From Berlin it takes you 40 kilometres to reach the Liebenberg estate, a picturesque countryside surrounded by lakes and by one of Germany’s most beautiful woods. Nowadays Liebenberg houses a training centre for executive managers for economy, sciences, politics and sport, run by the DKB Foundation. However, very few know about the changeful history of this place. There would be: the greatest scandal during the reign of Emperor Wilhelm II, the drama of the Rote Kapelle, a semi Jewish tumour scientist appointed by Hitler, Liebenberg as exemplary estate during the GDR years and a village that was supposed to be sold as a whole.
Liebenberg is closely connected to the greatest scandal during the reign of the German Emperor: the “Eulenburg Affair” figuring members of the Liebenberg Round Table. This scandal, flaring up because of alleged homosexuality concerning immediate friends of Emperor Wilhelm II such as Philipp zu Eulenburg, led up to an outcry in the entire German Reich. It resulted in a great number of lawsuits, smear campaigns, duels, dismissals and even suicides. Finally the immediate and direct friends of the Emperor were disempowered leaving the Emperor isolated.
But what really happened in Liebenberg? Who exactly were the Emperor’s friends meeting here to go hunting or follow their artistic likings or to discuss the main aspects in politics? Were they really homosexual and how did their aristocratic notions of manhood and their ideas on friendship between men relate to the ideals of manhood during the Kaiser Reich when the army was undergoing militaristic changes?
This is only one of six exciting stories to be told concerning the Liebenberg estate. Contemporary witnesses, members of the family and experts will unroll for the audience a panorama of what happened in this mysterious place during the past 100 years.
Documentary D, 2014, 44 min.
Television Premiere: September 23, 2014 / 20.15
Script: Bernhard von Hülsen
Director: Andreas Morell
DOP: Thomas Frischhut
Cinematography: Gabriel Falbe, Christian Friedel
Octocopter: Heiko Rahnenführer, Kalle Klein
Sound: Robert Sandow, Caspar Müllers
Sound Mixer: Jörg Steinhoff
Narrator: Thomas Dehler, Britta Steffenhagen
Editing: Anne Kliem
Artworks: Thomas Degel
Production Manager: Linn Sackarnd
Producer: Bernhard von Hülsen
Comissioning Editor: Jens Stubenrauch (RBB)
A production on behalf of the RBB
