Akte Grüninger

Akte Grüninger is a Swiss-Austrian feature film that was produced in 2013 for the Swiss television SRF. The television film focuses on the events in late summer 1938, when Paul Grüninger saved the lives of up to 3,600 Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria by pre-dating their visas, enabling them to migrate 'illegally' to Switzerland.

Plot

In August 1938, Switzerland closed its borders to Jewish refugees that tried to refuge the Nazi regime. Every migration of Jewish people by crossing the green border to Switzerland was declared by the Swiss government as illegal, and refugees had to been sent back to Germany respectively Austria. Furthermore, hundreds of people without a valid visa, tried to cross the green border to be secure in Switzerland from the Holocaust, most of them by crossing the border to the Canton of St. Gallen. Those "illegal migration" and the background of those border crossings, its support by officials and citizens in Switzerland, got in the focus of the Swiss immigration police. Its senior official, Heinrich Rothmund (Robert Hunger-Bühler), ordered the police inspector Robert Frei (Max Simonischek), a ruthless and authoritarian faithful official, in the canton of St. Gallen to investigate. The Jewish refugees appear to be supported by parts of the local population, with approval of the police commandant of the Canton St. Gallen, Paul Grüninger (Stefan Kurt). Frei's investigation confirm the suspicion that police captain Grüninger allowed Jewish refugees to enter without a valid visa, he also falsifies documents and personally helps refugees to illegally cross the border into Switzerland. Grüninger indeed confesses, but he does not handle, so his opinion, against the law and thus against the state security of Switzerland. His motives are also based on pure humanity. Frei is overawed by Grüningers integrity, intransigence and his personal sight, and he gets in doubt of the legality of the investigations.

Cast

• Helmut Förnbacher as Valentin Keel
• Aaron Hitz as Ernst Kamm
• Robert Hunger-Bühler as Heinrich Rothmund
• Peter Jecklin as Walter Härtsch
• Julia Jelinek as Jewish woman
• Martin Klaus as Anton Schneider
• Stefan Kurt as Paul Grüninger
• Ursina Lardi as Alice Grünigner
• Beat Marti as Alfons Eigenmann
• Patrick Rapold as Ernest Prodollier
• Monicy Reyes as Ida Kreutner
• Maximilian Simonischek as Robert Frei
• Anatole Taubman as Sidney Dreifuss

Background

The events in August 1938 and thereafter and the characters base on facts respectively on historical personalities, the role of inspector Frei is fictitious.^[1] Paul Grüninger was dismissed by the government without notice in March 1939. Two years later, Grüninger was sentenced by the district court of St. Gallen because of official misconduct and forgery to a fine – he was degraded, dismissed from the police service, sentenced to a fee and received no pension. In 1995 the district court of St. Gallen revoked the judgment against Paul Grüninger, and in 1998 the government of the Canton of St.Gallen paid compensation to his descendants. Ostracized and accused and slandered as a womanizer and corrupt fraudsters, even as a Nazi by some people in the 2000s, the former chief of police for the rest of his life was no longer fixed point: Paul Grüninger died in 1972, nearly forgotten in Switzerland, without rehabilitation by the Swiss authorities – in 1971, the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial foundation in Israel honoured Grüninger as one of the Righteous Among the Nations.^[2]

Already brought back partially into the public memory by some publications beginning in 1984, in 1999 also the so-called Bergier Commission's report took part to Grüninger's rehabilitation, as well to rehabilitate the surviving people who had been convicted during the Nazi period in Switzerland for their assistance to refugees – 137 women and men got public Rehabilitation to 2009.^[2] The Rhine bridge between Diepoldsau (Switzerland) and Hohenems in Austria, which was one of the locations in the film, was in summer 2012 named after Paul Grüninger.^[3]

Production

Akte Grüninger was produced by the Swiss television SRF, and supported by the arte network and by the Fernsehfonds Austria foundation.^[4] The film plot is complemented with historic cuts. The shooting took place in the canton of St. Gallen and in Austria in late 2012 and early 2013 within 11 weeks, among others in Mels, Diepoldsau and Hohenems at the original locations by C-Films, Mecom Fiction GmbH and makido film;^[5] the post production ended in mid-2013. The production of the film was also supported by the Swiss and Austrian authorities and some organizations, among them Bundeamt für Kultur (EDI), Zürcher Filmstiftung, city of St. Gallen, Canton of St. Gallen, Swisslos, Vorarlberg Kultur, Landys & Gyr foundation, Schweizerischer Israelitischer Gemeindebund (SIG).^[6]

Cinema and television

Broadcast on Arte was in December 2013, on Swiss television Akte Grüninger was the last time shown on 19 October 2014 at 08:05 pm on SRF 1. Premiered on 23 January 2014 at the Solothurn Film Festival in Switzerland^[7] and on 29 January 2014 in Austria,^[3] the film was also shown in selected Swiss and Austrian cinemas beginning on the 30 January 2014.^[4]

Critical response

Neue Zürcher Zeitung claims the film dares in his production of Swiss history with the neuralgic issues that it raises before in quite delicate and relevant points - more than most recent movies produced in Switzerland.^[8] The film was reviewed by the teacher's association in December 2013 for educational use in Swiss schools, and recommended for general educational purposes in Austria.^[9]

Awards

• 2014: Opening film of the Solothurn Film Festival
• 2014: Swiss Film Award, nomination for Stefan Kurt as best actor

Home media

The film was released in 2014 on Blu-ray and DVD in German language.

See also

• Grüningers Fall, a Swiss documentary film (1997)
• Das Boot ist voll, a Swiss film (1981)
• History of the Jews in Switzerland

External links

• Official website (German)
• Grüningers Fall at the Internet Movie Database

References