Director: Theodor Kotulla
Script: Theodor Kotulla, based on Robert Merle’s novel
Photography: Dieter Naujek
Editor: Wolfgang Richter
Music: Eberhard Weber
Cast: Götz George, Kai Taschner, Elisabeth Schwarz, Hans Korte, Kurt Hübner, Matthias Fuchs
Producers: Volker Canaris, Nils Nilson
Production: Iduna Film, München/WDR, Köln
Awards: Deutscher Filmpreis (Filmband in Silber) 1978
German Distribution: Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek
Tel: + 49 89 300 9030
Fax: + 49 89 300 903 13
Between feature film and documentary "Aus einem deutschen Leben" depicts characteristic situations in the life of Franz Lang, a cinematic double for Rudolf Höß. In 1940 Höß was "promoted" from SS Reichsführer to commandant of Auschwitz where between 1941 and 1944, by his own admission, he sent millions of people to their death in the gas chamber. This balancing act between analysis and reconstruction proves convincing through its objective matter-of-factness, brilliantly underscored by Götz George's cool, exacting portrayal of the philistine mass murderer Franz Lang.