by BERND REINHARDT & VERENA NEES
Brunhilde Pomsel in A German Life
The Austrian-made film A German Life (Ein deutsches Leben), directed by Florian Weigensamer, Olaf S. Müller, Christian Krönes and Roland Schrotthofer, which opened in German cinemas in April, is a disturbing, in part shocking film and, for these reasons, worth seeing. The documentary centres on Brunhilde Pomsel (1911-2017), who worked as a secretary in the office of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels from 1942 to 1945.
The 103-year-old (at the time) looks at the camera with concentration, speaks calmly, factually, in an almost polished manner. The black-and-white close-ups show an aged face with its many wrinkles. The vivid gaze betrays an astonishingly clear mind with a pronounced recall. Brunhilde Pomsel talks about her working with Goebbels as if it were yesterday.
Not only the camera is close, everything is close. The audience realises abruptly: here sits someone who was at the centre of Nazi power, sat in the bunker of the propaganda ministry to the end and typed the documents of one of the most notorious Nazi criminals, who committed suicide with his entire family. It is not all that long ago.
At the end of her 115-minute account, which was recorded in 2013-2014 and is reproduced in the book accompanying the film (published by Europa-Verlag, 2017), Pomsel summarises her view: “Even beauty has blemishes. And the terrible also has a sunny side. It’s not black-and-white.” She vehemently rejects any admission of guilt. She had done nothing “other than type for Mr. Goebbels.”
“No. I would not consider myself guilty. Unless one accuses the entire German people of the fact that in the end, it contributed to the reality that this government came to power in the first place.”
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