The Hitler Chronicles

2018
5.0
1 review
TV-PG
Rating
Eligible
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Season 1 episodes (13)

1 A Sad Puppy And A Private
10/12/18
Hitler is born as third of six children in Upper Austria and has an untroubled childhood. He leaves school after almost twelve years without graduation and is rejected twice by the Art's academy. He is homeless at times, and hungry. For mere survival, he paints and sells postcards. His share of his father's inheritance is paid out on his 24th birthday. He escapes from the military and moves to Munich, declaring himself stateless to avoid investigations by the Austrian military administration. The inheritance helps to build an existence on the fringe of society. As World War I starts, Hitler joins the Bavarian Army and becomes an ardent German soldier and patriot. For the first time he feels that he belongs. The end of the war means he loses the only regular life he's known so far.
2 A Revolutionary And An Ideologist
10/12/18
Initially installed at the NSDAP as a police informer, Hitler quickly takes over a leadership role. He realizes having a speaker's talent. His flair for art enables him to modernize the party; he designs the swastika flag. He is impressed by the 'March to Rome' by Mussolini and the fascists in Italy. But his own coup aJempt of 1923 fails and puts him in jail for more than a year. There he writes "Mein Kampf". The NSDAP is forbidden and Hitler is banned from speaking publicly. It is an uncertain new beginning.
3 A Party Leader And Mob Orator
10/12/18
Out of prison, Hitler re-establishes the NSDAP to achieve power by legal means this time. As its undoubted sole leader, he develops the party into a powerful movement. During the recovering economy the NSDAP stagnates, but with the looming crisis in the early 1930s it gains voters in each election. The NSDAP becomes the strongest force in parliament. Still, President von Hindenburg refuses to appoint Hitler as Chancellor. Hitler now has to find another way to get power.
4 A Murderer
10/12/18
The social, economic and political elites convince the President to appoint Hitler as Reich Chancellor, expecting to get rid of the communists this way. They believe also that they can control Hitler in a coalition. Hitler, however, gets rid of political opponents and finally of those who brought him to power with lies and violence. Now he only has to get rid of leaders within the NSDAP. Here, Ernst Roehm is the head of 4 million men of the SA. What will Hitler do?
5 A Dictator
10/12/18
Hitler's power has become unrestricted and unlimited. He is Chancellor and President for lifetime. He makes the law. Cabinet and parliament just have alibi functions. Hitler is admired by the people. Germany feels strong again, and people accept the merciless dictatorship and the persecution of others as necessary evil. The 'Nuremberg Race Laws' pass unanimously by the Reichstag parliament. A referendum in then-French Saarland shows 91 percent of the population voting to return to the German Reich. Now the world looks anxiously whether Hitler will make further territorial claims. His gaze turns to Austria, his homeland.
6 The Fuerher
10/12/18
Hitler's fame reaches its climax. Germany is simultaneously admired and feared by foreign countries. In 1936, the Wehrmacht invades the Rhineland, a demilitarized zone by the Treaty of Versailles. The Nuremberg party rallies are a magnificent spectacle of the ever-growing leadership cult. The Summer Olympics in 1936 show Hitler's popularity internationally. Hitler himself never does sports. He has no driver's license, cannot swim. A Spartan lifestyle is propagated by him while he, unnoticed from the public, collects a large fortune for himself. Since 1934 he has been exempted from tax payments. He doesn't drink alcohol, nor smokes or eats meat.
7 The Statesman
10/12/18
In Benito Mussolini, Hitler finds an ally to whom he remains faithful until his downfall. The trips to Italy are the only foreign ones he undertakes. Hitler takes control of the army. The threat alone of an invasion is enough: the Austrian Chancellor allows Hitler to take over. 99,75 percent of the Austrian people want to be part of the German Reich. Planning to disintegrate Czechoslovakia, Hitler signs the Munich Agreement in September 1938, in which Czechoslovakia has to abdicate the territories of the so-called Sudeten Germans. Hitler declares he no longer has territorial claims in Europe. On November 9, 1938, Hitler and Goebbels initiate a pogrom night against the Jews. Meanwhile, Hitler has set up a private and secret life mostly at Obersalzberg, now declared a restricted area. He hides his mistress Eva Braun from the public to project an image of living solely for Germany. He fears an early death and has vague plans to end his own life.
8 An Arsonist
10/12/18
In pure breach of the Munich Agreement, Hitler claims further territories for Germany based on the alleged wish of the people in those areas. AWer the occupation of Czechoslovakia, the world is duped and are waiting to see if Germany will risk European peace. Hitler firmly expects that England and France are afraid of a war.
9 A Conqueror
10/12/18
Safeguarded by the Hitler-Stalin pact, Hitler invades Poland. Great Britain and France declare war immediately. Despite all warnings this is unexpected for Hitler, but the allies' passivity encourages him to invade Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and France. In Dunkirk, the British Army is defeated and flees head over heels. Hitler's buoyancy rises to immeasurable heights, but the next steps will have fatal consequences.
10 The Commander
10/12/18
Hitler breaks the pact with Stalin and invades Russia. He wants to eradicate the entire population and gain territories in Eastern Europe for the Arian race. Germany has reached the summit of the military power and controls almost the entire continent of Europe. In Russia, however, the German Army is faced with incredible distances, the unlimited manpower of the Russian Army and above all with the harsh winter. Will Hitler recognize the growing inequality of his military means?
11 A Mass Murderer
10/12/18
Hitler personally arranges for a euthanasia program, underestimating the resistance of the Church in this matter. The killing of the mentally ill has to be slowed down, but the extinction of Jews is expanded to an industrial scale. Russian prisoners of war are murdered directly, abused, or left to starvation. Most Germans know of these crimes even if they refuse to acknowledge them.
12 A War Criminal
10/12/18
Hitler's military decisions become disastrous, the defeats increase, fronts break apart. After Stalingrad, the military leadership realizes that the war is lost. The western allies defeat the German troops in Italy and Africa. The Russians push back the German army in the East. But even after D- Day, Hitler refuses any idea of surrender. After the failed assassination attempt, he feels invulnerable.
13 A Suicide
10/12/18
Even after the Allies' landing in Normandy and the failed Battle of the Bulge as last attempt, Hitler does not want to accept the end, and the German people still believe in the leader. Only when the Russians stand 500 meters before the bunker of the Reichskanzlei, Hitler accepts the total defeat and must now act.

About this show

As never seen before, and more topical today than any other Hitler biography, the Chronicles depict everyday European life between 1889 and 1945 in impressive images, many of them in color. Based on the most extensive compilation of archive material to date, with almost half of it previously unpublished sources, Hitler's life is shown in detail against the social backdrop of the first half of the 20th century in a contemporary interpretation. Swaying a politics fatigue with media savvy populist theses, post-factual arguments and mere lies, with emotional appeals ridiculing democratic processes and defaming opponents is not new. Seeing signs repeat themselves is a disturbing, inspiring experience with a clear political statement against abuse and apathy. The film roots Hitler's life story in a fifty-year period that is also examined in parallel and provides the basis for understanding the person – if this is at all possible. The film relates the life of Adolf Hitler as it interacts with and responds to Austrian and German society as well as the national and international political trends and events during the first half of the 20th century.

Ratings and reviews

5.0
1 review
Yvonne Salazar
December 1, 2020
Cool
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