Renate Künast

A documentary that offers an intimate portrait of Guido Westerwelle, Germany’s former Vice-Chancellor, balancing his political career with his groundbreaking role as a gay pioneer. Released for the 10th anniversary of his death, the film explores the sharp contrast between his polarizing public persona and his private vulnerability. The narrative anchor consists of never-before-heard audio recordings from 2014, captured in Mallorca by journalist Dominik Wichmann as Westerwelle battled acute leukemia. The movie weaves these raw archives with emotional interviews from his husband, Michael Mronz, and key political rivals. It charts his rise within the FDP, his historic 2004 public coming out, and his legacy as Germany’s first openly gay cabinet minister. The plot highlights the unique diplomatic challenges he faced visiting nations hostile to LGBTQ+ rights, his sudden fall from political grace, and his final fight against cancer alongside Mronz.

Gerhard Schröder was the last SPD chancellor. He was always a controversial figure within his party. To some, he was a self-centered individual and a careerist; to others, he was a gifted campaigner and a successful modernizer. It is undisputed that his popularity played a decisive role in helping the SPD seize power in 1998. But what remains of the Red-Green coalition project that came to such an abrupt end in 2005? The Agenda reforms? The energy transition? The SPD’s identity crisis? Since Gerhard Schröder’s defeat by Angela Merkel in 2005, the party has been in decline; the label “people’s party” no longer seems to apply. What responsibility does the SPD’s most recent chancellor bear for this decline? How did the unprecedented Agenda 2010 reform program come about in the first place?