The Bunker (1981)

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Movie
German title The bunker
The Führerbunker
Original title The bunker
Country of production France ,
United States
original language English
Publishing year 1981
length 145 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director George Schaefer
script John Gay ,
James P. O'Donnell (book)
production George Schaefer ,
Aida Young
music Brad Fiedel
camera Jean-Louis Picavet
cut Greyfox
occupation

Der Bunker (alternative title: Der Führerbunker) is the title of a war film from 1981, which tells of the events in the bunker of the Reich Chancellery (or " Führerbunker ") and the last days of the dictator Adolf Hitler , based on the book Die Katakombe - Das End in the Reich Chancellery (English: The Bunker ) by James P. O'Donnell and Uwe Bahnsen .

action

The actual plot is embedded in a frame narrative. The US American reporter for Newsweek , James O'Donnell, visits the Reich Chancellery bunker in early July 1945, where Hitler committed suicide in late April. An off-voice explains that O'Donnell questioned the people who had witnessed Hitler's last few days in detail. The scenes shown below would be based on O'Donnell's recordings and come very close to what actually happened.

In January 1945 Hitler withdrew to the Berlin Führerbunker, from where he issued final orders, passed death sentences and had injections administered by his personal physician Theo Morell . Joseph Goebbels , who also moves into the bunker with his wife Magda and six children, gives himself up to the illusion that the war can still be won. The film tells less from Hitler's perspective than from that of his architect Albert Speer and the bunker machinist Johannes Hentschel . Speer, Hitler demands, should implement the insane Nero order , according to which the whole of Germany must be destroyed so that it is worthless if it falls into the hands of the enemy. Speer does not think of it; he even plans to murder the "Führer" by means of poison gas, which he wants to inject into the Führerbunker through an air shaft. But his plans are not put into practice.

Hitler is falling into disrepair. He learns that his party comrades are “betraying him”, including Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler . In the chaos that existed around him, he married his partner Eva Braun before he committed suicide with her . Their corpses are doused with gasoline in front of the bunker and burned. Then Magda and Joseph Goebbels also take their own lives after poisoning their six children. The remaining crew of the bunker commit suicide or flee from the approaching Soviet troops. In the end only the machinist Johannes Hentschel remains lonely in the bunker. Angrily, he throws some documents around when he hears the lie on the radio that Hitler fought the Red Army to his last breath .

At the end of the film there is an explanation of what happened to the other people who were in the bunker. Among other things, the rumor circulating at the time is contradicted that Martin Bormann survived the war and is hiding in South America.

Background information

The book Die Katakombe by Peter O'Donnell and Uwe Bahnsen was published in 1975 by the Deutsche Verlagsanstalt. For this project, Rochus Misch , Otto G possibly , Walter Frentz , Traudl Junge , Hans Baur , Heinz Linge and Erich Kempka were interviewed.

Other films on the subject are Hitler: The Last 10 Days (1973) with Alec Guinness as Hitler and The Last Act (1955) in which Albin Skoda played the German dictator, and Der Untergang (2004) with Bruno Ganz .

Although the portrayal of Speer as a good Nazi is long out of date, The Bunker is a film that tells in great detail and does not omit the poisoning of Hitler's shepherd dog Blondi and her puppies.

The DVD for Der Bunker has been available in stores since July 27, 2007. In contrast to the original TV broadcast by ZDF in 1981 (German version by Erich Ebert ), the DVD contains a newly dubbed version. In addition, the scene in which Magda Goebbels poisoned her children was cut out.

German dubbed version

Awards

The film received three Emmy nominations, including one award:

Further nominations

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Die Welt: Hitler in the Bunker - the real Hitler (book tip: "The Catacomb" by Uwe Bahnsen and James P. O'Donnell)

Web links