4 Schlüssel
1965 film by Jürgen Roland
4 Schlüssel (English: The Four Keys) is a West German crime film directed by Jürgen Roland. It was released in 1965.
Background
The film was shot in black and white and is based on a novel by Max Pierre Schaeffer. Schaeffer was inspired by a real incident that occurred in Switzerland, where it was common for bank vaults to require four separate keys held by trusted individuals. In the real case, a gang in Zurich forced a banker to summon all keyholders to his home. One of them grew suspicious and arrived with a detective, causing the gang to flee. During their escape, they shot and killed the banker.
Schaeffer’s story explores how the crime might have unfolded if the perpetrators had acted more intelligently. The film also examines how people react when threatened at gunpoint.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “4 Schlüssel” is 1965 film by Jürgen Roland. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Schlüssel, film and Jürgen, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “1965 film by Jürgen Roland” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q238251. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1965.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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- Expand the search: follow 4 Schlüssel primary sources, 4 Schlüssel archive and Schlüssel research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “4 Schlüssel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.