All language subtitles for Hitler.A.Career.1977.(Joachim.Fest-History-Doc).1080p.x264-Classics

Germany, awake!

Germany, awake!

Germany, awake!

This rallying call was more potent

that any politician's catchphrase.

It rang out as a cry for salvation.

Germany, awake!

For a nation in turmoil, its
identity shaken after a lost war,

the call brought the
promise of a new dawn.

United under one symbol and one man.

The call came from a man who
understood the magical power of simple imagery.

A man who liked to descend from
the clouds to his people

like some kind of god.

Millions were ready to give

unquestioning loyalty to any man

who would promise
them what they most needed:

Law and order, a sense of purpose,

and above all, belief in themselves.

Adolf Hitler

appeared to millions of Germans

as the man who could
give them all this.

In him they saw the living proof

that the course of history could be
bound up with the destiny of one man.

His Minister for Propaganda, Joseph
Goebbels expressed it in these words:

Although it may be
good to possess power

that is based on guns, it is better

and more gratifying to win
the hearts of the people

and to keep them.

Hitler saw himself

as the saviour of a
world on the brink of disaster.

And that was the image he cultivated.

He was constantly
surrounded by hordes of cameramen.

Their pictures show
him as a stylized,

almost monumental figure.

He was preparing his
image for posterity.

A superb monument in
a glorified setting,

drawing adoring crowds.

The provincial
rabble-rouser from Bavaria

rose to be a national leader
whose actions shook the world.

It was to be one of the most
monstrous careers in history.

He captured the popular imagination

to a degree few
politicians have equalled.

More than anyone,

he spread fear and satisfied
sentimental longings

for the chosen one who stood alone,

burdened by greatness.

It was essentially a German career.

A career which could only spring from
the very roots of German history.

But he also, more than any other
man, represented the spirit of his age.

Millions flocked to his banner.

But the old Europe, which he
claimed he would save, was already doomed.

And it was this same man
who finally destroyed it.

The creative fire that
carried him to power

was also a destructive
force of unprecedented energy.

People's lives meant nothing to him.

He wanted to dam the
course of history.

And his followers, trusting
blindly to the last,

believed that he could.

They did not consider the victims.

Thanks to him, Germany
and the old Europe

came to a catastrophic
and inglorious end.

His success was built on oratory;

his powers of rhetoric attracted
a massive following.

Striding through a
mysterious semi-darkness

to the stirring sounds
of the Badenweiler March

flanked by cheering
crowds, he seemed transfigured.

Deep down, he never lost his
provincialism. A pathetic little man

with unexceptional features.

But at times like this he took on
the glowing charisma of a true demagogue.

For when our party consisted
of just seven men,

it already laid down two principles.

Firstly, it aimed to be a
party with a true ideology.

Secondly, its uncompromising goal

was to be the one and
only power in Germany.

He started out after
the First World War

as a right-wing agitator in Bavaria,

where he won a certain
notoriety for his extremism.

He was enlisted by one of
the tiny political factions

that met in Munich's beer cellars.

They could find a use for
another loud-mouthed activist.

But he was passionate and
angry, and the crowds responded.

He would make as many as
ten speeches in a single day,

always studying and
improving his impact on the audience.

He would pore over pictures taken
by his photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann,

using them to perfect
his poses and gestures.

Already the combination

of manic intensity and cool
calculation was plain to see.

"I have made speech, after
speech, after speech",

he declared.

Ten years later, he was in power.

A few days after his
appointment as chancellor,

he gave a major speech at
the Berlin Sports Palace.

At first,

he seems tense and uneasy.

The effeminate face

betrays submissiveness
and sexual hunger.

Our F�hrer, the Reich
Chancellor Adolf Hitler,

will now speak.

His public appearances were
carefully stage-managed.

Nothing was left to chance,

from the size and timing of the rally

to the ritual
surrounding his entrance.

He would keep the crowd
waiting before the speech began,

deliberately raising the
tension to fever pitch.

A fumbling hesitancy
marks the beginning.

Fellow Germans!

On January 30th of this year,

the new

national unity

government was formed.

I, and thus the National
Socialist movement,

joined its ranks.

I believed...

"A mass rally", said Hitler,

"is designed to switch
off the thinking process".

Only then would the people be
willing to accept the magical

simplifications

before which all resistance crumbles.

His attack always
followed the same pattern.

At that time, the
fight against Marxism

was, for the first time,

declared a battle objective.

That was when I first made the vow,

as an unknown
individual, to begin this war

and not to rest until
this phenomenon is finally

eradicated from German life.

He would bemoan the loss of
national self-confidence and pride.

... the loss of its honour
and the loss of its standing.

The time came

when one could only express
pride in being a German

when one cast his gaze into the past,

though one felt shame when
regarding the present.

Our people then had to
endure dramatic inflation,

which deprived millions
of their savings.

All of this was instigated,

all of it was carried out
by, and must be blamed upon,

the men of November 1918!

As the climax approached,

it was as if the spirits
spoke through him.

We do not want to lie, we
do not want to deceive.

This is why I have...

This is why I have hitherto
declined to appear before my people

to make empty promises.

No one here can
point to me and assert

that I have ever claimed

that the revival of Germany would
be a matter of a few days.

It was his energy, not his reasoning, that
made the performance so convincing.

The future of the German
people lies within us ourselves.

If we help the German
people to rise up once again

by means of our own
hard work and diligence,

by our determination, our
defiance and tenacity,

then we shall rise again, just
as once the founding fathers

had to create Germany themselves
and were not handed it as a gift.

As the speech draws to its close,

he stands drained, intoxicated,

as he moves into his
grotesque travesty of a prayer.

I cannot withdraw from
the love for my people

and I cling firmly to the conviction

that the day will come...

when the millions

who curse us today

will stand beside us and
will welcome with us

the Reich we have created
together, for which we have fought so hard:

The new German Reich
in all its greatness,

its honour, its power and its glory

and justice. Amen.

He has courted and won his audience,

and now their communion is complete.

Incapable of forming satisfactory
personal relationships,

he has discovered a kind
of substitute fulfilment.

Tired and sweating, he makes his exit

with his henchmen keep the people at
a distance from their exhausted hero.

It is a blissful
exhaustion bred of satisfaction.

In these performances he saw
himself close to fulfilling

his lifelong dream.

The son of the Austrian civil servant

would save the world from
impending disaster.

This vision took shape in
Vienna, at the turn of the century.

Hitler was 18 when first
arrived in the Austrian capital,

intent on becoming a painter.

He was dazzled by the sights
and sounds of the city.

He went to the theatre and the opera.

He saw the Ringstrasse with its
shops and hotels, and its palatial houses.

He was overwhelmed

by the architectural
splendours of the bourgeois world.

He stood gazing at the
parliament building,

which he called "a Hellenic
marvel on German soil".

He painted it in watercolours.

He even managed to sell his
pictures from time to time.

The academy of art rejected
him twice for lack

of artistic talent.

He drifted aimlessly, dismissing
any idea of a steady job:

The thought of regular work offended
his artistic aspirations.

There was much for him to
admire in the imperial capital,

but there was also
much to make him uneasy.

The Emperor, Franz Joseph,

celebrating 60 years on the throne,

seemed an apt symbol of the ageing

empire: Long-lived, but outdated.

Hitler was dazzled by
this vision of opulence.

But the good life eluded
him; his home was a men's hostel.

He feared for the future, seeing
enemies at every turn.

The red flags had
taken to the streets.

The young Hitler mingled with
the middle-class bystanders,

nervously watching
the marching workers.

He described later how he
once stood with bated breath,

watching the human snake wind past,

until he made for home, a
victim of fear and depression.

The city's growing
population was a volatile racial mix,

with a large Jewish element.

Their world seem frighteningly
alien to the bourgeoisie.

Their appearance provoked
fantasies of murder and rape

in frightened minds.

Racial fears grew into an ideology

fostered by a series of
shoddily-produced pamphlets.

The hero was inevitably
the white knight.

The same white knight who
rode through the world

of Richard Wagner's operas,

which lay at the root of
Hitler's lifelong obsession.

Between the opera and the doss house,

he constructed a monstrous
picture of the world.

He took every opportunity to
escape from a harsh reality

into his shabby dream world.

"This is true nobility", he
wrote on a postcard from Vienna.

This contradiction was to stay
with him for the rest of his life.

Bewitched by the
splendours of the bourgeois world,

at the same time he deeply
resented its rejection of him.

Feelings of hatred festered

underneath his devotion for the
decaying beauty of the old world.

That world

was destroyed and
buried by the First World War.

Hitler volunteered and
joined a Bavarian regiment.

After the war,

the revolution.

It proved the extent of
the old world's decay.

For a while, the
state was without a leader.

Power was there for the
taking out in the streets.

The frightened public
witnessed mutiny,

undisciplined troops,
riots and shootings.

A hurrah to the New Order.

With the Kaiser gone, Friedrich Ebert

and the Social Democrats set
up a bourgeois republic.

The Social Democrats could seize power
only through an alliance with the army.

And with the army's help, they stamped
out the revolution and restored order.

The result was a state of
compromise to which few felt committed.

The revolution had been at
its most violent in Bavaria.

For a long time, Munich was
swamped with left-wing idealists

with visions of a new world.

Several months later than in
Berlin, Free Corps units took over Munich.

These were paramilitary gangs

formed to oppose the
ruling workers' councils.

Bavaria was no longer
the home of revolution,

but the breeding
ground of counter-revolution.

The liberation forces stayed
on after the liberation.

Long-serving soldiers who refused to
be re-integrated into civilian life.

The war had taught them to
see the world in terms of

strict leadership,
obedience, and martial law.

That was not going to change.

One of them: Adolf Hitler.

He had served in the war as a
frontline messenger, and had won the Iron Cross.

But he was never promoted beyond
the rank of corporal.

His superiors felt he
lacked the qualities of leadership.

His comrades regarded him
as something of an oddity.

Pale and aloof, he kept to himself.

After the war,

Hitler, still in the army, but
describing himself as a writer,

took a room in Munich.

He was 30 years old

and frightened at the
prospect of civilian life.

A rootless outsider,

he was soon caught up in the
political dramas of the time.

He joined one of the
innumerable political parties

late in 1919.

The young agitator

soon began to stand
out from the crowd.

He became a key figure among the
Free Corps and nationalist groups.

His personality began to take shape.

His countless speeches in Munich's
beer cellars or in the city streets

were greeted with growing enthusiasm.

At first, his only aim was to drum
up support for one greater than himself;

to present to the
lost and resentful mob

the man who would lead their
struggle against the enemy from outside,

and the enemy within.

The undisputed leader

was General Ludendorff.

Three years later, at the
nationalist rally in Nuremberg,

Hitler had already become one
of the principal figures.

He had come to the fore because he
was impatient and hungry for power,

and also because he
despised his reactionary cronies,

whom he regarded as futile
relics of a dead age.

He soon began to attract
attention in influential circles.

Wealthy society women jostled
around the young agitator.

His notoriety grew,

and with it his confidence
and his bullying aggression.

"All or nothing" was his maxim.

He attempted a coup d'�tat.

For a moment it seemed that
Munich was in his grasp.

A proclamation to the German people

stated that the Berlin
government had been overthrown

and that Ludendorff,
Hitler and others

were now the leaders of
a national government.

But the coup failed.

At the Hall of
Heroes, the 'Feldherrnhalle',

the demonstration in
support of Hitler and Ludendorff

was broken up under police gunfire

and Hitler fled in panic.

It seemed as though his career
had come to an ignominious end.

In prison, waiting to learn his
fate, Hitler fell into a deep depression.

His friends had to talk him
out of thoughts of suicide.

But when he heard that he
and his fellow conspirators

were to be tried for treason, he
sensed that his big chance had come.

This would be the perfect
platform for him to reach both the judges

and a mass public
beyond the courtroom.

The accused would become the accuser.

Instead of protesting his innocence,

he would assume full
responsibility for his actions,

claiming the role of
saviour of the Fatherland.

In so doing, he could
win fresh support

and turn imminent
defeat into a personal triumph.

The plan worked perfectly.

Hitler upstaged the
star of the trial,

and General Ludendorff was
ousted from the leadership.

A photograph taken during the trial

shows Hitler's new-found
self confidence.

Already the F�hrer,

though still tense
and uneasy in the role.

The trial ended

in success and public
acclamation for the accused.

Nevertheless, Hitler was
sentenced to five years in prison

and was taken to Landsberg.

In prison, he still saw
himself as the moral victor,

and soon the abortive
putsch was transformed

into a legendary triumph.

He quite simply upended reality.

Years later, he re-staged

the 1923 fiasco again and again

as a march of victory.

Hitler would lay a wreath at
the Munich Feldherrnhalle

in memory of the 16 who
died on the 9th of November 1923.

From there, the procession would
march to the nearby K�nigsplatz.

Hitler had two shrines
erected at the entrance to the square

in memory of those who died that day.

And their names were
ceremoniously read out in a roll of honour.

Present!

Present!

In these "guard
houses of the nation",

it was claimed the
movement's fallen heroes

had begun their eternal vigil.

As both director
and star of the show,

Hitler solemnly paid
his respects alone.

The great leader in his
deliberate isolation.

"The 9th of November 1923 was the
most fortunate day of my life",

he declared later.

His imprisonment was
undoubtedly the turning point of his career.

He had time to work
on his new tactics,

and to write 'Mein Kampf'.

Expounding his ideology
of anti-Semitism

and the conquest of 'Lebensraum'.

After only a year, he
was released on parole.

But his time had not yet come.

The despised republic was
now firmly entrenched.

He waited morosely at Obersalzberg

watching Germany's growing
infatuation with a culture he despised.

"Nigger-loving" was his characteristically
offensive name for it.

As a politician, he
was all but forgotten.

Not even the affair with his niece
Geli attracted much attention.

Pictures of country life.

It was in cosmopolitan Berlin,

enjoying its finest hour,

that Hitler saw the
embodiment of everything he loathed.

Political intrigue,

communists,

Jews.

His admonitions went unheard.

He was still out in the cold.

He came across as just another
eccentric from the crazy twenties.

While Berlin f�ted Charlie Chaplin,

who was later to film his classic
parody of the great dictator,

Hitler was perfecting the role.

He'd learnt the
lesson of the abortive coup:

From now on, Hitler
avoided open violence

and presented himself as
a respectable citizen.

He developed a taste
for wearing dark suits

and surrounding
himself with children in white.

"If we can't outshoot our
opponents", he said, explaining his tactics,

"we must overwhelm
them by force of numbers.

We must win support instead
of spreading terror".

These new tactics held
great promise for the future,

but first he had to
organize his own party.

Not yet the undisputed leader,

Hitler was still
working on his style.

Often his performance was
awkward, even grotesque,

but he was learning all the time.

He imitated the
mannerisms of the military leaders

to impress the lower ranks.

He made up for any
lack in personal authority

by carrying a whip.

When old comrades-in-arms tried to
be too familiar, Hitler became annoyed.

Julius Streicher was
firmly put in his place.

Still, the performances
were liable to backfire.

He was not yet the
F�hrer he wanted to be.

In three years, he succeeded in
organizing the National Socialists

into a tightly-knit party.

Local branches were springing
up, many of them motorized.

Hitler paid particular
attention to converting the young.

He offered what they
wanted: Adventure, discipline,

and a chance to rebel against
the staid world of their parents.

About two-thirds of the
SA, the party's storm troopers,

were under 30 years old.

Every year, Hitler held a
party rally at Nuremberg.

Supporters came from
all over the country

to take part and to see their leader.

The National Socialists were
still only a minority party,

but they were exceptionally well organized and
it seemed as if they would stop at nothing.

This determination made a profound
impression, even on the uncommitted.

People were becoming
increasingly intrigued

by a man who could attract such
a large and devoted following.

At the great closing parade,

thousands crowded into the
Nuremberg market place,

hoping to see the party leader.

Hitler was already a past
master at staging a political rally

as if it were a carnival.

People had experienced nothing like
this since the days of the Kaiser.

Even Hitler could be caught up in the
carnival spirit; the potent mixture of

uniforms, colour, and festivity.

But here he comes
closer to his image of himself:

A man with a mission, grim
and ready for battle.

He was all set to save Germany.

But Germany kept him waiting.

His moment came

to the all-too-familiar
accompaniment

of riots and street fighting.

In 1929, the world was in the
grip of an economic crisis.

In Germany,

unemployment figures
topped three million.

Two years later, they had doubled.

It was the hour of the radicals.

Hardship and poverty were everywhere.

People felt that they
were wasting their lives away.

The National Socialists countered
the general malaise

with a message of refreshing
optimism and bonhomie.

They had no solution to
the problem of poverty.

They offered the public
fun rather than theories.

Instead of haranguing the people

about exploitation and class warfare,

they gave them a sense of belonging.

All over the country, self-help
programmes were set up,

and labour pools organized
by party members

such as the Mayor of Coburg.

"Anyone who hasn't got a shirt to his
back can always put on a brown shirt",

ran the motto.

And there was soup, too.

All this increased the
National Socialists' popularity.

The crisis brought new
members and new sympathizers.

The party
organization was proving its worth:

Thousands of new recruits were
netted in a nationwide campaign.

In public,

Hitler displayed concern about
the widespread hardship,

while at the same time doing all
he could to aggravate the crisis.

He knew this was his big chance.

And soon he felt he was in a
position to go to the capital

and seize his opportunity.

As early as 1926

he had sent Joseph Goebbels to
Berlin as Gauleiter to prepare the ground.

The Nazi party's most
resourceful rabble-rouser

took his assault force straight
into red territory.

His attack was not aimed at the
weak and uncertain republicans,

but at the Communists.

Ernst Th�lmann was
the Communist leader.

In the jargon of the time, this
was called a "march of provocation".

Soon, an underground
civil war broke out.

Almost every weekend brought
its toll of dead and wounded.

The republic had little
real authority left,

but it had the stronger weapons.

The republic was tottering.

Just as the economic
crisis began to bite,

it had lost its last
commanding personality:

Gustav Stresemann.

With his death, the agony
of the Weimar Republic began.

People sensed that anyone who
remained loyal to the republic

was in for a hard time.

And Hitler was at the gates.

The conquering hero was
waiting in the wings.

He had taken full
advantage of the crisis;

now he was ready to step into
the limelight: the great saviour.

"Never in all my life have I
felt so happy", he announced.

People were flocking to him.

They followed him wherever he went.

They were even prepared
to get beaten up for him.

And Hitler was revelling in the part he
had rehearsed and wanted for so long.

The middle classes now
pinned their hopes on him.

They looked to his
energy and his determination

to succeed where their
old parties had failed.

Hugenberg's conservative right was
anxious to enlist this rising demagogue

for their purposes. Here was a
man who could win them mass support.

In the autumn of 1931,

they invited Hitler to a
joint rally at Bad Harzburg.

Hugenberg's plan was
going badly wrong.

Hitler kept them waiting.

He was not interested in an
alignment with the conservatives,

he was not prepared
to be used by others.

Harzburg was intended to be
the signal for an all-out attack

on the republic by the
forces of the right.

But the great alliance of
conservatives and National Socialists

came to nothing.

It failed because of Hitler.

His self-confidence had grown.

Hitler intended to
conquer power alone.

He was not open to bribery, he was
not in league with big business.

He accepted money,

but only when it was
given unconditionally.

In spring 1932 he made

his first propaganda tour by air,

covering 20 cities in seven days.

Five election campaigns

were fought in one single year.

Hitler was intent on
destroying democracy

by taking advantage
of democratic means.

"Hitler over Germany."

This ambiguous
slogan was used to advertise

the tour.

For some it spelt out a threat,

to others it meant salvation.

One fact became increasingly
clear as his campaign progressed:

Nothing could stop Hitler now.

His vision was
unmatched by any other politician.

He seemed omnipresent,

it was almost uncanny.

And this helped promote the idea that
he was not so much a politician

as some sort of Messiah.

But it was all
engineered with military precision.

1932 was the year of Hitler's

most spectacularly
successful speeches.

It was also the year

in which the Nazi Party became
the most powerful in the country.

What appealed most to people was his
promise that everything was going to be different.

Time and again he would

tell them that he
shared in their problems,

that he understood their anxieties.

He was one of them.

Life had been no
kinder to him than to them.

And like them, he
had turned to politics

out of a sense of desperation.

He was indefatigable,
constantly on the move.

Hitler himself spoke of those
years of incessant chasing around,

chasing after new converts.

He would travel
anywhere to meet them.

Goebbels spoke rather
pompously of a world record

in personal encounters.

Hitler left the people in no
doubt about his intentions.

We are intolerant. I
have set myself a goal.

Namely, to sweep away the 30
political parties in Germany.

Bravo!

They constantly mistake me for
a conservative or Marxist

politician

who may be in the SPD today, then the USPD
or KPD tomorrow, then a syndicalist,

or today a democrat, and
tomorrow in the Deutsche Volkspartei,

and then in the Economic Party...

They take us for
people of their kind.

We have chosen our goal and will pursue
it with fanatical ruthlessness

all the way to the grave.

That was his aim: To
tear down social barriers.

All were to free
themselves of their conventional ties

and be united in a new

community of the people.

Any man who put his trust in Hitler

could count on his protection.

The frightened middle classes, the
working man, or the unemployed.

His energetic platitudes were
directed at everybody.

Governments come and
go, but the people remain.

The republican government was
powerless to stem the growing tide of chaos.

Its supporters kept out of sight,

leaving police to fight the government's
battles against the enemies of the state.

Storm troopers under
arrest in Berlin.

Hitler over Germany.

His goal was in sight.

His subordinates were
waiting at the airfield.

G�ring and the leader of the
storm troopers, Ernst R�hm.

Hitler's audience now
numbered hundreds of thousands.

People had no idea that
the party was in the throes

of a major crisis.

The National Socialists had been
rejected at the last election,

the party leadership was divided,

and there were financial problems.

For Hitler, this was all the more
reason to step up his smear campaign.

They do not mention
the tens of thousands

who, year after year,

take their own lives.

And not because they
have it so good...

He was still determined to bring
about the downfall of the republic.

He left no one in
any doubt about that.

...created such a
movement out of nothing.

They may oppress us!

They may even kill us. But
we shall not surrender!

In January 1933,

the republic was finished.

Heil!

Yet all Hitler's energy, all
his inflammatory speeches,

were not in themselves enough
to carry him to power.

It took the resignation of his
opponents to give him what he wanted.

Weary of the endless
battles, they finally caved in.

On the morning of January 30th 1933,

Hitler went to the
presidential palace.

Hindenburg appointed him chancellor.

Shortly after 11.00 A.M., the
new cabinet was sworn in.

Please take a seat,
Herr Vice Chancellor.

Hitler feigned a courteous manner.

But he reserved an angry
glare for Hugenberg.

A word of dissent from him
had almost ruined everything

at the last minute.

Too late.

Three Nazis were
confronted by eight conservatives.

That would contain Hitler. That,
at least, was the idea.

On the evening of January the 30th,

Hindenburg looked pensively down on
the marching brown-shirted columns,

celebrating their victory with
a torchlight procession.

A few windows away: Hitler.

He made it quite clear
who the real victor was.

This was his army

and it was going to
win him total power.

Ostensibly it was no more than
a change of government,

but everyone sensed it was just
a prelude to complete upheaval.

Four weeks later the Reichstag,

the German Parliament, was burning.

Whoever started the fire,

only the Nazis stood to gain.

That same night, a
wave of arrests began.

The National Socialists worked
their way busily to the top.

They called it "seizure of power".

To start with, Hitler demanded a
better showing at the elections.

His brown-shirted storm
troopers provided the intimidation.

On the eve of the
election, Hitler went to K�nigsberg.

For the first time, every
radio station in Germany

was instructed to
broadcast the chancellor's speech.

People from the most remote
towns and villages hurried here.

Young and old were
filled with anticipation

of the arrival of a man who
embodied all their hopes.

Thunderous cheering accompanied...

Yet despite all the
effort and all the pressure,

the National Socialists

polled only 43.9
percent of the votes.

But added to the conservative vote it
was enough to give them a narrow majority.

On March the 21st,

the new Reichstag
convened at Potsdam.

Hitler had planned a great

ceremony of national
reconciliation to try to wipe out

the memory of the violence

which had marred his
first weeks in power.

At the old Prussian Memorial, all
difference were to be buried.

The presence of
Hindenburg, the ageing field marshall,

gave the
proceedings the melancholy aura

of something from a bygone age.

At noon,

the assembly gathered
in the Garrison Church

at the grave of Frederick the Great.

Excluded were the
Communists, who had been arrested,

and the Social Democrats.

The government of national
uprising is determined

to carry out the task given
it by the German people.

This sight set many
anxious minds at rest.

The new chancellor

standing respectfully at
the side of old Hindenburg.

The new men were usurping
the old traditions.

Hindenburg was a mere figurehead.

Unaware of what was
going on around him,

he represented the
surrender of the revered past.

Only those who have
reverence for the history of our people

are able to guide its future.

When you are going
about your daily business

and you think back to this day,

remember this, my warning.

On that note, let us all proclaim:

Germany our beloved fatherland.

Hurrah!

And then, Hitler.

Boys of Germany!

Girls of Germany!

Our Reich President, General
Field Marshal von Hindenburg:

All hail!

Germany's "community of the
people" was becoming a reality.

Hitler's next move was
to proclaim May the 1st

a national holiday with pay.

This was something generations
of workers had fought for in vain.

Now it was theirs.

The German people

are no longer the people of infamy,

of disgrace, of self-flagellation,

of faint-heartedness and scepticism.

No, Lord, the German people
have become strong once more

in their spirit,
strong in their will,

strong in their tenacity,

strong in enduring every sacrifice.

Lord, we bid that you bless

our struggle for freedom

and thus our struggle for the German
people and the Fatherland.

Heil!

The evening ended
with hopes of unity,

as though Hitler had
abolished class conflict.

The following day brought
a return to violence.

Storm troopers
occupied trade union offices,

meeting with no resistance.

In the end, all those
who opposed Hitler

were gradually
subdued or rendered powerless.

Soon, Hitler was able to
tell a workers assembly:

...there will some among
you who cannot forgive me

for having destroyed
the Marxist Party.

But, my friend, I destroyed
the other parties too...

"Community of the people":

"Volksgemeinschaft".

No one could opt out.

Everyone was brought into
line with the new order.

They called it
"Gleichschaltung": Unification.

It reached everybody,

even the country people.

On January 30th, the
die was cast in Germany.

And I do not believe

that our opponents, who
laughed back then, are laughing now.

Germans, defend
yourselves! Don't buy from Jews!

Indeed, his opponents had
nothing to laugh about now.

For some time, the SA
picketed Jewish businesses.

They were itching to go further.

But Hitler did not yet feel strong
enough to give full vent

to his old hatred of the Jews.

On May the 10th 1933,

a bonfire was lit in
every university town.

Students hurled the
works of banned authors

into the flames.

In Berlin, Goebbels gave
an inflammatory speech.

Therefore you are well advised,

at this midnight hour,

to consign the phantoms of
the past to the flames.

The first Jews saw what was
coming and left the country.

In the spring of 1933, the first
concentration camps were set up.

No one wanted to see such
pictures; it was all too embarrassing,

too shameful, too disturbing.

The misery of the victims

was drowned by jolly
songs and joviality.

The terror behind the barbed wire

was covered with a gloss of
family fun and folklore.

They were all one big, happy family.

Or nearly all.

Albert Einstein no longer belonged.

Nor did Thomas Mann.

But after all, many believed
you can't have a revolution

without people getting hurt.

Max Reinhardt had to emigrate.

So did Fritz Kortner.

In desperation, Richard
Tauber also left.

There was no place for
them in the new German "Kultur".

Ernst Lubitsch had already
gone. Countless others followed.

They left Germany to its
"community of the people"

and its provincialism.

The German cinema did what
it could to fill the breach;

Otto Geb�hr stayed on.

We are playing out a
drama that dates from a time

in which duty and
sacrifice made a people great.

But our modern times demand
duty and sacrifice too.

Give all you can to support
the German People's Winter Relief.

And soon, other
notables were roped in.

It was compulsory hotpot
for all on Sundays.

The community of the
people was gathering momentum.

Buttonhole souvenirs of Hitler

sold in their thousands.

But there were still five
million unemployed in Germany.

Hitler knew that everything depended on
his handling of the unemployment issue.

Before six years have passed,
a monumental work shall attest

to our willpower, our
hard work, our skill

and our strength of purpose.

German workers, set to work!

There was a sort of
general mobilization.

Work began on the Autobahn.

He covered the length and
breadth of the country,

launching the "Arbeitsschlacht",

the battle of work.

He radiated confidence, and
his confidence was infectious.

Laying the foundation
stone for the new

House of German Art in Munich.

The stone has been laid!

Many projects dated from
long before his time:

The Autobahns, for example,

which are still linked
with his name today.

This dynamism enhanced
the regime's popularity.

People felt that
things were improving.

But Hitler had not only
promised work and bread.

The nation had never recovered

from the humiliation inflicted by
the victors of the First World War.

Under him, national
pride was to be restored.

We will not operate
according to dictates!

Someone in Germany must stand
up and say, "We want peace,

but we reject this
constant oppression.

We cannot endure this austerity."

By the summer of 1933, Hitler
had almost achieved his goal.

Growing confidence
showed in his bearing.

The first phase of his
seizure of power was complete.

But conflict lay ahead.

Hitler was in danger of
being caught in the crossfire

between the country's two
opposing armed forces.

The Reichswehr, the
national defence force,

and the SA,

the four million storm troopers that Hitler
had used during his rise to power.

The leader of the SA, Ernst
R�hm, wanted to wipe out

the Reichswehr,

leaving his storm
troopers as the only armed force.

And he wanted to stage a real
revolution to seize power by force.

But this was not how
Hitler saw the revolution.

His plan was to undermine
the state from within.

Repeatedly, he had to
call the SA to order.

A great era

has now begun.

And we are

its living witnesses...

Hitler was still undecided.

But R�hm's successor was
already waiting right behind him:

Heinrich Himmler, chief of the SS.

A revolution is happening in Germany,

which differs from all the similar,

earlier predecessors of its kind,

due to the unprecedented
discipline and meticulous planning

of its execution.

If an army is the arms
bearer of a nation,

then you must be the
bearers of its will,

who shall shape the political
future of the German nation.

R�hm was not an easy man to move.

He was a maverick, aggressive
and overbearing,

though not without a certain
dog-like devotion to his master.

For a time, Hitler
tried to bribe R�hm

by singling him out for honours.

Despite this, the
conflict intensified.

At last, Hitler resorted to his
tried and trusted double game.

Accompanied by an
intimidating SS guard,

he turned up at an SA meeting.

SA, SS. Heil!

But the turn of his speech was
curiously pleading, almost tearful.

I would like to thank
you for not having faltered,

for not having abandoned
me in that time.

Because you alone must
take credit for all of this.

If you had turned away back then,

Germany would never have been saved.

Today you have earned the right,

due to your courage
and determination,

to consider yourselves the
saviours of the people and the Fatherland.

Sieg Heil!

At the end of June
1934, Hitler struck.

R�hm and nearly all the
leading figures in the SA

were assassinated.

This time, it wasn't the Red Front

or the reactionaries reviled in
the storm troopers' battle song

who pulled the trigger: It
was their own comrades.

The murders shocked
and alarmed the public.

But at the same
time, people were thankful

that Hitler had removed the
threat of the revolutionary SA.

They convinced
themselves that the movement

had just come of age and would
behave itself from now on.

It was an illusion which
Hitler nurtured carefully.

A month later,

President Hindenburg died.

At Tannenberg, the
nation mourned a man

who had been little more than
a figurehead for some time.

Nevertheless, he had been the last

obstacle in Hitler's path.

Hitler had waited
impatiently for this day.

Now he was in total control.

Two days later, the
Reichswehr surrendered.

In the name of God...

I make this solemn vow...

to pledge the F�hrer of the
German Reich and its people,

Adolf Hitler...

the Wehrmacht Supreme Commander...

my unconditional obedience...

In return for the
murder of his old friend,

SA chief R�hm,

Hitler exacted a personal oath of
allegiance from all armed forces.

At last, Hitler had
assumed full power.

The Nuremberg Party
Rally in September 1934

celebrated the new order.

Hitler announced to
his party officials

that the transfer of
power was complete.

"For the next thousand
years", he declared,

"there will be no more
revolutions in Germany."

No regime had ever proclaimed
itself with such ostentation.

Forests of banners
and marching columns

moved in endless
permutations and patterns

through the massed
ranks of the people.

The confusion of recent
years had left its mark.

But for those who were
alarmed by all the chaos and anarchy,

Hitler had repeatedly promised that under
him everything would be different.

This was his answer:

He did not give the
people their rights,

what he gave them was the
fascination of geometry.

The climax of the rally was
the homage to the dead.

Huge blocks of people formed the
so-called "Road of the F�hrer".

With Himmler and the new
SA chief Lutze behind him,

Hitler advanced to the memorial.

The regime never
learned to honour life,

but it got plenty of
mileage out of the cult of death.

All the regime's ceremonies displayed
three basic elements:

power, order, solemnity.

The displays were designed to
give people a moment of elevation,

preparing them for a submissive
return to everyday life.

Hitler had seized power, he had
brought the people into line.

Now he could direct his
attention to foreign politics.

The Saar territory was
returned to Germany.

That was the first step.

Shortly afterwards, Hitler
broke the treaty of Versailles

by introducing conscription.

Then he began to re-arm Germany.

Soon he risked another
bold step forward.

On March the 7th, 1936,

he sent his troops marching into
the demilitarized Rhineland.

For the first time, he was
throwing down the gauntlet.

Within Germany, his opponents
had always backed down.

How other nations would
react, he did not know.

It was a risk he
was prepared to take.

The reoccupation of the
Rhineland by our troops

was the most difficult

and boldest task

and undertaking of my life.

On the whole, the German
people were not unhappy.

True, some problems remained:

The persecution of minorities,

the encroachments of the
party, the feeling of insecurity.

But the long period of
internal and external unrest

seemed to be over.

People went
peacefully about their business

against a background
of rampant injustice.

The republic and its endless
conflicts belonged to the past.

Unemployment and humiliation by
foreign powers were forgotten.

Wrapped up in their private lives,

most people withdrew
into moral indolence.

And the regime

worked hard on its popular image.

A car! Do you want to have it?

There, you see!

Christmas celebrations in the
totalitarian welfare state.

Now Uncle G�ring will speak.

I am happy and pleased that
you have all turned up...

so that we can celebrate the
Christmas festival together.

And now, my dear
children, let us take a moment

to think of our F�hrer.

It fell to G�ring to give
despotism a human face.

But then came more intimidation.

All the time, the
regime had two faces,

striking a calculated
psychological balance between fear

and the fairground.

On the one hand black uniforms,
submission to strict discipline,

and the threat of a
growing terror machine,

on the other, the
sentimental interludes.

Occasionally Hitler himself, looking
distinctly uncomfortable,

would play his part.

Twin faces of terror and joviality,

united in one man: SS
leader Sepp Dietrich.

Under Heinrich Himmler,

the SS was built up as the ideological
avant-garde of the regime.

It grew into a gigantic

network of bureaucratic departments

whose task was
suppression and terrorization...

for the moment, only inside Germany.

The organization grew in the
middle of an unsuspecting Europe,

ready to exterminate and rule.

The regime organized
totalitarian welfare:

"Strength Through Joy" on steamers

to Madeira and the Norwegian fjords.

The good life

guarded by the nation's might.

Seduction of the people by
social welfare programmes.

There was intense activity on
the socio-political front.

A year's national
service was introduced for girls.

It was usually spent
working on the land.

Large families were encouraged.

The future of Germany and
the future of Berlin

relies on its genetically
healthy children.

Nazi leaders never tired of saying the German
people were short of living space,

while adding still further
to the population pressure.

These young people were to be
soldiers in the fight for Lebensraum.

For this purpose,
they were militarized.

Boys and girls were
recruited at an early age

and prepared for their role

in the National Socialist state.

Heil Hitler!

Good work!
- Thank you.

Ilse, how's your farmer girl
doing? Is she well again?

Yes, she's better, thank you.

What's nicer, Helga? Going to
school or doing the washing?

Hard work does you good. -
Say hello from me. - Thank you.

The regime exploited their good will,

taking advantage of their
youthful romantic idealism

and their natural
longing for comradeship.

"The future of Germany lies in the

organized military
camps," Hitler declared.

Hitler was constantly
summoning the young to mass rallies.

Here, the spirit of the new order became
a sensual experience for them.

Here they learned that
the individual was nothing,

the community everything.

Besides, Hitler saw in them

the seed of a new race upon which

he'd built his ideas of salvation.

We must create a new man...

so that our people do not

succumb to the
symptoms of degeneration

that are typical of modern times.

It is our view that
German boys of the future

must be lean and slender,

nimble as a greyhound, tough as
leather and as hard as Krupp steel.

In summer 1936, the Olympic
Games were held in Berlin.

This was the regime's
chance to play host to the world.

World opinion believed Germany to
be rearming feverishly under a reign

of terror.

Hitler deliberately
presented idyllic scenes of a nation

enjoying peace and busy contentment.

It was all so convincing.

Most nations joined

in the Hitler
salute. Not so the British.

But the French, among many
others, were carried away.

The deception had succeeded.

The Third Reich was well able to show
itself off to its foreign visitors

as a modern industrial state. In
many fields it led the world.

There was still the odd discordant
detail to spoil the picture:

The glorification of blood,

soil and farm life, for instance.

Or the revival of the
ancient Germanic drama.

But these tended to be
written off as mere fads,

like the cult of the
blood banner of 1923,

whose mystic power
was supposed to flow

into all other banners and flags.

But these were not mere fads.

They showed how deeply
the regime's roots

sank into the sinister
depths of a magical past.

The ominous undercurrents

surfaced even in the
midst of exuberant celebrations.

Hitler was not unduly conscientious

about his routine
duties as chancellor.

In his youth he had dreamed of a
life spent drifting around in style.

Now the dream was coming true.

An opinionated dilettante on a merry-go-round
of travel and speeches.

He was in great
demand, he made sure of that.

The whole of Germany
had become his stage.

There was always a guaranteed
audience and a full supporting cast.

He had never found the idea
of regular work appealing.

"A single stroke of
genius", he would say,

"is more valuable than a
lifetime of uninspired drudgery."

It was the old
fantasy of the artist's life.

He was seldom to be seen in Berlin.

It was as though he was
always running away from his duties.

This blatant indolence provoked
Oswald Spengler's remark

that the Third Reich

was the organization of
those who couldn't get any work

by those who wouldn't do any.

He moved restlessly
from stage to stage.

The F�hrer contributes to
the Winter Aid Organization.

He knew how to adapt to his audience.

Workers were fed with the myth of the
dictator's years of toil and hardship.

...and by my own hard work

by studying, and I must say, starving,
I slowly worked my way up.

Leading a life of idleness

after a series of
visits, receptions, and speeches,

he would grow vague and apathetic.

But the sound of applause would
rouse him from his torpor

in time to make yet another speech.

Let us welcome the greatest
worker of the people,

Adolf Hitler.

Before us lies Germany,

within us marches Germany,
and behind us comes Germany.

He played his various
parts with consummate skill.

But occasionally the switch
was too abrupt even for him.

Hitler's aimless wanderings gave
the people the impression

that their F�hrer was omnipresent.

During those years, he rarely stayed

in one place for any length of time.

He was a regular visitor
to the Bayreuth Festival.

And frequently a private guest

of Winifred Wagner.

His pleasures were as
changeable as his moods.

There was a constant
stream of visitors

who were treated to a wordy
explanation of his pet projects.

This time the audience was a
group of British war veterans.

...of Schleswig-Holstein
will be embanked with dikes.

He had a passion for architecture, and whatever
the pressures of political life,

he always found time to indulge
his architectural leanings.

With Albert Speer
and other architects

he planned the
rebuilding of numerous cities,

often producing
sketches of his ideas.

Everything was to be
on a monumental scale.

"If I hadn't become involved in
politics", he would say, "I would have been

one of Germany's finest architects".

Albert Speer's new
chancellery was one such project.

It was built in nine months; one of
the few buildings to be completed.

The rest never got
beyond the planning stage.

Hitler's study was seldom used.

The desk was merely an ornament.

The cabinet room met a similar fate:

No cabinet meeting
was ever held there.

And then, out of a clear blue sky,

Austria was showered with swastikas.

It was the 12th of March 1938,

and Hitler

had finally emerged from
his self-imposed inactivity.

He crossed the border near
his birthplace at Braunau.

The people rejoiced at
this first act of expansion,

which they saw as the fulfilment of
an old dream of the German nation:

The "Anschluss".

An emphatic display
of self-determination.

A right denied to the German
people under the Versailles Treaty,

whose terms were generally
considered unjust.

Therefore, the foreign
powers would not interfere.

Visibly moved,

he entered Vienna.

And the city

that had seen his early
failures now gave him a hero's reception.

Homage was being paid to the man

who had achieved the
unification of the German people.

From the balcony of the
imperial palace, he announced:

As the F�hrer

and Chancellor of the
German Reich and nation,

I hereby make this historical
announcement to mark the entry

of my homeland into the German Reich.

Without the tacit
approval of fascist Italy,

the "Anschluss" would
not have been possible.

Benito Mussolini had sacrificed

his old friendship with Austria

for the sake of a new
alliance with Adolf Hitler.

And Hitler was grateful.

Hitler had worked hard to win
favour with Italy's dictator.

Mussolini's distrust of
the powerful northern state

was overcome only when
Hitler lent his support

to the Duce's aggressive
foreign policy.

The personal bond between the two

was strengthened during
visits to each other's country.

Their political alliance became,

in their emotive fascist terminology,

the axis on which the destiny
of the world would turn.

Mussolini's visit to Germany

in the autumn of 1937

ended with a nocturnal rally in
the Olympic Stadium in Berlin.

There was ambitious
talk of world power.

Fascist Italy has become, due
to the ingenious creativity

of a man of action,

a new empire.

Benito Mussolini, in the coming days

you will witness the reality of
the National Socialist state:

Germany too, with its public
spirit and military strength,

has become a world power again.

Mussolini declared his loyalty to
Hitler, for better or for worse.

It was his virtual
surrender to Hitler,

the man he had despised.

...that our two great peoples,

whose growing throng
now numbers an immense

115 million people,

stand shoulder to shoulder in
unified, unwavering resolve.

"Floods of rain, floods of
emotion, and clever choreography"

was the ironic verdict of Count
Ciano, the Italian foreign minister.

Hitler's propaganda experts
preferred to hold their ceremonies at night.

Time and again,

they organized torchlight processions to
lend the proceedings a demoniac glow.

The fascist cult of fire

was an omen of the fire that
was to consume the world.

The darkness also served to disguise

what was often a
very ordinary setting.

Hitler did not relish the sight of
his party officials, who had grown fat

and complacent in office.

They did not correspond to his
vision of the movement and its mission.

For many it is an
enigma and a mystery

how these hundreds of
thousands of people were united,

and how hardship leads them to
endure suffering, and deprivation.

This order was not
given by any mortal superior!

It was given by God, who
created our people!

It was a setting that
looked like a funeral pyre.

Hitler himself became enthralled

by the mystical
spectacle he had created.

It was a foretaste of
the approaching holocaust.

For a long time the
shrewd politician in Hitler

had held his desire for
self-glorification in check.

But now he began to be taken in by
the adulation that surrounded him.

At the Munich art
exhibition, a portrait of the F�hrer,

selected by
himself, was the centrepiece.

Many Germans expected
him to lead them

into a golden age.

In their blindness,
they never suspected

that his only goal was war.

Six months after
marching into Austria

Hitler was again reaching
across Germany's frontiers,

this time to grab a
piece of Czechoslovakia.

Britain and France sent their
heads of state to Germany.

Neville Chamberlain wanted
peace at any price.

�douard Daladier, the
French prime minister,

was equally committed
to avoiding war.

The people of Munich cheered them.

At Hitler's
headquarters in the Brown House,

the democratic leaders were expected.

Mussolini had arrived
some hours earlier.

The two leaders had already
made their decisions.

Sudetenland was to
be ceded to Germany.

When the British and French
delegates arrived at the conference,

there was nothing left to discuss.

Daladier and
Chamberlain signed the agreement

concocted by the axis partners.

Once again, Hitler had
gambled everything and won.

That had always been the
simple secret of his success.

Two days later, German
troops marched into the Sudetenland.

They were welcomed as liberators.

For twenty years, the Sudeten
Germans had lived as a minority

in a multi-racial
Czechoslovak state;

a situation dictated by the
terms of the treaty of Versailles.

For them, it was like a home-coming.

For Hitler, it was another
stage in his conquest of land.

They called it

"the War of Flowers".

Such scenes made it easy for Hitler

to claim that he had
remedied an injustice

without resorting to open force.

Violence was practised
behind the scenes.

The feelings Hitler's
appearance aroused

cannot be classed
as purely political.

There was also a religious
and erotic element in them.

He was invested with
mythical potency.

Subconscious desires reached a climax

in outbursts like these.

Hitler stood like an idol

inviting abandon, promising release.

Then reaching down
to break the tension.

The sexual overtones are obvious.

But his own image of the F�hrer

was rather of a monumental figure

standing unmoved

amid the excitement and hysteria.

Distance turned belief
into religious fervour.

For years he had
moved among cheering crowds.

However artificially the
mass enthusiasm was generated,

he found in it the justification

for his authority.

But at the same time he
responded to the element of eroticism

underlying the display.

His words betrayed as much.

Where are the
democracies of other nations?

Where else is it possible

that a people and its leaders,

a nation and its government,

converge in such a manner,

standing shoulder to
shoulder in mutual support?

He was constantly recharged by
these encounters with his followers.

Recharged for new acts of aggression.

In November 1938, he ordered

the burning of the synagogues.

He wanted to mobilize his people by
building up a fictitious enemy: the Jew.

The next aim for aggression: Prague.

In the spring of 1939, regardless
of all his promises,

Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia.

With his troops,

he entered the old royal
castle overlooking the city.

From the window of Hradcany
Castle he acknowledged the applause

of a hastily assembled crowd.

This was no longer a war of flowers.

Now he was openly flanked by SS men.

Himmler and Heydrich accompanied
the conqueror

whilst their henchmen
occupied the country.

A wave of fear and
horror swept through Europe.

People were dismayed to read

of mobilization.

Farewells

and despair.

And at last came the decision

to fight back.

Lord Halifax declared that
he could well understand

Hitler's preference for
bloodless victories

but that from now on bloodshed
was inevitable.

Hurriedly, the nations began to
organize some form of defence.

It was a poorly planned,

largely improvised affair.

No one was properly prepared.

A carefree and unsuspecting Europe

had suddenly to face
the prospect of war.

For weeks after entering Prague,

Hitler celebrated his 50th birthday.

He marked the occasion with
a huge military parade.

He was now determined
to go all the way.

Europe's fears only
aroused his contempt.

"I saw my enemies at Munich", he
said. "They were little worms."

The centre of Berlin had been
turned into a vast military encampment.

Hitler wanted the parade to fire the enthusiasm
of the hesitant German public.

He was still annoyed
about the ovation

Chamberlain and
Daladier had received in Munich.

He issued orders for
a large contingent

of foreign visitors to be
invited to the celebrations,

including as many
representatives as possible

from the "cowardly democratic
nations", as he called them.

He would parade before them the
most modern army on Earth.

For four hours, units from every
branch of the armed services

marched past the platform.

Visible proof of the frantic
re-armament which Hitler had inaugurated.

From the beginning of his career,

Hitler had set out his aims:

The conquest of
Lebensraum in the East,

and ultimately world domination.

Germany's armed might was to be the
instrument to achieve these aims,

despite his protestations
that he only wanted peace.

The parade along the newly
constructed East-West Road

made a deep impression on the masses.

The German people saw the
whole performance simply

as a confirmation of the fact that
their country was once again strong.

And they were jubilant.

Peace would now be more
secure, they thought.

Birthday festivities.

But Hitler only thought of war.

Once again, the forests of
banners passed by in dramatic array,

with Hitler posing as custodian of a tradition
that really meant nothing to him

other than just a background against
which he could demonstrate his art of deception.

Hitler's talent for the theatrical was plainly
visible behind the special effects.

Once more, but for the last
time, death was glamorized

in a manner recalling the
world of Wagner's operas,

from which Hitler drew
so much inspiration.

The spectacle was both colourful

and awe-inspiring.

The motorized army that
was to fight the coming war.

And then nostalgia
for the Prussian past.

As a finale, the Wehrmacht
made an extravagant gesture

of submission to their
commander in chief.

Six years later,

these same banners lay in the
dust of Moscow's Red Square.

Posed pictures were
released to mislead the world.

Visitors who flocked to
the Obersalzberg house

met a pleasantly
relaxed and cheerful Hitler

who gave them hours
and hours of his time.

Finally, he would
retire into the Berghof.

Eva Braun, his mistress, recorded
his private world on film.

It was always the
same round of people.

A few close friends with their
wives, aides and secretaries.

Ribbentrop, Hitler's
foreign minister.

And Josef Goebbels,
Minister of Propaganda.

He had come from
Berlin for the occasion.

Albert Speer, Hitler's favourite
architect, who had a house of his own

on the Obersalzberg.

Hitler himself seldom
emerged from his isolation.

Himmler and Heydrich,

the dreaded SS chiefs, in their
reassuring middle-class clothes.

There was rough
horseplay on the terrace.

Hitler took little part in it all.

In some ways, he was still the same
awkward and unsociable corporal.

Eva Braun fared little
better than the others.

Most of the time, she was
left to her own devices,

amusing herself as she could.

Recalling the atmosphere of the
Berghof, Albert Speer remembers

only a sense of
oppression and emptiness.

But this bleakness was something Hitler
took with him wherever he went.

When he left the house for
important engagements and mass rallies,

the loneliness went with him.

Only the setting changed.

Over the years, the Berghof had
almost become his official residence.

It was used increasingly
for the reception

of visiting statesmen and diplomats.

The Italian Foreign Minister, Count
Ciano, was one such visitor.

Hitler loved to imitate his guests.

Then he was himself again.

There are few pictures showing
Hitler with Eva Braun.

Outside the inner circle,

few knew of her existence.

To outsiders she was just another
member of the Obersalzberg staff.

Hitler's daily stroll was
an important ritual.

To be allowed to walk at
his side or accompany him

was an honour which was jealously
noted by the others.

It was here, said
Hitler, gazing at the mountains,

that he took all his
momentous decisions.

Before he could feel
certain about anything,

he needed weeks, sometimes
months, of unbroken inactivity.

From the Berghof,
Hitler looked across

to the Untersberg Mountain,

the legendary resting place of
the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.

August, '39.

Europe had enjoyed another
long, quiet summer.

On September the 1st 1939,

the 'Schleswig Holstein' fired

the opening shots of World War Two.

In the morning, Hitler
drove to the Reichstag

to declare war on Poland

when the attack was already underway.

Last night was the
first time that Poland

fired on our territory
using regular soldiers.

Since 05:45 AM, we have
been returning fire.

And from now on, bombs
will be met with bombs!

Poland's courage and faith

was scant protection against

the might of the German Army.

After only a few days, Hitler
visited the front.

The awareness of doing
battle before the F�hrer's eyes

continually inspired the
troops to unimaginable feats.

Drunk with success, Hitler hardly
noticed that Britain and France had declared

war on him.

He was confident that his

war machine would overrun Poland

in a matter of days,

and present the Western
powers with a fait accompli.

Eight days after the war
began, German troops reached Warsaw.

Hitler gazed
spellbound at the burning city,

unable to tear himself away.

Overwhelmed by his
own powers of destruction,

he declared that this was the fate
awaiting all who stood in his path.

After only two
weeks, Poland was crushed.

Hitler had expected the
war to last longer.

Filled with respect for his
generals, he was eager to learn from them.

A new concept was born: Blitzkrieg.

On the day Poland
capitulated, German and Soviet troops

met at Brest-Litovsk.

To ensure that nothing should
interfere with the attack on Poland,

Hitler had not
hesitated to strike a bargain

with his ideological
arch-enemy, Stalin.

They had agreed how the
spoils would be shared,

and now the precise
boundaries were drawn up.

The comrades in arms
celebrated victory

with a joint parade.

Then Hitler turned towards the West.

At the beginning of April 1940,
he swept into Denmark and Norway.

A month later he was
urging his generals

to march against the
old mortal enemy, France.

This time, he had
prepared his own strategy.

Paratroopers attacked from the rear

and destroyed the enemy positions

in Holland and Belgium.

At the same time, tanks pushed
deep into French territory,

concentrating the attack on the
almost impenetrable Ardennes.

The enemy was taken by surprise.

Hitler had put his
daring plan into operation

despite the
opposition of his top generals.

Success brought him new confidence:

He now saw himself
as a military leader.

More and more, he took the conduct of the
war out of the hands of his general staff.

The campaign in the west was
decided on in a matter of days.

Victory could have
been even more complete

had Hitler not stopped at Dunkirk.

Hundreds of thousands
were taken prisoner,

but the main body of the
British expeditionary force

managed to escape across the Channel.

Europe was not prepared for
a ruthless enemy like Hitler.

The proclamations and orders
posted by the occupying forces

were received with dismay.

People understood neither
the man nor his motives.

Six weeks after the
start of the campaign,

France asked Hitler for an armistice.

General Keitel hailed him as the
greatest military leader of all time.

Hitler's exuberance rather
got the better of him

as he received the
congratulations of his entourage.

Then he began planning the
ceremonial signing of the armistice.

Shortly before 3 o'clock on
the afternoon of June 21st 1940,

he arrived in the
forest of Compi�gne.

The French delegation, led by General
Huntziger, followed closely behind.

To satisfy his need to
humiliate the French,

Hitler had the very railway coach

in which the 1918
Armistice had been signed

wheeled out of its museum.

Hitler himself took the
seat where Marshall Foch had sat.

When the French
delegation entered the carriage,

Hitler could fully
relish the peak of his career.

Long ago, on entering
politics, he had sworn never to rest

until the shame of November
1918 had been wiped out.

Now he had done it.

The preamble to the armistice
agreement again harked back to the past,

declaring that there where Germany's
years of suffering had begun,

they would finally come to an end.

Afterwards, Hitler visited Paris.

After driving for three
hours through the silence

of empty streets, he left the city.

But the dream of his
lifetime, he said, had been fulfilled.

Berlin greeted him with
flowers and jubilation.

The city was decked out as if
for some religious procession.

This time the crowds did not
have to be specially assembled.

However senseless the war might have
seemed to many Germans at first,

Hitler's triumphal return to
Berlin silenced their doubts

in a flood of respect and adulation.

Heil! Heil!

But this was to be the last triumphal
procession of his career.

Too often, the world had been
deceived and betrayed by Hitler

ever to trust him again.

To the German
masses, this was the man

who had obliterated the
humiliation of the First World War.

What the masses did not realize,

and what Hitler himself seemed to
forget in the midst of all the jubilation,

was that he had
defeated the wrong enemy.

France had been eliminated,

but the war with
Britain was just beginning.

After the triumph came

a period of uncertainty.

No one knew how to approach

the war with Britain.

Hitler travelled about aimlessly,

waiting for fortune
to come to his aid

as it had so often at
critical moments in the past.

In August 1940, G�ring was ordered

to intensify air attacks on England.

But Hitler did not want to bring the
British to their knees just yet:

He just wanted to soften
them up for negotiations.

He kept appearing
on the Channel coast,

as though willing the intractable
island to make some conciliatory gesture.

He wanted Britain out of the way so he could
finally turn his attention eastward.

This had always been
his ultimate goal.

But the British
remained unapproachable.

All his attacks only provoked

fiercer resistance.

Even the howling dive-bombers failed
to wear down the British people.

In Poland and France they had
produced devastating results,

but not in England.

Although Hitler soon
resorted to wiping out whole cities,

Churchill remained adamant:

"However long and
hard the road may be,

we shall never surrender."

In Churchill,

Hitler had met his
first real challenge.

At the F�hrer's headquarters, they
still put on a show of confidence.

In fact, they had become so
used to repeated success

that they scarcely
understood what was happening.

With the war in the west unresolved,

Hitler decided to turn east.

Just before dawn on
June the 22nd 1941,

German troops took up attacking positions
on the eastern frontier.

The concentration of
troops on the Soviet border

had been achieved in total secrecy.

The Russian campaign had begun.

As usual, the attack came without
any formal declaration of war.

The government quarter of Berlin.

While the city still slept,

German assault forces had already
overrun the frontline enemy positions.

At 5:30, people were
awakened to the sound of fanfares.

The radio announced the
opening of hostilities.

The surprise was complete.

The first Russian units awoke to
find themselves taken prisoner.

The Germans advanced
deep into Russia,

crushing all resistance.

Hitler planned to enter
Moscow within three months.

This was the war he
had always longed for.

Military confrontation with his

ideological arch-enemy: Communism.

At first he even found some
support within the Soviet Union.

Here and there, as they advanced,

the conquerors were
welcomed as liberators.

They didn't realize what
sort of "liberator" this was

until they went
through experiences like these.

"The fight of a master
race against an inferior breed":

Hitler's own unsavoury
phrase to describe the campaign.

The invading forces

followed by special units whose
job it was to exterminate

all Jewish and loyal Soviet
elements in the population.

The commanding
officer of one of these units

stated in the Nuremberg Trial

that in the first year of the war

his men had murdered 90,000
men, women and children in this way.

Hitler over Russia.

This was his war.

He mobilized the biggest fighting
force the world had ever seen.

He was prepared to
sacrifice all other fronts

to victory in this campaign.

He waged war in Russia

not only as a
commander-in-chief for purely military ends:

The driving force behind
him was his old mad dream,

the fantasy of saving the world.

He was not just fighting a war,

he had embarked on a
campaign of destruction.

In the autumn, the German
front lines ground to a halt.

Four days after the
start of the battle for Moscow,

the autumn rains set in.

German operations became
bogged down in the mud.

The German soldier marches
relentlessly onward.

For him, no obstacle
is insurmountable.

The advance guard was
already in sight of Moscow

when winter arrived.

For a few days, the
front seemed to waver.

Hitler's grim determination held
it together, with heavy losses.

Despairingly he confessed that he
found the mere sight of snow unbearable.

As he began to face the
inevitable for the first time,

he said that the war was lost.

Cajoling and bullying,

he pushed the advance forward
again in the spring.

But 1942 was the turning point.

In North Africa, the British overran

the positions of the axis powers.

The German expeditionary
force under General Rommel,

which had been sent to help their
Italian allies against the British,

was forced to retreat.

Within a few weeks, the
German Africa Corps

was shattered.

With America's entry into the war, the
allies achieved supremacy in the air.

1942 saw the

first 1000-bomber attack of the war.

The U-boats were faring no better.

Radar and a new convoy defence system

put an end to the
series of German successes.

The enemy was gaining
ground on all fronts.

It seemed as though there
was a curse on him,

Hitler complained.

In the face of so many setbacks,

Hitler remembered his allies.

He turned to his
comrade-in-arms, Mussolini.

At the same time, Himmler
was enlisting support in the

conquered regions of Eastern Europe.

In the West, too,

recruiting was underway for
a crusade against Bolshevism.

Walloons, Flemings and Dutchmen

volunteered for the SS.

Franco sent a division.

Scandinavians enlisted,

and so did Frenchmen.

But the response to
the campaign was small.

There was not enough
hatred to support a crusade.

But running the
gauntlet was a different matter.

Captured British and American bomber
pilots are led through Paris.

Stalingrad came to symbolize

the turning point of the war.

For three months,
the German 6th Army,

hopelessly cut off,

had stood its ground against
superior Soviet forces.

On February the 2nd, 1943,

Field Marshall Paulus presented
himself before the victors.

He signed the first German
capitulation of the war.

The remnants of the defeated army.

Only hours before, worn out

by cold, hunger and disease,

the troops had received a
telegraph message from Hitler

urging them to fight like heroes.

91,000 German soldiers
were taken prisoner.

Years later, 5000 were to return.

This series of blows had
left its mark on Hitler.

Almost overnight, his
appearance disintegrated.

He seldom ventured out in public now.

It was as though he were
afraid to face the victims of his war.

All his strength seemed
to have drained from him.

After Stalingrad,

Hitler made only
three major speeches.

Events were closing in on him.

He now looked to the
veterans to give him

just what they wanted from
him: the courage to go on.

Suddenly he seemed
to have grown senile.

At his headquarters he
became increasingly withdrawn,

lonely and bitter, his
mind confused by drugs.

He delivered tedious monologues about
dog training and the wickedness of the world.

Only death could still
sometimes bring him out:

State funerals,

services of remembrance
for the fallen.

These were no longer
the elaborately staged

displays of contempt for life:

Defeat and death were
staring him in the face.

Thoughts of death became
increasingly attractive to him.

"It's just one brief
moment", he said,

"and you're free of everything.
Just everlasting peace and rest."

He had decided on Linz, in
Austria, for his old age.

Building work in the town continued
even during the war years.

He planned to erect a museum there.

And to be buried

in the bell tower of a
vast building complex.

But he hoped to have a few more
years studying and developing his ideas,

absorbed in his dreams

and his 'glimpses through
the side door of paradise'.

At the centre of his vision stood

the "new man".

He was to be a military being with
no existence outside the unit.

He would come marching out of
the ruins of the old world

to conquer and rule over
vast tracts of land.

He would be submissive,

yet constantly aware
of his superiority.

Without emotion,

yet in intimate
connection with the irrational.

In these contradictions was something
of National Socialism itself.

A combination of the
medieval and the modern;

of old Nuremberg

and the cold, inhuman
world of the SS.

Hitler himself embodied
the contradictions.

He was not simply a reactionary,

he had no intention of
restoring an outmoded order of things.

He led his crusaders through
the past into a hackneyed utopia.

He remained a revolutionary, even
when at his most old fashioned.

We wanted

to accomplish a revolution, and
a revolution was accomplished!

Only small-minded people

see the essence of a revolution

exclusively in terms of destruction.

What we saw was the
contrary: A massive reconstruction.

The image of the "new
man" typified the solemn

insanity that lay at
the heart of the regime.

In the studios of the
official state sculptors,

the Aryan superman

had already taken shape.

He was to be created
by selective breeding.

The prototype already
existed in model form.

We are determined

to create a new dynasty.

And who can doubt

that the members of this dynasty

do not merely exist in our
imagination, but stand before us now.

The fixed stare

betrayed a certain readiness to
submerge individual identity

and to become a mindless cog.

The "new man" would rule
supreme, especially in the East.

The ministry in Berlin spoke
of "mongrel races",

which, if necessary, must
"simply be scrapped".

"We shall make
Russia our garden of Eden",

Hitler said.

Whole tracts of land
were depopulated.

Heinrich Himmler was

the master of the network
of camps which was spreading

throughout Europe.

The victims: Mainly Jews.

Hitler had demanded
their extermination.

Images of misery and despair.

The SS executioners tracked
down the Jewish population

everywhere.

Manhunt.

Herded together and registered,

they waited to be
packed on board special trains.

Their fears were soothed with lies.

Many believed that the cattle trucks
were taking them to pleasanter surroundings.

Auschwitz was the end of the line.

Posing as a romantic elite,

the SS was nothing more than
a brutal murder squad.

It ruled the horrific
world of the extermination camps.

Hitler ordained that their sole aim
should be the destruction of others.

Six million died in the camps.

Behind the Final Solution

lay the dream of ruthless
law and order fanatics.

A rigid order ruled
the death machine.

A strictly-regimented
dictatorship, conditioning its inhabitants

from an early age...

and completely
suppressing every human quality.

The bottled-up
aggression that resulted

would be unleashed in
persecution and conquest.

Rising up from a
devastated continent,

the new world of Hitler's vision.

This was the setting
for the "new man".

In the centre,

the world capital: Germania,

comparable only to ancient
Babylon according to Hitler.

In the model, the Brandenburg
Gate stands like a watchman's hut

in front of the great domed hall.

Every year, Hitler declared,

a delegation from the slave races would
be led through the streets of Germania

so that they could report
back to their homelands

on the splendour and
glory of the Reich.

The Tannenberg Memorial
was to be the model

for other monumental charnel houses.

They were planned as outposts of
the great Reich of the future,

which would extend from the Atlantic in
the West deep into the Russian steppes;

from the North Cape
of Norway to Africa.

They would be symbols of the brutal
power of Germanic organizing genius,

standing at an
ever-bleeding boundary.

Berlin, 1943.

There were no dreams
left to distort reality.

This was reality.

Powerful air armadas
were operating almost

unopposed over Germany,

leaving behind a trail
of fire and destruction.

British and American
bombs flattened entire cities.

The regime had declared total war;

now, total war was being waged

on Germany itself.

The people were defenceless.

All they could do was try to escape.

Using all available
transport, the cities were evacuated.

Hitler avoided the real
world whenever he could.

In 1943 he celebrated his birthday

on a remote stretch of the Autobahn.

His great demonstrations of power

on the East-West road in
Berlin, lay four years in the past.

More and more, Hitler moved
in a world of make-believe.

He had cultivated an
ability to see only those things

which confirmed his hope
that the tide would turn.

He was constantly having
new weapons demonstrated,

but few of them were ever used.

June the 6th, 1944,

the allies landed in Normandy.

The end of the war was approaching.

They met only brief resistance;

the Western Front collapsed.

Even in retreat, Hitler
understood only one thing:

Destruction.

"If we cannot win, we shall drag half
of the world into the abyss with us."

Scorched earth.

But even that failed to
halt the enemy's advance.

A determined group of
officers decided to assassinate Hitler.

They had tried before.

This attempt also failed.

Hitler emerged from the
rubble virtually unharmed.

Shortly afterwards, he
visited the military hospital.

Luck had been with him, as it
had on other, similar occasions.

The failure of that
attempt on July 20th 1944

gave Hitler renewed confidence.

At midday he received the
congratulations of his entourage.

He felt he'd had a miraculous escape.

He decided this was an omen.

The war would be brought to
a successful conclusion.

But anxiety spread among
those closest to him.

His death would have
meant the end for them too.

That afternoon, Mussolini arrived

at the F�hrer's headquarters.

When they met, Hitler said

that he'd just experienced the
greatest piece of luck of his life.

Even during the visit, he
was discussing with Himmler

how he should settle his
score with the conspirators.

A week later, the first of
them stood before the court.

Roland Freisler presided.

Investigations had
unearthed the existence

of a widespread conspiracy
involving officers, lawyers,

trade unionists and
clergy. In great haste,

the accused were dragged before the
bench and condemned after a brief hearing.

"Don't let them talk
too much", were Hitler's

instructions to the
president of the court.

The moral motives behind the attempt

were scarcely touched on.

...I thought about the
numerous murders...

Murders? - Both here
and abroad. - You are...

a lousy wretch!

The executioners were already
present in the courtroom.

In almost every case,
the sentence was death.

The nation still hung on,

Hitler managed to
keep vain hopes alive.

There were rumours
of miracle weapons,

and there was fear.

WAR-TORN BERLIN WELCOMES THE F�HRER

Amid all the ruins and desolation,

the regime still put
on the familiar shows.

But the optimism was strained.

The processions had
become rather thin on the ground.

Although the music on the
German newsreel was as solemn

and rousing as ever.

OUR WALLS BROKE, BUT NOT OUR HEARTS!

Hitler sent the party stalwarts out
in a desperate bid to rally support,

but they could drum up little
enthusiasm for the cause.

Reichsmarschall Hermann G�ring:

He was responsible for air defences.

Now and then, Hitler came to the
front line as it closed in on him.

He was feeble and wasted,

but still he tried to bolster
the morale of his troops.

His left hand shook;

he was unable to control his body.

He talked of armies
that no longer existed,

and of victory that had
long since been gambled away.

In the East too, the front had been

pushed back over the German border.

Refugees on the
frozen Courland Plains.

FOR FREEDOM AND LIFE...

Old people and children were
called up as last-ditch troops,

and were instructed in the
use of anti-tank weapons.

With their help, the enemy
would be held in check.

And women are also able to
use this gun with ease.

The regime entered its final days.

Joseph Goebbels was
commissioner for the defence of the Reich.

He had little left to offer
now except pins and crosses.

The Third Reich

was ending as it had
begun: Churning out propaganda.

Every division that has already been
assigned to small offensives,

and in the coming weeks and months will
be assigned to large offensives...

will go into this battle

as if attending a church service.

And when they shoulder their
guns and climb into their tanks,

all they will picture

is their slain children
and their violated wives.

And a cry of vengeance will
rise from their throats

which will make the enemy grow pale.

At the beginning of 1945,

resistance broke down on all fronts.

Everyone now scrambled
to save what they could.

The last major offensive of the war

was launched by the Red Army.

The Soviet assault on Berlin

began in mid-April.

The Americans and the
British had halted their advance;

the capital of the Reich was
left for the Soviet Army to take.

But Hitler still refused

to give up the struggle. He
had nothing left to lose.

But he still hoped that if
the end was impressive enough,

he would live on in legend.

He now hardly ever left the
bunker under the chancellery.

Shortly before the end,

he received boys of Hitler Youth
in the garden behind the building.

The Soviet Army was closing in;

they must fight on, he told them.

On April 29th, Soviet troops

advanced into the
government quarter of Berlin.

Only then did Hitler decide to die.

The last picture.

The Soviet troops who
stormed the chancellery

on May 1st found it deserted.

It was the end.

When the shooting was over, people
began to emerge from the cellars.

Some committed suicide; senior
Nazis escaping justice.

More victims.

In the ruins of the chancellery,

Russian soldiers began the
search for Hitler's body.

Here, in a bomb crater,

they came across the charred remains.

The uniform coat,

a pair of pyjamas.

Now it was the victor's turn

to appear on the
balcony of the chancellery.

Celebrations were worldwide.

In London, jubilant
crowds cheered Winston Churchill.

In Paris, Moscow, Warsaw,

Prague, New York... It was
the same picture everywhere.

Over 50 nations had
taken part in the war

against Germany.

But for the Germans
there was only shame,

despair and defeat.

They too had been liberated,

but their country lay in ruins.

The Reich was no more.

Their very name was
a symbol of horror.

An inhuman system,

the terror.

It was all over.

Everywhere, ruins
marked Hitler's passage.

50 million people had died.

The victors made the Germans
face up to what had happened.

It had all been done in their name.

It was like an awakening
from a nightmare.

In the face of all this horror,

it was hard to grasp
what had happened.

To the victors it seemed that the
Germans had been in the grip of some disease.

Those who had been
committed confirmed such impressions.

SS men who bore the mark of the order

now denied their complicity.

The emblems were taken down,

the symbols were burned.

The regime and all its power

had perished with the rest.

Nothing remained.

But what ends

when the symbols shatter?