Hitler: A career (1977) - full transcript

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 Führer,
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'état.

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 Führer,

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 Königsplatz.

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 fêted 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 Führer 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 Thälmann 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.

Göring and the leader
of the storm troopers, Ernst Röhm.

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 Königsberg.

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 Gebühr 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 Röhm,
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 Röhm'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.

Röhm 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 Röhm

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.

Röhm 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 Führer
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 Röhm,

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 Führer".

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 Göring 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 Führer.

It fell to Göring
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 Führer 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 Führer 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 Führer

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 Führer,

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.

Édouard 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 Führer

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 Hradčany 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 Führer'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 Compiègne.

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, Göring 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 Führer'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 Führer'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 FÜHRER

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 Göring:

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?

Translation:
Alex Zuckrow