2023-05-21 12:31:22
Great hour of humanity: In a moving TV speech on February 23, 1981, the young King Juan Carlos I of Spain braced himself against the dictatorship.Brothers Beetz film production
From the White House to Abu Dhabi. From the “Champion of Democracy”, as Ronald Reagan once called Juan Carlos I, to an old, bitter and lonely 85-year-old man in the desert. The former King of Spain is a tragic figure.
Once set up by Franco, one of the most cruel dictators in Europe, who murdered hundreds of thousands of people and buried them in mass graves, after the death of caudillo Franco in 1975 Juan Carlos developed into the keeper and guardian of the young and fragile Spanish democracy.
The young Bourbone, whom the dictator had raised up to be his successor like a godson, took over a desperately poor country that had been trapped under a dark veil of repression since the brutal Spanish Civil War. Juan Carlos I could have continued down the path of dictatorship, but he chose democracy.
Champion of Democracy: King Juan Carlos I is received by President Ronald Reagan in the White House.Brothers Beetz film production
The deep fall of the “Champion of Democracy”
His moving TV speech to his citizens on February 23, 1981, in which he took a trembling but resolute voice against the Francoist putschists who had stormed parliament just hours before, is legendary to this day. Just for this one moment of strength you have to bow to the man Juan Carlos for all eternity – not only as a Spaniard.
However, most of what happened behind closed doors in the family, in bedrooms, on trips abroad to Saudi Arabia or on the hunt in Africa is a very different chapter in the very personal story of the man Juan Carlos. It’s about affairs with mostly blonde women, illegitimate children, illegal bribe payments, a dead elephant, ties to the highest secret service circles, a German princess and the undignified flight of the monarch to the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in 2020.
Of course, you don’t actually have to watch a documentary series to come to this conclusion. A regular look at the Bild newspaper and the gala is enough. And yet it is worth watching the new German Sky documentary “Juan Carlos. Love, Money, Betrayal”. Because the four-part series has it all.
Former lover: Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein had an affair with the king for years, who even wanted to marry her in 2008. In the end he gave her 65 million euros, a bribe from Saudi Arabia.Brothers Beetz film production
Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein speaks for the first time
The reason is that the documentary does without an old-fashioned omniscient narrator who summarizes the events chronologically, but uses the testimonies of intimate companions, politicians, bankers and secret service employees.
And while that’s a bit long-winded in places, it makes perfect sense. The makers emphasize that the characters interviewed only represent their very personal view of things. Without claim to an objective truth.
Right at the beginning of the first episode, for example, the king’s longtime friend, Philip Adkins, calls the king on his mobile phone while the camera is running. An intimate moment that shows the effort that the makers of the documentary put into it. In addition to friends and confidants, the list of “witnesses” is long.
For Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein’s son, the king was like a father. The secret service covered the extramarital love affair for a long time.Brothers Beetz film production
Interesting insight into the world of the nobility, the beautiful and the rich
Among them are not only investigative journalists and FBI agents, but even José María Aznar, former Prime Minister of Spain, or Mario Conde, one of the most influential and important bankers in Spain.
It is particularly exciting that the long-time lover of the king, the entrepreneur Princess Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, expresses herself in the documentary for the first time, to whom the king once gave around 65 million euros and who, at least from her point of view, gives a deep insight into how Affairs of heads of state are covered by secret services to protect the reputation of states – in this case the monarchy of Spain.
Of course, none of this claims to be complete. And as always, the same applies as in all of our lives: not everything is just black and white, a lot is gray.
Dark spots: Juan Carlos I on the day of his abdication in Madrid in 2014. Son and successor King Felipe later distanced himself from his father.Brothers Beetz film production
The king’s greed for the sweet life
And so the series shows the metamorphosis of a hero, who was long celebrated by a large part of the Spanish public, into a leper of recent European history, which is well worth seeing.
And why could Juan Carlos I., especially in the second half of his life, not seem to get enough of the sweet life of the international jet set and in the end gambled away his memory? A few years ago, a statement by a friend of the noble Spaniards gave me at least the beginning of an explanation: “Juan Carlos always considered himself one of the poorest monarchs. Some southern German princes were richer than he was. This condition was unbearable for him.”
Juan Carlos. love, money, betrayal. Documentary series, 4 episodes of 45 minutes each, from Sunday 21 May 2023 on Sky.
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