Why did Alfred Herrhausen end up in the crosshairs of his murderers? The accompanying documentary to the ARD feature film “The Lord of Money” explores this question. Ulrike Bremer focuses on the last three years of Alfred Herrhausen’s life. The spokesman for Deutsche Bank comes surprisingly close in archive recordings and statements from former employees and friends. You can experience how the banker got involved in national and international politics. In 1987 he caused a stir in Washington with a very unusual proposal. At the World Bank meeting, he asked aloud whether developing countries should simply have their debt forgiven. Unheard of in the banking world. Many believe the proposal is only intended to give Deutsche Bank an advantage in the American market. In Germany, Herrhausen has long been considered a symbolic figure for the power of the banks. The left-wing scene does not believe in his humanitarian commitment. He is also one of the heads of “Deutschland AG”, which stands for the close ties between banks and large industry. Because of these connections, Deutsche Bank is often viewed as the “governing power in Frankfurt am Main” in these times. And in fact Alfred Herrhausen was a very important advisor to Chancellor Helmut Kohl, influenced Federal Republican politics and was pleased that he was able to “help shape” it, as he said. He was sent to Moscow by the Chancellor in 1988 to discuss Germany’s options for perestroika and glasnost with Mikhail Gorbachev. Financially, economically and politically. At the beginning there are billions in loans from the banks for the bankrupt states of the Eastern Bloc, at the end there is German reunification. Was it his role as a key figure in German politics, was it his role as an industrial leader, was it his push for debt relief or was it his push to convert the Deutsche Bank into the World Bank that gave him adversaries, opponents, competitors and, in the end, murderous mortal enemies? The film does not deal with speculation as to who had Alfred Herrhausen murdered. But in the end we know more about which circles he may have disrupted.
