The Cost of Witnessing

The Collini Case

Leinen’s encounters with violence, memory, and evidence reveal how detached legal work becomes when human suffering is made visible.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

The Autopsy Room The Autopsy Room from "The Collini Case". The Autopsy Room A body made evidence Leinen attends Meyer’s autopsy and struggles with the exposed corpse, wounds, and clinical examination.

The Autopsy Room from "The Collini Case". The Autopsy Room A body made evidence Leinen attends Meyer’s autopsy and struggles with the exposed corpse, wounds, and clinical examination.

The Autopsy Room A body made evidence Leinen attends Meyer’s autopsy and struggles with the exposed corpse, wounds, and clinical examination. Professor Wagenstett insists on systematic description and respect for the dead. Knowledge has a cost The lawyer gains detailed evidence but cannot remain emotionally untouched by it. The case becomes physical and immediate in a way that paperwork cannot reproduce.

Counting Stripes Counting Stripes from "The Collini Case". Counting Stripes A moment of dislocation Unable to process the autopsy, Leinen focuses on the stripes of a police officer’s shirt.

Counting Stripes from "The Collini Case". Counting Stripes A moment of dislocation Unable to process the autopsy, Leinen focuses on the stripes of a police officer’s shirt.

Counting Stripes A moment of dislocation Unable to process the autopsy, Leinen focuses on the stripes of a police officer’s shirt. He uses the pattern to steady himself as he leaves the institute. The body’s afterimage His reaction reveals how witnessing violence can exceed professional composure. The lawyer’s work depends on evidence, but the evidence also enters his private consciousness.

The Trial’s Images The Trial’s Images from "The Collini Case". The Trial’s Images A picture built in words Mattinger guides the forensic pathologist through wounds and photographs, ensuring that the judges and lay judges…

The Trial’s Images from "The Collini Case". The Trial’s Images A picture built in words Mattinger guides the forensic pathologist through wounds and photographs, ensuring that the judges and lay judges…

The Trial’s Images A picture built in words Mattinger guides the forensic pathologist through wounds and photographs, ensuring that the judges and lay judges imagine the brutality clearly. The method is controlled, but its effect is forceful. Evidence shapes judgment The courtroom’s understanding of Collini forms through selected images before the defense’s historical account is heard. What is made vivid can influence judgment as powerfully as a legal argument.

Reading a Childhood Into Court

Reading a Childhood Into Court Documentary narration Leinen reads from records and Collini’s account in a restrained legal voice. Fields, family life, imprisonment, and execution emerge through the details he presents. The past becomes present A courtroom used to classify evidence becomes a place where an audience imagines another era. The testimony changes not only what people know, but what they can feel they have witnessed.

A Photograph After Death A Photograph After Death from "The Collini Case". A Photograph After Death A small surviving image Collini’s sister appears in a faded photograph enclosed with his final note.

A Photograph After Death from "The Collini Case". A Photograph After Death A small surviving image Collini’s sister appears in a faded photograph enclosed with his final note.

A Photograph After Death A small surviving image Collini’s sister appears in a faded photograph enclosed with his final note. The private image counters the impersonal scale of files, charges, and courtroom procedure. Memory made concrete The photograph cannot restore her or settle the case. It gives Leinen a specific face to associate with the family losses behind the evidence.

The day after Collini’s confession

Immediately after the autopsy

The first five days of testimony

During Leinen’s wartime statement

At the end of the trial