2002 SCHILY POWER ORDER
SCHILY MACHT ORDNUNG
Germany/Italy
45 min. tv documentary
author: Robin Lautenbach, Jürgen Thebrath, Marcel Kolvenbach
director: Marcel Kolvenbach
ARD German public tv
Portrait of Otto Schily, from RAF defense lawyer to Interior Minister.
Exclusive portrait of the life and work and interview with Otto Shily. Otto Schily, once the outspoken defense lawyer for Red Army Faction (RAF) members in the 1970s, later served as Minister of the Interior from 1998 to 2005. As a lawyer, Schily had championed civil liberties and due process, often criticizing state overreach. Yet in office, particularly after 9/11, he became a driving force behind tightening Germany‘s internal security laws, advocating biometric passports, increased surveillance, and broader powers for intelligence agencies. A transformation that sparked intense public debate. Critics accused him of betraying his earlier principles, citing his support for measures that eroded privacy and expanded state control. Schily defended his policies as necessary adaptations to new threats, arguing that democratic freedoms required strong protection from extremism. His trajectory from radical defender to security enforcer remains one of Germany's most striking political transformations, symbolizing the tension between liberty and security in a post-terror era. What made him change? In addition to Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, Green Party leader Claudia Roth, and other important companions have their say. A visit to his favorite trattoria in Tuscany and a meeting with his two daughters provide a little insight into his private life.