IM NAMEN DES SOHNES
IM NAMEN DES SOHNES
Performance
The uncle of film-maker Rosalia Romaniec was born Heinz Piotr to a German mother and a Red Army soldier in Sopot shortly after the end of the war. Whilst his mother, Hildegard, left the country in the course of the expulsions of ethnic Germans, the son remained in Poland, where he was subsequently adopted by a Polish family and given the name Janusz Piotr.
After travel restrictions between Germany and Poland were eased in the mid-1970s, the Polish secret service exploited the family’s story to equip an agent with the identity of Heinz Piotr. Thus it was that one day a young man named Heinz Arnold contacted his mother, Hildegard, who by then lived in Bremen, claiming to be her son. By then Heinz Arnold was both an established civil servant for the migration apparatus in Bremen, a member of the Social Democratic Party, and an individual the Polish secret service had great plans for. The latter never came to pass however, since the real son went in search of his parents, contacted the Red Cross, and died under mysterious circumstances in 1985. The agent—whose real name was Jozef K.—was arrested and, in 1988 on Glienicke Bridge in Berlin, was one of the last spies to be exchanged between East and West. Though it might seem a work of fiction, this is the true story adapted by Jan Holoubek for his feature film DOPPELGÄNGER.
Text: Bernd Buder
Wed 05.11. I 12:15 I WELTSPIEGEL SAAL 3 I German OV
Sat 08.11. I 13:30 I OBENKINO I German OV
Talk: A biographical spy story – reality and fiction
Obenkino, Sat 08.11. | 14:30
Rosalia Romaniec - Born: 1 May 1972 in Gliwice, Poland
Studied journalism and political science in Dortmund (1993–1999)
Professional experience1997–2016 Freelance journalist/presenter for media outlets in Germany (DW, WDR, Deutschlandfunk, RBB) and Poland (TV Polonia, Gazeta Wyborcza) 2016–2018 Head of the Eastern Central Europe Department at Deutsche Welle Bonn 2018–2020 Head of the Political Background Department at Deutsche Welle Berlin 2020 to present – Head of the Deutsche Welle Berlin Capital Studio
Commitment: 2006–2008 Chairwoman of the Association of Foreign Press in Germany
Dokumentarfilme:
2013 „Im Namen des Anderen“ (58’00, WDR)
2013 „Meine Familie und der Spion“ (ARD/WDR, 43’30) – Kurzfassung von „Im Namen des Anderen“
2014 „Lernt Polnisch – die DDR-Opposition und die Solidarność“ (42’30, DW)
2015 „2 + 4 + X – eine kurze Geschichte der Wiedervereinigung“ (42’30, DW)
2018 „Zukunft Europa – die jungen Helden“ (42´30, DW)
2024 „AfD und ihre außenpolitische Vision“ (DW, Youtube DW, 50´10)
