Adolf Hitler

**Adolf Hitler** was the overarching antagonist in the 2009 film *Inglourious Basterds*. He was the chancellor and later supreme führer of the Nazi Germany who is based on the real-life dictator of the same name.

He was portrayed by Martin Wuttke.

## Biography

Adolf Hitler was born in Austria. He attempted an artistic career in 1913. However, because as he claimed, the Jews controlled the galleries and wouldn't buy his paintings and the Poles worked for "next to nothing", so he couldn't get a job. After receiving his inheritance from his sister, he left Austria, a "Babylon of races" and moved to Germany in August 1914. Shortly there after, World War I started.

He joined the German Army, serving in the 16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment on the Western Front. After surviving a tremendous artillery bombardment, Hitler's Jewish superior officer promoted him to Corporal. Hitler later received two Iron Crosses during the war. Shortly before being transferred to the Eastern Front, which Hitler protested, he was severely injured by mustard gas in 1918.

Before Hitler could recover and get back to the front, Germany had surrendered, ending the World War I. Hitler was enraged at the surrender. He took control of the German Workers' Party, renaming it the "National Socialist German Workers' Party". While calling themselves National Socialist, others called them Nazis "just to piss them off". He launched an attempted rebellion against the government in 1923. The "Beer Hall Putsch" was crushed and Hitler was convicted of high treason and sentenced to prison. While in prison he wrote his infamous book *"Mein Kampf"* (My Struggle). He was released a year later for unknown reasons.

Entering into politics, he pressured President Paul von Hindenburg, a Grand Marshal during World War I into declaring him Chancellor in 1933. As Chancellor, he convinced the Reichstag to pass laws that gave him dictatorial powers. In 1934, Hindenburg died while in office. Hitler combined the offices of Chancellor and President into the "Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany". At Hindenburg's funeral, Hitler declared that "the thousand year Reich has begun".

## Story

### Chapter Two - INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

Adolf Hitler is first seen in his lair, where he angrily complaining in his meeting room to General Frank and General Jodl for the massacre against his troops in hands of the Basterds, claiming he will hang them naked in the Eiffel Tower and throw their bodies to the sewers so the rats eat them. He specially talks about the latest rumor between the soldiers about a man that beats the soldiers in the head with a bat and is called the Bear Jew, claiming he is a Golem. Frank says that no one actually believes the Bear Jew is a Golem, but Hitler answers that the Basterds could be supernatural beings for what they know as they seem to elude capture like "ghosts" and he demands their capture to prove his army they are just men. In that moment his secretary Kliest calls him through the intercom and Hitler tells him to give a new order to the Nazi soldiers in France, that the one known as the Bear Jew, is never to be referred like that again. Kliest then informs the Führer that Private Butz is waiting for their meeting. Butz was the only survivor from his squad after an ambush by Lt. Aldo Raine and the Basterds. Hitler welcomes him and after hearing his story and how Lt. Raine let him go to tell the German soldiers about them, Hitler demands Butz to not say a single word about them and that he just escaped. After this, Hitler asks Butz to show him the Swastika cut on his forehead by Lt. Aldo.

### Chapter Four - OPERATION KINO

Hilter's second appearance in the film is after the premiere of the german movie about Fredrick Zoller called *"Nation's Pride"* is moved to Shosanna Dreyfus's cinema, which is considerably smaller than the original cinema it was planned to, the Führer is shown talking to an unshown person (probably Joseph Goebbels) about the premiere and after considering it he has accepted to go as a support to soldier Zoller and the Nazi Party.

### Chapter Five - REVENGE OF THE GIANT FACE

Hitler is shown in one of Shosanna's cinema box seats during the premiere of *"Nation's Pride"* along with Goebbels, his right-hand man, Francesca Mondino, Goebbels interpreter and lover, and Fredrick Zoller himself. In the cinema there's also Lt. Aldo Raine, Private Omar Ulmer and Staff Sergeant Donny Donowitz on a suicide mission to shoot the Führer to death and blow up the cinema with TNT strapped on their legs, however the head of security of the premiere Colonel Hans Landa finds out and arrests Raine along with another of the Basterds Smithson Utivich, but Ulmer and Donowitz are still inside. As the movie is playing, Hitler laughs at the Americans soldiers dying, complements the movie and tells Goebbels is the best he has ever made, Goebbels stars crying of joy.

On the other hand, Shosanna has prepared her own plan of trapping the nazis in the cinema and burning it with her collection of flammable, nitrate film. After an unexpected visit of soldier Zoller where they both end up death by shooting each other, the film continues playing, then a secret film placed there by Shosanna gives her assistant Marcel the signal to burn the films. Goebbels and Hitler confused see how the screen starts burning and as a terrified Hitler watches how his subordinates run in terror towards the door to find out is locked, Ulmer and Donowitz had made their way into Hitler's seats, as Hitler and Goebbels try to escape, Donowitz and Ulmer violently open the door and start shooting him, Goebbels and Francesca with machine guns, then they shoot from the box at the terrified Nazis, and Shosanna laughs in the film playing over the smoke, then Donowitz shoots Hitler's face repeatedly. Finally the TNT on Ulmer and Donowitz legs (and one placed under Hitler's seat by Landa) explode and the entire cinema is blown up, killing all the Nazis inside and most likely ending the war.

## Personality

Adolf Hitler had a charismatic personality, he was capable of manipulating masses with his speeches and personality. In the film, he is shown to have a bad temper, ranting at every opportunity. This appears to affect his judgment, as he forgets about a meeting with the private Butz and most of his decisions appear to be rash, such as forbidding the German forces in France to mention the Bear Jew by his nickname and not taking any measures to capture or eliminate The Basterds. This is consistent with the RL image, where, near the end of the war he became increasingly agitated and prone to taking bad decisions.

## Trivia

* The scene where Hitler shouts "Nein!" and bangs his hand on the table is a reference to the movie *Watch Out, We're Mad* (1974), where actor Donald Pleasence, who plays the doctor, shouts "Nein, nein, nein!" and bangs his fist on the table.
* In the script, Hitler's palace is identified as Burstich Garden, set in Bavaria. This is punning reference to Berchtesgaden, the location of Hitler's private retreat.
* Actor Martin Wuttke previously played Joseph Goebbels in *Rosenstrasse*.
* During the film, Adolf Hitler is shown wearing his brown uniform with the red swastika armband. This is inaccurate because the film occurs during World War II and Adolf Hitler always wore his gray army uniform from the start of the war, September 1, 1939, till the day he committed suicide, April 30, 1945.
	+ Hitler largely stopped wearing brown after 1939. When the war began he was generally seen in a field gray tunic in solidarity with the soldiers and he wasn't seen wearing capes.
* By the time Allies had landed in Normandy, Hitler's paranoia had reached to that extent that no officer was allowed to wear a sidearm in his presence. Thus Zoller would not have been able to wear the gun he shot Shosanna with.
* Hitler's death cause in real life was suicide, but in the movie, he got killed instead, due to the fictional nature of the movie.

## References

1. ↑ http://www.tarantinoitalia.altervista.org/Inglourious%20Basterds%20Trivia.htm
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military\_career\_of\_Adolf\_Hitler
3. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM7GlrNxlWc