“But the genre of war films from the German perspective is practically nonexistent: because of our perpetrator role, our view is marked by grief and shame. In most cases they are American or British and include a positive heroic story,” Brühl says. When the Nazis came to power, it was banned from cinemas, while Remarque’s novel was burned on the bonfire of books that propaganda minister Josef Goebbels deemed “degenerate”.ĭaniel Brühl, right, as Niki Lauda in Rush, with Chris Hemsworth as James Hunt. Milestone’s film, while celebrated in Hollywood, provoked an antisemitic uproar in Germany. He admits that he had learned little about him at school only now is Erzberger being recognised in Germany for what he achieved.īrühl says that there was “quite some pressure” to make the film work – not least because they were dealing with one of the most successful German-language books of all time, the publication of which was followed swiftly by the hugely popular Lewis Milestone film of 1930 (which won two Oscars for best picture and best director) and later Delbert Mann’s highly acclaimed 1979 television production. “He was used as a scapegoat for the failures of the peace, and later labelled a big traitor by the Nazis,” Brühl says. Erzberger – who lost his own son to the Spanish flu while he was serving in the military – was murdered by nationalists in 1921. He did not let himself be intimidated,” Brühl says. “He’s a very admirable, interesting figure in German history because he was very persistent. Photograph: Netflixīrühl plays a character not in Remarque’s original version – the real-life liberal Catholic politician Matthias Erzberger, who in 1918 persuaded the German powers that be that, after four years of punishing warfare in which millions had died, it was time to admit defeat and negotiate a ceasefire with the French. “He was used as a scapegoat for the failures of the peace”: Daniel Brühl on Matthias Erzberger. He is one of its executive producers working alongside his friend, Malte Grunert, with whom he became a partner at the production company Amusement Park Film in 2015. In All Quiet …, directed by Edward Berger, it was the “desire to tell this story out of a real moral interest”, says Brühl.

He says that after 25 years in the business – and now able to pick and choose what he does – it is not the size of a role but myriad other factors that draw him to a film.

The German-Spanish actor is best known for his roles in Good Bye, Lenin! (2003), Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Rush (2013), where he played the late Formula One great Niki Lauda. When I was older I felt I had to read it again.” So, almost 100 years after it was published, being able to adapt it cinematically in its original language for the first time was something Brühl was “immediately intrigued by”. I think almost all of us read it at school and it so impressed us. “When I was growing up, this was one of the most important books we read. W hen he first glanced at the script for a new adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s 1928 novel All Quiet on the Western Front, Daniel Brühl was immediately hooked.

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