The Deathmaker

In 1924 – Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau is shooting “The Last Laugh”, Thomas Mann´s “Magic Mountain” is published, and Adolf Hitler is charged with high treason in Munich – a series of murders hits the headlines in Germany. Fritz Haarmann, a merchant, confesses to killing 24 young men and then carving up their bodies. He denies the accusation of cannibalism. But is he sane enough to bear criminal responsibility? Professor Ernst Schultze is appointed to draw up a psychiatric report. In August 1924, at a mental hospital in Göttingen, the professor begins his examination. Altogether, it lasts six weeks. Every word exchanged by the two men is taken down by a shorthand typist. His records formed the basis for this film. The dialogue is entirely authentic. The action of the film takes place entirely in the professor´s office. “The most terrible murderer of the 20th century”, as Fritz Haarmann has been called, provided a source of inspiration for artists, writers and film directors, like Georg Grosz and Alfred Hrdlicka, like Alfred Döblin, who patterned Franz Biberkopf in “Berlin Alexanderplatz” on the serial killer; and like Fritz Lang with his film “M”, in which the character played by Peter Lorre was influenced by Haarmann and his crimes. The actor Götz George, who plays Fritz Haarmann, won the Coppa Volpi at the Venice Film Festival 1995.