bombing rubble, wrecked vehicles, etc. They were even permitted to dig up the
pavement to create defensive trenches, foxholes, and shell craters. Rus sians acted
as extras, portraying both German and Rus sian soldiers.Plot Summary
The film begins with an interview clip from Blind Spot: Hitler’s Secretary (20 02), fea-
turing the real Traudl Junge (1920–2002) expressing her remorse for admiring
Hitler in her youth. Then the film proper begins, showing a courtly Adolf Hitler
(Bruno Ganz) hiring Frl. Junge (Alexandra Maria Lara) as his secretary at the Wolf’s
Lair in East Prus sia in November 1942. The story skips ahead almost two and half
years later, to 20 April 1945 (Hitler’s 56th birthday) during the Battle of Berlin. A
nearby artillery blast awakens Traudl, Frau Gerda Christian (Birgit Minichmayr),
and Frl. Constanze Manziarly (Bettina Redlich), Hitler’s vegetarian cook. In the
Führerbunker, Hitler enquires as to the source of the shelling. Gen. Wilhelm Burg-
dorf ( Justus von Dohnányi) informs him that Berlin is under artillery attack, and
Gen. Karl Koller (Hans H. Steinberg) further reports the shelling as indicating that
the Red Army is just miles away from the center of the city. In the midst of Hitler’s
birthday cele bration, two of his officers, SS chief Heinrich Himmler (Ulrich Noethen)
and SS adjutant Hermann Fegelein (Thomas Kretschmann), implore their com-
mander to flee from Berlin, but Hitler decides to stay. In a Berlin street some mem-
bers of Hitler Youth are preparing an 88-mm flak gun for anti- tank defense. Peter
Kranz (Donevan Gunia), a member of the Hitler Youth, ignores the pleas of his
disabled father (Karl Kranzkowski) when he asks him to desert and save himself.
Elsewhere in the city, a physician (Christian Berkel) decides to stay in the face of
an evacuation order, persuading an SS general to allow him to continue his work.
Eva Braun throws a wild party in the Reich Chancellery featuring loud music, rau-
cous dancing, and copious amounts of alcohol: a surreal bacchanal that ends
abruptly when a Rus sian artillery shell blows out the win dows, causing the cele-
brants to flee back to the Führerbunker. The next day, Gen. Helmuth Weidling
(Michael Mendl) is condemned to execution for commanding his troops to retreat
west. However, after he explains that there has been a misunderstanding, Weidling
is promoted by Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel (Dieter Mann) to supervise the defense
of Berlin. During a military conference Hitler orders a counterattack by Felix
Steiner’s combat group to check the Soviet advance. Generals Krebs and Jodl reluc-
tantly inform him that Steiner’s forces are too weak to mount any such attack. Dis-
missing every one from the room except for Keitel, Jodl, Krebs, and Burgdorf, Hitler
flies into a towering rage against his generals’ alleged treacherousness and incompe-
tence. After his anger is spent, Hitler concedes that he has lost the war, but still
refuses to leave Berlin. Instead, he is intent on remaining in his city and commit-
ting suicide. After seeing hapless Volkssturm conscripts needlessly slaughtered
in battle, Gen. Mohnke confronts Joseph Goebbels (Ulrich Matthes). Goebbels
admits to Mohnke that he does not feel badly for the fallen civilians for they
sketched out their fate when they first sided with Hitler. Minister of Armaments
Albert Speer (Heino Ferch) pays a farewell visit to Hitler and admits that he has
failed to follow the “scorched earth policy” commands. Displeased, Hitler does not90 DOWNFALL [GerMAn: DER UNTERGANG]