Downfall (film)/Archive 1 - Plot

Plot

The movie begins with the real-life Traudl Junge expressing the guilt and shame she felt for admiring Hitler while in her youth. In November 1942, a group of German secretaries are escorted to Adolf Hitler's compound at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia. Hitler selects Traudl Humps to be one of his personal secretaries.

Two and a half years later, on April 20, 1945 (Hitler's fifty-sixth birthday), in the midst of the Battle of Berlin, Secretary Traudl Humps (after marriage known as Traudl Junge) is awakened in the Führerbunker by the sound of Soviet artillery. Later, Generals Wilhelm Burgdorf and Karl Koller confirm to a surprised Hitler that the Red Army is just 12 kilometres from the city centre. At his birthday reception, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler and his SS adjutant Hermann Fegelein plead with Hitler to leave the city. Instead, Hitler declares, "I will defeat them in Berlin, or face my downfall." Himmler leaves Berlin with the intention of negotiating surrender terms with the Western Allies behind Hitler's back.

In another part of the city, a group of Hitler Youth members continues to build up defenses for Berlin. Peter, a boy in the group, is urged by his father to desert and flee the city. Peter resists his father and later his unit is part of a group which is awarded the Iron Cross by Hitler. Hitler confides to Peter, "I wish my generals were as brave as you; Heil to You."

SS doctor Ernst-Günther Schenck is ordered to evacuate Berlin as part of Operation Clausewitz. Schenck convinces an SS general to let him stay to treat the wounded and starving. Schenck is requested by Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke to bring all available medical supplies to the Reich Chancellery. Upon searching a deserted hospital, Schenck finds the basement filled with piled corpses and abandoned patients. After finding medical supplies, Schenck unsuccessfully tries to prevent the summary execution of two old men by members of a Greifkommando or Feldgendarmerie. Meanwhile, Hitler discusses his new scorched earth policy to his Minister of Armaments, Albert Speer. Speer pleads for mercy for the German people, but Hitler declares that they are weak and do not deserve to survive. Eva Braun ignores Fegelein's pleas to leave Berlin and holds a party for the bunker inhabitants up in the Reich Chancellery, but Soviet artillery shells end the party early.

The next day, General Helmuth Weidling is mistakenly thought to have ordered a retreat to the West and is ordered to the bunker to be executed. Weidling explains himself to Burgdorf and Hans Krebs, only to find himself appointed commander of the Berlin Defense Area. In the bunker's briefing room, Hitler is informed about Berlin's disintegrating defenses. Unmoved, he announces that Waffen SS General Felix Steiner's unit will arrive and drive the Red Army out of Berlin, but Alfred Jodl informs Hitler that Steiner was unable to mobilize enough men— thus, the planned assault did not take place. Hitler dismisses everyone from the room except for Burgdorf, Krebs, Jodl, and Wilhelm Keitel, then flies into a rage against the troops and generals. Hitler finally acknowledges that the war is lost, but insists that he will remain in Berlin and commit suicide.

General Mohnke becomes outraged when he sees conscripted civilian troops being gunned down and thus pointlessly killed in the streets. Mohnke learns that they are Volkssturm fighters under the command of Joseph Goebbels. Mohnke has them removed from the line of fire and returns to the Reich Chancellery to confront Goebbels. During their exchange, Goebbels tells Mohnke that he has no pity for the civilians, as they chose their fate. Hitler, Braun, Traudl, and Gerda Christian discuss various means of suicide whilst Krebs, Burgdorf, and other military staff get drunk. Hitler gives Christian and Junge one cyanide capsule each. Eva Braun and Magda Goebbels type goodbye letters: Braun to her sister Gretl and Goebbels to her adult son, Harald Quandt. In the streets of Berlin the child soldiers are annihilated by Soviet fire.

Hitler, with Germany losing the war, loses his sense of reality. Field Marshal Keitel is ordered to find Admiral Karl Dönitz, whom Hitler believes is gathering troops in the north, and help him plan an offensive to recover the Romanian oil fields. Oberscharführer Rochus Misch, Hitler's radio operator, receives a telegram from Luftwaffe head Hermann Göring, asking for approval to assume command. Bormann reads the telegram to Hitler in which Göring asks permission to become head-of-state and asks for acknowledgment by 10:00 pm, at which time he will assume authority in the absence of a response. Walther Hewel tries to justify his actions but Bormann and Goebbels declare Göring's actions to be high treason; Hitler orders Göring's arrest and removal from office. Privately, Speer urges Hitler one last time to halt the scorched-earth orders, but Hitler refuses. Speer confesses to Hitler that he never implemented the plan, and directly countermanded Hitler's orders by secretly instructing the regional administrators to ignore the orders. Hitler is visibly shaken by the news but does not punish Speer who is allowed to leave the city.

Hitler summons General Robert Ritter von Greim and his mistress, ace pilot Hanna Reitsch, to the bunker. He appoints von Greim to be Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe which needs to be rebuilt. During dinner, Hitler receives a report that Himmler has just attempted to negotiate a separate peace settlement with the Western Allies. Betrayed by the man he trusted the most, Hitler explodes in another tearful outburst. He orders von Greim and Reitsch to leave Berlin, rendezvous with Dönitz who is preparing a massive pincer strike with Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, and ensure that Himmler is dealt with. Hitler then delusively assures von Greim that he can carry out this pincer strike with a thousand jet aircraft, which have been held in reserve (and which in fact, do not exist). Reichsphysician SS Ernst-Robert Grawitz, the head of the German Red Cross and responsible for Nazi human medical experiments, requests that he be allowed to leave Berlin for fear of reprisal against him and his family. Hitler denies his request, assuring him that he has nothing to be ashamed of and future generations will "thank him" for his medical research. Grawitz returns to his apartment and kills both his family and himself with grenades during dinner.

Hitler wishes to speak to Fegelein about Himmler's treachery but Fegelein cannot be found. Hitler is immediately suspicious of Fegelein, which proves right when he finds out that he has deserted the bunker and plans to flee the country. Hitler demands that Fegelein be found and questioned. An RSD squad arrests Fegelein at his apartment. Despite a tearful plea from Eva Braun to spare her brother-in-law's life, Hitler is unmoved and denounces him as a traitor. Shortly afterwards, Fegelein is executed by Peter Högl. Weidling reports there are no reserves left and air support has ceased. Mohnke reports that the Red Army is only 300 to 400 meters from the Reich Chancellery and that defending forces can hold out for a day or two at most. Hitler dismisses the update and reassures the officers that General Walther Wenck's 12th Army will save them. After Hitler leaves the conference room, Weidling asks the other generals if it is truly possible for Wenck to attack; they all agree it is impossible that Wenck will succeed, but they do not wish to surrender.

The following day, Hitler dictates his last will and testament to his secretary, Traudl Junge, before marrying Eva Braun. Hitler has ordered Joseph Goebbels to leave Berlin, but Goebbels intends to ignore the order and die with Hitler. When Hitler's adjutant Otto Günsche later brings a reply from Keitel that Wenck's army cannot continue its assault on Berlin, Hitler states that he will never surrender. He also forbids all officers to surrender on pain of summary execution. Hitler then gives Günsche the order to cremate his body and that of Eva Braun. Dr. Schenck, Dr. Werner Haase, and nurse Erna Flegel are summoned to the bunker by Hitler to personally thank them for their medical services. Dr. Haase explains to Hitler the best method for suicide as well as administering poison to Hitler's dog, Blondi, which Schenck witnesses. Braun affectionately gives Junge one of her best coats and makes her promise to flee the bunker. Hitler eats his final meal in silence with Constanze Manziarly and his secretaries. He bids farewell to the bunker staff, gives Magda his own Golden Party Badge #1, and then retires to his room with Braun. Now frantic at the thought of a world without Hitler and the possibility of killing off her own children, Magda pleads with Hitler to change his mind. Hitler states, "Tomorrow, millions of people will curse me, but fate has taken its course."

Adolf and Eva Hitler retreat to their private rooms, and commit suicide. Their lifeless bodies are carried up to ground level and through the bunker's emergency exit to the Reich Chancellery garden. There, the corpses are doused in petrol and set alight in a shell crater. From the bunker entrance, surrounding officers give one final Nazi salute. Thereafter, General Krebs leads a small delegation through the Russian lines and tries to negotiate peace terms with Soviet General Vasily Chuikov. Chuikov says that the Soviets will only accept unconditional surrender, but Krebs does not have the authority to grant this, so he returns to the bunker empty-handed.

Unwilling to accept a world without National Socialism, Magda Goebbels poisons her six children while her husband waits. Then Goebbels and Magda proceed up to the Chancellery garden, where Goebbels shoots his wife before shooting himself. SS men waiting nearby with petrol cans in hand hasten to the remains to attempt a cremation. The people remaining in the bunker complex agree that they must try to break out of the Soviet encirclement. Krebs and Burgdorf commit suicide as the rest evacuate. Many of the bunker survivors attempt to escape, but are killed in the fighting. Weidling goes out and broadcasts to all the Berliners that the Führer is dead; he has called for a ceasefire with Lieutenant-General Vasily Chuikov.

Meanwhile, Schenck and Hewel stay with Mohnke and his remaining SS troops, who debate about what to do once the Soviet troops arrive. Schenck tries to talk sense into Hewel who promised Hitler he would kill himself. When news reaches the officers that Berlin has been surrendered, Hewel and several of the SS officers promptly shoot themselves to Schenck's dismay. Outside, child soldier Peter finds that his post has been obliterated by shellfire and his young colleagues are all dead. Aghast, he scrambles away. On a side street, the menacing Greifkommando or Feldgendarmerie men stalk across his path. Peter enters a nearby apartment and finds the squad has executed his parents.

In the chaos of the city's fall, Traudl Junge reaches an improvised staging area where defeated German soldiers mingle prior to surrender. Peter, in civilian clothes, has reached the same area. Swiftly approaching Red Army ranks are just blocks away though they advance jauntily—seemingly knowing resistance here has been broken. Traudl decides to try leaving and Mohnke gives her advice: keep going and don't look the Russians in the eye. She begins her walk as Soviets close in and crowd the way out. Peter emerges and takes her hand as if she were family and pulls her along through the masses.

Moving ahead with downcast eyes, Traudl blunders into a celebrating drunken Red Army soldier who turns his attention to her. They make eye contact and it seems as if she will be pressed into the circle of leering men. Then Peter tugs her arm and she is able to hasten away. At a ruined bridge, Peter finds an abandoned bicycle, to Traudl's delight. They briskly pedal away from Berlin together. The subsequent fates of the surviving characters are superimposed, and one final segment with the real life Traudl Junge appears before the credits roll.