His mother, forced to raise two children on her own, was abusive, physically and physiologically.

Samuel’s father, who was born in Cameron and came to East Germany as a student, died the day of his son’s birth, of mysterious, likely criminal causes (Meffire suspects he was poisoned by his work colleagues). If he started the 1990s as (literally) the poster boy for multiculturalism in newly-reunified Germany, he would end it behind bars as a violent criminal and internationally-wanted fugitive. The philosopher, known as the father of existentialism, saw the world as unavoidable suffering. Those expecting a feel-good underdog story - that Disney specialty - are in for a shock. The series, the first German-language original from Disney+, bows Wednesday, April 26th on Hulu in the U.S. Sam - A Saxon is Meffire’s story, or at least the 7-hour made-for-TV version. And the first-ever Black policeman in the GDR. He was one of the last officers trained under the East German system. When Meffire did eventually join the Dresden police force, it was 1990, after the fall of the Berlin Wall but before German Reunification.

Those were things missing in my life at the time.” “But for me, the police represented order, justice, and safety. “I know it’s hard for people to understand why, as a Black man in East Germany, I became a police officer,” says the real Samuel Meffire, speaking over tea at a cafe in Cologne. Malick Bauer in ‘Sam A Saxon’ Disney+/ Hulu

The saxon series