wanted to right and was covered with threats of punishment. "
Almost two years passed before the Cologne director Schily had convinced to talk about his past. But then she herself was surprised by his candor, "Schily told me everything he said then he would stress again today." Before the Camera Red Sheriff was "a sudden feeling:" The man we all as a hardliner as Control-freak to know was how close his autopsy of Gudrun Ensslin's gone, "said Schulz.
1975 Schily had taken over the defense of the terrorist. Her suicide in 1977 in Stammheim shocked him to this day: "What is hard to handle emotionally, when someone is lying on the autopsy to see beds, with which you have mentioned so far as clients."
The documentary gives the politicians the (un) rule of law is partly to blame in the development of the RAF: "How is it that a man like Holger Meins, who was a staunch pacifist who believes that he must confront militancy that state?" All these people have can make an important contribution to our society. "
Especially charged the 77-year-olds but the cancer death of RAF member Katharina Hammerschmidt in the pre-trial detention on 29 June 1975. She was in prison was denied vital treatment, "sad story," Schily said in a cracked voice. "I was convinced if she does, she remains at large. My attempts to rauszubringen from prison, all failed. The responsibility hits me. "
Lawyers for terrorists
The paths of the three attorneys crossed again and again:
1967, Otto Schily, and Horst Mahler Ohnesorg-plaintiff in the trial of Karl-Heinz Kurras 1968 defended Mahler, Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin.
On 1 May 1969, he and Hans-Christian Stroebele the "socialist lawyers 'collective'. When Mahler himself was indicted in 1972, defended him Schily and Ströbele and broke it off as a lawyer for the RAF.
Most recently, she took in 1977 the prisoners into ordinary homes.
