29 August 2026

Adams Acht: Felix Kammerer and a 1960s Sporting Legacy

Felix Kammerer as Hans Lenk rowing on a lake in 'Adams Acht'

Quick Read

• Adams Acht is set for theatrical release in Germany on 17 September 2026.
• The historical drama follows Karl Adam and the Ratzeburg rowing eight that unexpectedly won Olympic gold in Rome in 1960.
• Austrian actor Felix Kammerer plays rower Hans Lenk, whose story adds a personal dimension to the Cold War setting.
• Schiesser is an official film partner because it supplied underwear to the German Olympic team in 1960.
• The film also brings a historic Schiesser tank top, Friedrich, back into focus — a design originating in 1951 and revived under that name in 2003.

A rowing victory shaped by postwar Germany

Adams Acht is set in Ratzeburg in the late 1950s, close to the border with East Germany. Teacher and rowing coach Karl Adam builds an unconventional team from young men who have grown up in the aftermath of war. His training methods initially meet resistance, but the crew eventually reaches the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome and wins gold. The sporting story is therefore also a portrait of West Germany at a particular moment. The film deals with the legacy of National Socialism, a generation shaped by wartime loss and the increasingly tangible division between East and West. For Hans Lenk, the conflict becomes personal: his relationship with Ulla is complicated by the fact that she lives in the GDR, on the other side of the Ratzeburger See.

From Olympic underwear to the tank top "Friedrich"

This historical setting explains the involvement of Schiesser. Founded in Radolfzell in 1875 by Swiss entrepreneur Jacques Schiesser and his wife Malwine, the company became closely associated with underwear and, in particular, fine- and double-rib products. For Adams Acht, the important date is 1960. The company supplied underwear to the German Olympic team that year. That provides the direct historical connection behind today's cooperation with the film. The tank top worn by the rowers is the Friedrich from the Schiesser Revival range. The name is not a name the garment carried in 1960. Rather, the underlying design dates back to 1951 and was "reborn" as part of Revival in 2003. The model is currently available, including in white, black and dark brown.

Felix Kammerer: from Paul Bäumer to Hans Lenk

For Austrian actor Felix Kammerer, Hans Lenk is another historically charged character after his international breakthrough as Paul Bäumer in All Quiet on the Western Front. Kammerer won the 2023 German Film Award for Best Actor and a Bambi for the role; the film itself won four Oscars. His later international credits include Ron Howard's Eden, in which he played Rudolph Lorenz, and Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein, where he played William Frankenstein. Hans Lenk offers a different kind of physical and psychological challenge. The real Lenk was an Olympic champion in 1960 but later became a professor of philosophy and a major figure in the philosophy of sport and science. That combination makes the role particularly interesting for Kammerer: Lenk is both an elite athlete and a reflective figure caught between sporting ambition, personal relationships and the political divisions of his time.

September release, international future still open

Adams Acht is scheduled to open in Germany on 17 September 2026. For now, the film's confirmed theatrical launch is centred on the German-speaking market — while Felix Kammerer's growing international profile may give the story an additional point of interest beyond it.

Image: Felix Kammerer as Hans Lenk in 'Adams Acht', portraying a German Olympic rower caught between his sporting ambitions and the political shadows of postwar Germany. ©Majestic