Hitler: The Rise of Evil - Historical Inaccuracies

Historical Inaccuracies

At the beginning of the film, Hitler's father Alois Hitler is shown dying in front of a young Hitler and Hitler's mother Klara, at their home during a meal. In fact, Hitler's father died when he went out for his usual morning drink at his local inn, the Gasthaus Stiefler.

Klara Hitler's doctor, Dr. Eduard Bloch (who diagnosed her with breast cancer) is portrayed as a Hasidic Jew. In reality, like most Jews in Linz at the time, Bloch was fully assimilated into Austro-Hungarian society.

Hitler is shown as fleeing from Vienna on a train bound for Munich in May 1914. In reality, the time of Hitler's departure from the then Austro-Hungarian Empire for Germany was actually exactly one year earlier in May 1913.

Hitler was awarded the Iron Cross for repeated acts of bravery in front line service, and not for the cynical political reasons given in the film (though historian Thomas Weber, writing some years after the series, states it was mostly for his proximity to regimental command and that he actually spent the war in relative comfort and safety as a regimental, rather than battalion, runner, though this detail was not known at the time the series was made.)

Additionally, there are multiple issues with military awards. For example, Erich Ludendorff is shown wearing a Star of the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross. This exclusive medal has been awarded only twice, but Ludendorff was not a recipient. Furthermore, the German Army at the time did not wear Ribbon bars, as is depicted in the film.

When Hitler returns to Munich after the War, communist revolutionaries are shown beheading a statue of Kaiser Wilhelm II. In fact, there were no statues of Wilhelm II in Imperial Germany because it was deemed inappropriate to represent a living person (the only exception being one on the Hohenzollernbrücke in Cologne). Even so, the least likely location would have been the capital of Bavaria, a region whose inhabitants harbored deep resentments against everything and anyone they felt to be "Prussian".

In a scene depicting his first meeting in 1919 with the German Workers' Party, he said he "didn't drink". While Hitler diminished his alcohol intake after coming out of Landsberg Prison in 1925, he would occasionally drink beer and wine, which was ironically later depicted in the film when Hitler officially obtained his German citizenship in a ceremony in 1932.

Anton Drexler is depicted as not wearing glasses or having a moustache; in fact, he had both. Ironically Gottfried Feder is shown as wearing spectacles when in reality he actually did not. Feder is also shown without a moustache when in reality he had a trade-mark Toothbrush moustache. Ernst Röhm is also portrayed as being tall, decently slim and lacking a moustache; in reality, he was short in height, somewhat stout, and had a moustache.

One scene depicts Feder giving a speech at a beer hall advocating the separation of Catholic Bavaria from the rest of Germany. In reality, he said that the German state of Bavaria and Austria should annex together to form a nation separate from Germany.

In the scene in the Kroll Opera House, Hitler is shown to meet opposition from other parties. In reality the Reichstag largely supported the bill, which passed 444-94 with the only dissenters being the Social Democratic Party.

One brief scene shows Hitler forcefully kissing his niece, Geli. Though he was very close to her, there are no historical documents which say that Hitler actually ever had a sexual relationship with his niece. She is also shown to commit suicide the same night as the 1930 election, but in reality she died more than a year after this event.

Furthermore, Ludendorff is seen in full uniform when marching towards Odeonsplatz on the second day of the Beer hall Putsch. In reality, he wore civilian clothing, like Hitler.

Other inaccuracies include:

1. Hermann Göring and Joseph Goebbels are minor characters in the story, and so their contributions to Hitler's success is, for the most part, unexamined.
2. Ernst Hanfstaengl is given a prominent role, while Heinrich Himmler is not depicted.
3. Erich von Ludendorff is portrayed in the film as an ignorant, fatuous old man, with whom Hitler severed ties. However, according to The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer, Ludendorff abandoned Hitler, even refusing to accept a Field Marshal's baton.
4. Kurt von Schleicher's role in Hitler's rise to power is largely glossed over. Gregor Strasser, Hitler's competitor, was also not portrayed with much importance.
5. Dietrich Eckart was a huge influence on Hitler until the Beer Hall putsch of 1923. Hitler dedicated the second volume of Mein Kampf to Eckart. He is not portrayed or mentioned in the film. In Göring's first appearance in the film, he utters Eckart's words regarding leaders.