Die Anwälte - Eine deutsche Geschichte

In the early 1970s, Otto Schily and Hans-Christian Ströbele were part of the group of attorneys of the left-wing extraparliamentary opposition in Germany. In this function, they, for instance, represented the militant Horst Mahler in court. One thing that united all three of them was their goal to create a new and different republic. They viewed Federal Germany as an oppressor of political freedom and as a vassal of the United States. Today, Schily is a former Federal Minister of the Interior with a firmly conservative stance and Ströbele is a well-respected member of the left wing of the Green Party in the German parliament while Mahler has again come into conflict with the law because of his extremist right-wing activities. The film portrays all three men whose journeys through life have proceeded in such different, even opposing directions – in parts, they have even become adversaries. In the film, all three protagonists elaborate extensively and talk about former fights and goals, about attitudes that have changed and about changed social and political situations.