Adolf Hitler (Downfall)

**Adolf Hitler** is the main protagonist villain of the 2004 war film *Downfall*. He is an Austrian-Hungarian born German dictator and leader of the Nazi Party between 1933 to 1945.

*Downfall* depicts Hitler in his final days inside the Berlin bunker, insisting that the war will never be lost. in the bunker, Hitler is briefed on the disintegrating defenses of Berlin. Karl Koller informs him that the Russians have fired artillery 12 kilometers from the city, implying that the Red Army is mobilizing to destroy German defenses. After attending his own birthday party, which he rejects Gestapo Leader Heinrich Himmler's plea to leave Berlin despite getting help from Hitler's friend Walter Hewel. He also viewed the artwork that was made from Minister of Armaments Albert Speer and tells him that he will create Germany after the war, but is suggested from Himmler's assistant Hermann Fegelein that if he does want to realize the plans, he has to leave Berlin. Later, Hitler's secretary, Traudl Junge, informs him that the Soviets have surrounded them. Hitler declares that he will face them in Berlin, or die trying. Unmoved of the news that the 9th Army has to retreat or become annihilated, he announces that Waffen SS General Felix Steiner will soon arrive and drive the Red Army out of the city. However, he is later then informed that Steiner couldn't mobilize enough men to carry out the assault to stop the Red Army advancing (since Steiner's division has been scattered to avoid artillery fire). Visibly shaken, Hitler dismisses all of his personnel except his Generals (Keitel, Jodl, Krebs, and Burgdorf), Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and Reich Leader Martin Bormann.

Throwing a massive tantrum, Hitler angrily states that Steiner's attack was an order and accuses the whole German military of interfering, disobeying his orders and sabotaging his plans, calling his own soldiers "cowards, traitors, and incompetents", and that the generals are "the scum of the German people." He expresses regret at not executing the entire officer corps like Joseph Stalin did during the Great Purge and insulting the generals about their experience in the military academy to be "just to learn how to hold a knife and fork.". At last, however, Hitler sinks into his chair and acknowledges that the war is lost. "If you think that this means I'll be abandoning Berlin," he snarls, "I'd rather shoot a bullet through my head." He pledges that he will stay in Berlin to the end, even if it means killing himself. Hitler later sends Keitel to the north to recover the Romanian oil fields.

Hitler receives a telegram from his future successor, Hermann Goering, in which Goering himself asks permission to take control of the Reich, which Hitler declares to be treason. After hearing from his friend (and Johann von Ribbentrop's liaison) Hewel, about the communications about to be destroyed soon and from Goebbels perceiving that Goering wants to take the power, stating that he never liked the mob Goering assembled in Oberzalsberg, which he thinks is a coup; an infuriated Hitler rants about this and asks what Goering had done to the air force, which he thinks is enough to execute him and claims that Goering has "helped corrupt the country". Afterward, Hitler then orders Goering stripped of command and executed. He meets up with test pilot Hanna Reitsch and the wounded but recovering Robert Ritter von Greim, whom Hitler promotes to General Field Marshall and head of the air force.

Later on at dinner, Hitler finds out that Himmler offered to surrender to the Allies, which angers him, and forces them to find Fegelein, but is informed of his one of his staff and Burgdorf that they don't know where he and that no one has seen him in a few days; Hitler demands Fegelein's report immediately. He orders them to go the Doenitz's station and tell him to find Himmler. German Red Cross head and main chief of the Nazi human medical experiments, Ernst-Robert Grawitz asks Hitler permission to let him and his family leave Berlin, but Hitler refuses to give such permission to Grawitz. As Grawitz leaves, Otto Gunsche tells Hitler that Fegelein can't be found anywhere in the bunker, and due to this, he orders Fegelein to be executed. Eva tries to persuade him to spare his life, to no avail. Grawitz killed himself and his family with a pair of grenades while having dinner while Fegelein is captured and executed by Peter Hogl.

Afterwards, Hitler learns that all available reserves are out, the supplies from the air are impossible to collect, there is no ammunition to supply the military and that the Red Army has closed in 300 to 400 meters away from the Reich Chancellery (although the military is able to hold off the invading Russians for 2 days until they can retreat). Weidling suggests leaving the bunker since according to him, the Battle of Berlin has brought 20,000 causalities of their finest officers, but Hitler ignores the order to leave Berlin and states that Walter Wenck's 12th Army will stop the Russian assault. Privately, his generals agree that Wenck cannot repel the attacl because he does not have enough infantry. Despite hearing news from Keitel that Wenck has moved to Lake Schielow, the 12th Army cannot continue the attack on Berlin and that the 9th Army has been surrounded, Hitler forbids his generals to surrender.

On April 30, 1945, Hitler and longtime companion Eva Braun, whom he had married hours before, commit suicide, with Günsche standing guard. Hitler shoots himself in the head after taking cyanide pills. Their bodies are burned by his remaining troops. Goebbels, also the commander of the Volkssturm, takes his place as the Chancellor of Nazi Germany (in which Karl Doenitz becomes President), but the following day kills his wife and himself.