Ahen on September 7, 1987, a week before the state elections, the “Spiegel” reported on the alleged spying on the Schleswig-Holstein SPD top candidate Björn Engholm on behalf of his CDU competitor and incumbent Prime Minister Uwe Barschel one of the largest in the history of the Federal Republic. “Waterkantgate” is the title of the magazine – based on the “Watergate” scandal that cost US President Nixon his office.
The northern German counterpart draws international circles. There are many, mainly mysterious leads, speculations and suspicions. On October 11, 1987, Uwe Barschel, who had since resigned, was found dead in room 317 of Geneva’s luxury hotel “Beau Rivage” by a “Stern” reporter and his photographer. They took his notes, photographed them, put them back and photographed the dead Barschel before calling the Geneva police.
Suicide or Murder? To date, the circumstances have not been fully elucidated, and probably never will be. Unless, as interviewees remark in the four-part true-crime documentary “Barschel – The Mysterious Death of a Top Politician”, the Federal Intelligence Service releases thousands of pages of files that are strangely kept under lock and key. Or someone might be able to look at the duplicates of the Stasi files in Moscow, which are certainly available there.
Also a journalistic scandal
We don’t know exactly, which is why swelling whispers are the method of choice – at least that’s the impression that viewers of this true crime format get after almost 200 minutes of broadcasting time. Well-known material is prepared in an extra mysterious way. But you can also murmur in great detail. The virtues and negligence of “True Crime” become visible in this RTL + four-part series: thriller drama and witnesses who usually speak about their own role in the events.
An event that also became a journalistic scandal with the photographing of the corpse in the bathtub and the publication of the photo as the cover photo of “Stern”. The “Case Barschel” is followed by the “Case Engholm”. Björn Engholm, who was elected a week after the publication of “Waterkantgate”, also had to resign as Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein when it became known that Reiner Pfeiffer, Barschel’s media officer mediated by Springer and dubious key figure in the spying scandal, received DM 40,000 from the SPD has. So far, so informative.
The true crime depiction not only follows the known events, it turns them around again and again, showing the same footage again, only assembled differently, which must have meant hard work on editing – such as Barschel’s “word of honor” press conference or the (As usual badly acted) recreated scenes in which the Barschel actor vacations with his wife Freya’s actor on Gran Canaria, eats dinner, drinks wine or undertakes mysterious trips to the GDR.
For viewers watching all four parts chronologically, this is tiring, despite the tension inherent in the reconstructed events. You can zap in here and there and plug back in further back without missing anything essential. It will be repeated anyway. Journalistically, that’s questionable. The same applies to the uncommented acceptance of the reasons given by Heiner Bremer, who was responsible for “Stern” at the time, and his superior Hans-Dieter Degler as to why their reporter Knauer broke into the unlocked room in which Uwe Barschel died. Of course, without Knauer there would be even less useful testimonials. This production also shows the dead Uwe Barschel in the bathtub several times, sometimes with his face unrecognizable, but many times with the original photo.
More thriller entertainment than critical documentary work
About the sloppiness of the Geneva police, possible Mossad secret service connections, arms trade and illegal submarine deals, Helmut Kohl’s promotion of the ambitious young Prime Minister Barschel, Stasi machinations and CIA speculation, murder and suicide theories, a suspected poison attack and one who may have been assisted Last but not least, two committees of inquiry have gathered a lot about suicide.
The older brother of the deceased, Eike Barschel, appears in the documentary in a duo with the former senior public prosecutor Wille. Wolfgang Kubicki and other political companions contribute their wisdom. Those responsible for “Spiegel” and “Stern” complete the confusing mosaic, an ex-Stasi dark man mysteriously staged as a lonely walker in the woods appears, whose statement is repeated. Either, according to the ex-public prosecutor Wille, it is “suicide with the pretense of murder or murder with the pretense of suicide”.
You just don’t know how it was now. But one thing becomes abundantly clear. The four-part production by Zeitsprung Pictures focuses more on thriller entertainment than on critical-documentary processing, such as the Netflix true-crime production “Rohwedder – Einigkeit und Mord und Freiheit” (Gebrüder Beetz Productions). The game scenes, which are accompanied by horribly inappropriate suspense music, are therefore free research-based inventions, are intended to give an additional coat of credibility, but miss their goal, if only because of the strange wig hair that Barschel actor Mirko Lang raises. “We will never know” is the core sentence of “Barschel – The mysterious death of a top politician”. Who is busybody here, who has contributed or could contribute to the clarification, remains open even after 200 minutes.
Barschel – The mysterious death of a top politicianavailable from Wednesday on RTL+.
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