The BND File: The Secret Service and Its First Arms Dealer

The BND File: The Secret Service and Its First Arms Dealer (2019)

Documentary

In occupied post-war Germany, the ex-paratrooper and former SS man Gerhard Mertins rises to become a powerful arms dealer. He has many contacts in the Middle East and with old Nazi greats, a man who therefore becomes interesting for secret services. He starts right after the Second World War as a simple taxi entrepreneur in Bremerhaven, but soon he does best business with the German secret service BND and also the American CIA. Until today many files about Mertins are secret. Because against German laws, against international law, Mertins moved weapons into war zones with the backing and sometimes on behalf of the German secret service BND. For almost two years, the team around author Rainer Kahrs did research for the film. For the first time, the BND granted a camera team access to files on Gerhard Mertins, the first BND arms dealer. For the first time, Mertins' wife and daughter also speak in front of the camera.

Director: Rainer Kahrs

Casts

	Niels Stolberg as Self
	Erich Schmidt-Eenboom as Self
	Viktor Yushchenko as Self
	Mykola Malomuzh as Self
	David E.A. Johnson as Self, executive director, Center for Advanced Defense Studies
	Frank Passade as Self, executive director, Center for Advanced Defense Studies
	Luuk van de Vondervoort as Self, European Institute for Peace
	André Hahn as Self
	Volodimir Kalinin as Self, security administrator, Port of Oktyabrsk, Ukraine
	Bruno Kahl as Self, president of German Federal Intelligence Service

Crew