Wilhelm Dietl

Florian Hartung and Dirk Pohlmann have reconstructed a previously unknown dimension of the collaboration between Nazis and the CIA in the Cold War. Drawing upon recently released documents, the film exposes for the first time a perfidious, worldwide net that reaches deep into the power structures of the Federal Republic of Germany. Lending their authority to the fact-finders’ mission are high-ranking statesmen, journalists and historians.

In the 1980s, the GDR provided shelter to ten RAF terrorists. The State Security Service (Stasi) furnished these individuals — who had left the group — with new identities, enabling them to lead inconspicuous lives within the GDR. Among them was Silke Maier-Witt, a member of the second generation of the RAF, who had been involved in the kidnapping of Hanns Martin Schleyer. She recounts her experiences during her time in the socialist German state. Filmmaker Claus Räfle reconstructs how the Stasi protected these former terrorists and concealed their identities. Through interviews with Silke Maier-Witt, other contemporary witnesses, and experts — complemented by archival footage and photorealistic, AI-animated scenes (created by Helmut Fischer and Parviz Balucci) that capture the atmosphere of the era — the film unfolds as a historical documentary-thriller.