MovieChat Forums > Der Baader Meinhof Komplex (2008) Discussion > The character Horst Herold

The character Horst Herold

posted 11 years ago by PoppyTransfusion
4 replies | jump to latest

Played by Bruno Ganz, Herold was a police officer with years of street wisdom under his belt and yet refined enough to make it up the ranks of the police hierarchy. Lobster soup anyone? He was aware also of the need to approach the terrorists in a way that understood their motivations so as to stop them recruiting more to their cause and appealing to populist concerns. At the police strategy meeting we see later in the film, his views provoked strong reactions in some colleagues who hear him as sympathising with terrorists and terrorism. This seems to me one of the many failures of politicians and law enforcement; bifurcation of thought into for/against without any strategy beyond winning against terrorism. And yet as Ulrike Meinhof wrote what separates terrorists and criminals from politicians and the police/army is the numbers of casualties.

It's a pity that there are less Herolds in the world and they are not in significant positions of power, now as then.

Away with the manners of withered virgins

[–] Ehrgeiz 10 years ago

You got the wrong impression of him, but its like the movie showed him here.
He was never a street cop. The high ranks of the German police are filled up usually with people who study law sciences, as Herold. He started his career as prosecutor.
But he is an interesting figure. His political leanings were to the traditional left and the social democrats. When he prosecuted the RAF, he developed many new ideas in the police, based on the mass use of computers and new psychological methods.

[–] PoppyTransfusion 10 years ago

Thinking about it most of our senior public servants and those who work in counter terrorism are of a certain class and level of education that differs from the ordinary police officer. I made an assumption about him because of his wisdom. He sounds most interesting from what you write.

I give my respect to those who have earned it; to everyone else, I'm civil.

[–] Ehrgeiz 10 years ago

He is still alive, but totally vanished from the public after his retirement in 1981, and, as far as I can tell, is not really available for interviews. He also did not appear as witness in the So far, he also did not publish any memoirs, which would be a logical step for a main person in one of the biggest crises of the German state. He did appear, though, 2011 as witness in the trial against the former RAF member Verena Becker. Here is a little report, but its in German: http://www.swr.de/blog/terrorismus/2011/11/10/wackerer-horst-herold/

In part, this is due to security issues; when he retired, there was still a lot of RAF activity and he was surely a potential victim. He even joked, that he is "the last remaining prisoner of the RAF" because of the high security level he is living in.

[–] joonas5883 8 years ago

HEROLD BRUNO GANZ MADE EXLENT ROLE