Gert Haucke Movies

Adapted from a true story, West German investigative journalist Gunther Wallraff (Jurgen Prochnow) decides to fight sleaze with sleaze as he goes undercover at a tabloid newspaper to dig up the dirt on the paper's own unethical practices. Rising to the top of the hierarchy by working at the kind of journalism he despises, Wallraff soon discovers that the paper is waging a campaign against his true-life self; he must fight to emerge with his identity intact. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Willi (Dominique Horwitz) has a very wealthy father who owns a bank. He has been given a great deal in his life. What he doesn't have is any respect from his family. In a last-ditch effort to get treated intelligently, he decides to rob his father's bank, but when a safety alarm is tripped and the police are well on their way, it looks like he has failed again. However, two of the customers in the bank suggest that he should take them as his hostage. From there on, it begins to look as though Willi has done something right, while his "hostages" mastermind the heist and subsequent escape in return for half the loot. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In March of 1848 there was an aborted revolution in Berlin that serves as the pivot for the action in this film, the story beginning with an incident that quickly mushrooms out of control. A man fishing along a river bank decides to light up, when a policeman comes over to haul him in for violating the ordinance prohibiting outdoor smoking -- and the officer is thrown into the drink for his efforts. The news spreads, and soon women are protesting the price-fixing at bakeries, people are evicted for being arrears on their rent, and when an anarchist's flag is seen flapping from the window of an inn, a barricade is set up right in front of the inn's entrance. The innkeeper runs around trying to set things right again, a singer comes along who plies the gathering crowd (she wants to start her own establishment), a loving couple takes advantage of everyone's distraction to spend some quality time together, and the students keep streaming in to join the growing throng. Before long, everyone is geared up for a major confrontation with the king's soldiers when along comes a bunch of merry workers with a barrel of beer to celebrate the event -- and even though the fiery leader of the protest is as threatening as possible, the beer stays. Soon the Prussian king shows up waving a revolutionary flag and that sets everyone off -- but not exactly in the manner that the revolutionary leaders would have wanted. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this prison drama, Franz Blum (Jurgen Prochnow) goes from being a fairly ordinary middle-class man to a hardened convict. Sent to prison for participating in a bank robbery, he learns how to use blackmail and graft in order to survive the harsh life he encounters "inside." The screenplay was written by ex-prisoner Burkhard Driest (who plays a prison bully in the movie), and is based on his own experiences. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Wilhelm Gustloff was a Nazi living in Switzerland in 1936 who actively recruited new members and supporters. Indeed, even with the hindsight of history, it looks as though he was preparing for a German takeover of Switzerland. His career was cut short when he was assassinated by David Frankfurter, a Yugoslavian Jew studying in Switzerland. It is entirely possible that the young student's act made it possible for Switzerland to survive the war as it did, virtually unscathed. Frankfurter, sentenced to a long prison term, was paroled immediately at the end of the war, and he moved to Israel. This movie not only re-creates the events surrounding the assassination and its aftermath, but also evokes the mood of uncertainty and fear which overshadowed that time. The end of the movie includes interviews with Frankfurter himself, taken in Israel. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide