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Schily's Law and Order.
How the Minister of the Interior rules the state.
Public response and critics were just tremendous on our 45minutes documentary
about the legendary former RAF-lawyer Otto Schily who runs today the Department
of Internal Affairs in Germany, one of the most powerful politicians in Europe after 9/11.
In the seventies there was much of a controversy on his job to defend left-wing
terrorists as trial lawyer and we present some exclusive sound-bites of the original
closing counsel's speech, at Stammheim, where he accused the CIA and the German secret
service, to be behind some of the bombings which have been never solved, to discredit the
RAF and to bring public opinion against the so called "terrorists".
He mentioned very interesting facts about the secret services counter-guerilla-tactics
and called the American involvement in this fight on terrorism "criminal" activities.
30 years later, today Schily is on the other side of the battlefield, representing the mighty powers
of the state, being in the line of fire of some serious critics such as the former Minister of ther
Interior, Gerhart Baum (FDP, Germans Liberal Party), who blames Minister Schily for going far beyond what
a democratic and constitutional state is able to do. The new laws against terrorism, issued by Otto Schily
"are the severest attack on the rule of law in the history of the Federal Republic" Mr. Baum complains and
continues: while defending the individual against the repressions and misuse of power by the state in the
seventies, today Schily gives all the power to the state, sacrificing fundamental civil rights in favour of
a totalitarian like system of surveillance and general mistrust towards the public.
How much freedom are we willing to give up for "security" and how much security and surveillance can a
democratic system endure, before ending up in a system like former communist eastern Germany?
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A selection of the main articles and critics on the documentary in the German press:
FAZ, May 27, 2002
"Affair of honor. The man of few words and the state."
SZ, May 27, 2002 "His other Side."
FR, May 27, 2002 "Hero of home security."
Westfalenpost, May 27, 2002 "Law and Order"
RP, May 25, 2002 "Only a fool never changes."
Bonner GA, May 27, 2002
"The private Side of Minister of the Interior, Otto Schily."
TSP, May 27, 2002 "Schily's Law and Order."
WN, May 27, 2002 "Anybody can do, want Schily wants."
HH Abl., May 27, 2002 "Changes of a Lawyer"
WAZ, May 29, 2002 "Wanted: The real Schily.
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