Wednesday 12 November 2008 at 21.45 clock
ARTE
Repeats:
15/11/2008 14:50
The Silence of the Quandt
(Germany, 2007, 60mn)
NDR
The Quandt family is the richest and most influential family in Germany and yet her name is unknown to many. Your Group empire includes companies like BMW, the pharmaceutical giant Altana and the Battery manufacturer Varta - these are just the best known companies. The foundation for the powerful position of the Group Günther Quandt presented as the founder of the family fortune in part in the era of National Socialism. The documentary seeks to identify the Quandt family history of insights into the mentality of the industrial elite of Germany after the Second World War.
But the Quandt previously hid their family history and the origin of parts of their property. The company archives were closed to journalists and historians. For "The Silence of the Quandt," the filmmakers Eric Friedler and Barbara Siebert researched over five years in archives in Germany and abroad. With the help of the collected documents they have managed to put piece by piece, the origin of parts of the family assets as well. The conclusion: the Quandt used at the time appeared to economic advantages offered by the National Socialism them. Concentration camp prisoners and forced laborers enabled the Group profit and expansion. The evidence including statements of survivors of the concentration camp Hannover-sticks. The capital gains realized by the Quandt 1933-1945 reasoned, in part the rise in the post-war German economy.
The filmmakers have with this first documentary about the history of the family torn down a wall of silence - with success: on a few days after the first broadcast of the film, 30 September 2007 in ARD - declared the heir of the family together, they were very moved. Now the family wants to terms with their history in the "Third Reich".
