World War II · Film · 2017
The Captain
Der Hauptmann
In the last chaotic weeks of the war, a hunted German deserter finds an abandoned captain's uniform, puts it on and discovers how easily a lie in the right clothes can command obedience.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 2 places.
Stop 1: Aschendorfermoor II camp, Emsland
Key location
Posing as a captain on a mission from the Führer, Herold takes over a camp full of deserters and turns it into his own court and execution ground.
Stop 2: Aurich, East Frisia
With the camp in ruins, the self-styled summary court sets up in a town hotel and loots, drinks and kills as the Reich collapses around it.
What really happened
The film retells the crimes of Willi Herold, a 19-year-old Luftwaffe paratrooper who deserted in April 1945, found a captain's uniform in an abandoned vehicle and gathered a band of stragglers around him. On 11 April he reached Aschendorfermoor II, one of the Emsland prison camps holding German military prisoners, and with the backing of local Nazi officials ordered mass executions of inmates over the following days.
After a British air raid destroyed the camp on 19 April, Herold's group roamed East Frisia committing further killings until the military police arrested them in a hotel in Aurich on 30 April. He talked his way free, was later caught by the British, and was executed at Wolfenbüttel on 14 November 1946. The film follows these events closely but compresses them, and its modern-day coda in Görlitz is an artistic device.
Where to watch
Checking streaming services…
Full details
- Original title
- Der Hauptmann
- Directed by
- Robert Schwentke
- Countries
- Germany, France, Poland
- Languages
- German
- Released
- 2017
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Western Europe
- Themes
- True story
- Home front
