My Fuhrer (2010)

First Run Features

R1 DVD

German with clear subtitles

For some years now there has been a developing attitude that only the official story of the terrors of the Holocaust should be considered and any other viewpoint is racist, discriminatory or otherwise antisocial. It is certainly not something that could be part of a comedy. Well, here is that comedy. It is dark humour but it is also bitingly satirical, totally irreverent to the Nazi leadership, and doesn’t show much respect for the Jews either.

It is December 1944. Germany is obviously losing the war. Much of central Berlin is in ruins, but Hitler has become a recluse inside the Reichs Chancellery and isn’t aware of just how bad the situation is. Without his strong leadership to rally the people, German society and resistance is crumbling. Goebbels has a great idea. All the country needs is a great rallying speech from their Fuhrer to pull them together, just as his speeches did at the start of the war. There is a problem with this idea, though. Hitler is an ageing, beaten man. He is overweight and in poor health and lacks the spirit and drive for such a speech.

At the start of the war Hitler was trained in public speaking, breathing and oratory techniques by one of Germany’s finest actors and drama coaches, Professor Adolf Grunbaum. Goebbels will get Grunbaum to coach Hitler again. Grunbaum unfortunately is a Jew and is in Sachsenhausen concentration camp being worked to death. In a sly dig at German bureaucracy a rush sequence shows orders being issued, many forms being stamped, staff being assigned to guard Grunbaum on his trip, and his final rapid appearance in Berlin. If you want to amuse yourself while watching the film, try to count the “Heil Hitlers”. Hitler saying “Heil Me” doesn’t count.

Goebbels explains to Grunbaum what is required of him and Grunbaum meets Hitler for the first time in many years. He is shocked at what Hitler has become and sets about building him back up with exercise and speech coaching. The incongruity of this situation escapes both men. Goebbels and the Nazi leaders are spying on their every move through a one-way mirror into Hitler’s apartment. Grunbaum plays with Hitler’s emotions to teach him once again how to put power into his speeches and gradually Hitler becomes the leader of old. We find he is also frightened of what he has done to Germany. Grunbaum asks Hitler to imagine himself and his emotions during the best and worst moments of his life and we find Hitler was molested by his father, who was secretly part-Jewish, as a boy. Are we supposed to feel sympathy for him? Grunbaum does, and even manages to fight off the urge to kill Hitler after he accidentally knocks him out.

The watching Nazis decide that Germany’s only hope of salvation is to get rid of Hitler but first they will let him make the speech. The situation is becoming increasingly unreal.

In one of the film’s strangest scenes Hitler is wandering through the Chancellery one night alone. He sees the damage done to his Berlin and realises his staff have been lying to him. He reverts to being a lonely, frightened child and finishes up at Grunbaum’s apartment where his family has been released from the camp and jammed into a single room as part of Grunbaum’s reward for his work. Distraught, Hitler seeks a friendly face and Grunbaum’s wife comforts him and puts him to sleep just like a little child in their own bed.

Of course Goebbels has no intention of allowing Grunbaum to live after the speech is made. The top Nazis plot to blow up Hitler during the speech and make him a martyr. The Jew Grunbaum will be the scapegoat. At this point Hitler seems more sane than the other Nazi leaders.

Since most of Berlin has been destroyed in the bombing Goebbels has had a huge film set made up of Berlin as it was. A million people have been brought in to line the studio streets and cheer their beloved leader while he makes the speech. The plot is turning into fantasy. Grunbaum is positioned under the dais where Hitler will speak. He has been told that Hitler wants him on hand to witness the speech. At the critical moment Hitler loses his voice and Grunbaum himself must make the speech from the hidden position.

Can he survive the plot? With film cameras rolling, will he stick to the script or will he finally come to his senses and state the case for the Jews in the camps? Will the Nazis succeed in blowing up their leader? At the end of it all, who lives and who dies?

The film is listed as “The Absolutely Truest Truth About Adolf Hitler”. It isn’t but it is very very funny in its own way. It owes nothing to Mel Brooks’ Springtime For Hitler.

It is one of the darkest comedies I have seen and considering the subject matter I am surprised that writer / director Danny Levy got away with it. It verges on tasteless but only if you are going to be precious about the Holocaust. Otherwise it’s a brilliant satire about a desperate time.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No.2 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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