Author and lawyer Fred Breinersdorfer was born in Mannheim in 1946, read law and social studies in Mainz and Tübingen and did his doctorate in constitutional law. After a brief stint in politics (running for Parliament in 1994 in Stuttgart, for the SPD), Breinersdorfer dedicated himself completely to writing, especially script-writing.
He had his debut as a director in 2009 with Zwischen heute und morgen, a film version of the novel „Eden Plaza" by Dagmar Leupold for theatrical release. As a producer, he realized several films together with colleagues.
For 17 years he practised law in Stuttgart, specializing in university law, especially in numerus clausus cases. Since 2004 he has been admitted at the Berlin Landgericht and Kammergericht, and is a partner in the law firm Müller Radack.
In 1980 his first "Abel"-mystery was published by Rowohlt, „Reiche Kunden killt man nicht"; numerous further thrillers, novels, short stories and dramatic works followed over the ensuing years.
As a scriptwriter, he started out with the classic Schimanski-Tatort Zweierlei Blut (1984), with co-author Felix Huby, directed by Hajo Gies. This was followed by more than 20 Tatort-productions for the SWR (all titles containing the word fever), WDR, NDR, MDR, SR and BR with scripts by Fred Breinersdorfer – as well as numerous feature films, mostly crime fiction, among them Der Hammermörder (1990), a film version of his novel of the same title, Quarantäne (1989), Angst (1993), Duell der Richter (1999) or the two-parters Das tödliche Auge (1992), Der Mann mit der Maske (1994), Mein ist die Rache (1997), Final Hope (2001), Der verlorene Sohn (2009) and The Chinese Man (2011), the script of the novel of the same title by Henning Mankell, which he wrote together with his daughter Léonie-Claire. In 1986 the ZDF started a loose series of feature films, about Breinersdorfer's Anwalt Abel starring Günter Maria Halmer in the title role; 20 films were made until 2000.
Fred Breinersdorfer's scripts were filmed by directors like Peter Schulze-Rohr, Roland Suso Richter, Nico Hofmann, Marc Rothemund, Christian Görlitz, Michael Verhoeven, Rolf Schübel and Oliver Hirschbiegel, his characters were embodied by actors like Bruno Ganz, Iris Berben, Gert Voss, Dieter Pfaff, Susanne von Borsody, Jürgen Hentsch, Christian Redl, Uwe Ochsenknecht, Nina Petri, Eva Mattes, Alexander Held, Julia Jentsch, Hannelore Elsner, Axel Prahl, Anneke Kim Sarnau, Katja Flint or Kostja Ullmann. His debut as cinema author and producer began in 2005 with Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage.
Fred Breinersdorfer has been an Honorary Professor, from 1997 to 2005 he was the chairman of the VS (Verband Deutscher Schriftsteller within the union ver.di), is a member of P.E.N-Zentrum Germany, of several academies (Deutsche Filmakademie and Deutsche Akademie der Darstellenden Künste) as well as a member of the board of directors of the VG Wort. For 2003 he was called on the jury for the „Newspeak of the Year". Together with Peter Schmidt he founded, in 1986, the guild of mystery writers „Das Syndikat"; in spring 2011 he started the project „Filmmakers in Prison" together with the Deutsche Filmakademie, which in cooperation with the Berlinale and Amnesty International supports persecuted film makers. In 2012 he was awarded the Order of Merit of the State of Baden-Württemberg.
His scripts and films received numerous nominations – so for the Deutscher Fernsehpreis, Deutscher Filmpreis and the European Film Award – and also awards, with, among others, the Adolf-Grimme-Preis in Gold, the German and European Film Awards and the ver.di Television Award. Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage was nominated for the Oscar in the category "Best Film not in English language" in 2006.
Beta Cinema
