Do we like them?

Do we like Til Schweiger?

Our score: 4 out of 10. Serious allegations about his behaviour on set and a tone-deaf Belarus trip, with thin verified good to set against them.

Til Schweiger is one of the big names of German film, an actor and director who made his name with comedies and has worked with studios like Constantin. For years he was the bloke who could fill German cinemas almost on his own, which is part of why the later stories landed so hard.

The big stoush came in 2023, when Der Spiegel reported allegations from more than fifty people about conditions on his sets. It alleged that in July 2022, on the Constantin comedy Manta Manta 2, he turned up drunk and punched a crew member who had said he was not fit to work. Constantin's boss confirmed an altercation to the FAZ, cancelled that day's shoot and warned Schweiger he would be fired and fined if it happened again.

Schweiger's lawyer denied the claims to Der Spiegel, saying some were unknown to him, others implied things that did not happen, and the magazine had repeated rumours as fact. Constantin hired an independent law firm to investigate, and I couldn't open a report of its findings. German outlets later reported he admitted a drinking problem in an interview, but I couldn't read those pieces in full, so treat that as secondhand.

Away from the set, he lost a long money dispute with screenwriter Anika Decker over her share of earnings from Keinohrhasen and Zweiohrküken. A 2023 Berlin ruling gave her a higher share in principle, though most of her early claims were time-barred. It became final in March 2025 when she withdrew her appeal, leaving her owed about 180,000 euros for earnings to 2020.

On the harm check, nothing I could open showed him campaigning against LGBTQ+ people, women or migrants in his own words. The black mark is Belarus: in November 2024 he held a press conference in Minsk and was widely criticised in Germany for praising the country and saying nothing about its dictatorship. Reports say he later said on Instagram that his remarks were taken out of context. I couldn't open the German pieces, so that sits as reported, not confirmed by me.

The good stuff is harder to pin down than it should be. He has been reported as backing refugee projects in Germany, including a home and a kindergarten, but I couldn't open a page that confirms the details, so I'm not leaning on it. Pages on his 2026 film work did open: he has finished The Barrel, and a co-star said it was a lot of fun to shoot with him.