German taxpayers have involuntarily co-financed a movie on former vice chancellor and economics minister Robert Habeck of the Greens Party.
As tabloid Bild revealed today, public funds totalling €270,793.95 were paid for the production of Jetzt.Wohin. (Now.To where.), a film directed by Lars Jessen who is a self-declared supporter of Habeck.
Björn Hoffmann – manager of production company Pandora Film that co-produced the movie – detailed the total subsidies as follows: “Production was subsidised with €102,000 by the German Federal Film Fund, with €93.793,95 by the German Federal Film Board and with €75,000 by the Film and Media Foundation NRW [North Rhine-Westphalia].”
Hoffmann stressed that Habeck did not receive any monetary compensation.
The revelations have caused outrage on the German Right. Conservative publicist Boris Reitschuster called the movie an example of “pure personality cult” and accused Habeck of “making taxpayers foot the bill for his film memorial”.
Entrepreneur and author Rainer Zitelmann saw the revelations as a reflection of the state of German public film funding and demanded that film subsidies be abolished completely.
Zitelmann also stressed that Germany’s Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer (Christian Democratic Union, CDU) had instead doubled public funding for movies.
The Habeck movie has also sparked allegations of nepotism in Germany’s public film funding system after news portal Nius revealed the taxpayer-funded Film and Media Foundation NRW had paid subsidies amounting to €13 million since 2011 for movies produced by Christoph Friedel – who is also one of the producers of the Habeck movie.
Friedel is reportedly in a live-in relationship with Christina Bentlage, who has been in charge of the Foundation’s subsidies department since 2010.
In response to the allegations the Foundation said that all subsidies were greenlighted by an independent jury.
Brussels Signal contacted Film and Media Foundation NRW but had not received a reply at the time of writing.
Jetzt.Wohin. follows Habeck as the Greens’ candidate for the chancellorship on the campaign trail across Germany ahead of the February 2025 general election.
Footage of him jogging, preparing to meet voters and chairing strategy meetings is juxtaposed with commentary from Greens supporters including climate activist Luisa Neubauer and actor Charly Hübner.
The film also processes the Greens’ dismal performance in the February election in which Habeck’s party scored only 11.6 per cent of the vote, a loss of more than 3 per cent previously.
Podcaster Friedemann Karig complained about “an unparalleled campaign of disinformation and a personal campaign against Robert Habeck”.
The film is set to premier on December 7. The trailer has so far been watched a relatively meagre 20,000 times on YouTube.
