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Hitler: The Rise of Evil

2003 Canadian television miniseries directed by Christian Duguay

Hitler: The Rise of Evil is a 2003 Canadian two-part television miniseries about the early political career of Germany Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

Dialogue

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Episode I

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Friedrich Hollaender: Everyone's depressed - bad for the economy but excellent for cabaret. German people don't need democracy, for God's sake, they need music, laughter, someone to tell them what to do so they can get in line and follow.
Ernst Hanfstaengl: Don't tell me you've become a nationalist?
Hollaender: I'm a satirist, Ernst. The most dangerous politician of them all. Speaking of humor, I'm going to hear Hitler tomorrow - would you like to come?
Hanfstaengl: The anti-Semite?
Hollaender: The National Socialist anti-Semite. Call them "Nazis" just to piss them off. I hear he's fascinating.
Hanfstaengl: Well, that's very open-minded of you.
Hollaender: You mean for a Jew, yes? I'm not supporting him, for God's sake. I need new material.

Episode II

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Adolf Hitler: The SA are to be bridled, Ernst. They may sing, march, carry flags, but they are to keep calm unless I say otherwise.
Ernst Röhm: We're not a Sunday shooting club, Adolf. We're a militia.
Hitler: Not anymore. My personal security will now be handled by the SS. Your men give off the wrong impression.
Röhm: I don't give a damn about impressions, but without the SA, without us, our loyalty...
Hitler: The wheels of history have turned! The plan has changed.
Röhm: [icily] Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. [salutes and leaves]
Fritz Gerlich: He's insane. A complete psychotic. He may be a compelling speaker on stage, but in person I could see into his eyes and what I saw was... terrifying.
Gustav von Kahr: And I intend to shut him down.
Gerlich: With all due respect, Commissar Von Kahr, you need to handle him with care.
Von Kahr: Don't worry, I will. I know how to deal with Adolf Hitler.
Joseph Goebbels: The opposition papers are implying things about your relationship with your niece.
Adolf Hitler: Trust these Jews to paint everyone as dirty as they are.
Joseph Goebbels: But it's not just them. People in the party are also beginning to object...
Hitler: She's my niece, for God's sake! We go to the opera together!
[given the spate of elections triggered by the Nazis' frequent walkouts, Hindenburg tries to talk to his officials about keeping Hitler in check, but when Hitler expresses his desire to be Chancellor...]
Franz von Papen: That's my job! [Kurt von Schleicher laughs]
Adolf Hitler: [walks up to von Schleicher] I wouldn't laugh, General. Perhaps I'll take your job as well. [to Hindenburg] Herr Reich President, surely you can see I'm a force to be reckoned with? The sooner you appoint me Chancellor, approve my cabinet...
President Paul von Hindenburg: I will never appoint you Chancellor! [stands up] How dare you presume, sir? You're nothing but a Bohemian corporal! If I made you head of this government, how would I answer to God?
Hitler: And how will you answer to Germany if you don't? [pause] Good day, sir.
[Adolf Hitler has called out Gregor Strasser over taking up an offer to be Reichstag vice-chancellor]
Gregor Strasser: The Party is much more than you. You say that yourself. As vice-chancellor, block the Communists, increase our popularity.
Adolf Hitler: And how would you deal with traitors?
Strasser: I'm not a traitor, my Führer.
Hitler: Traitors are defined, Strasser, not by themselves, but by the people they betray! You will refuse Schleicher's offer and you will resign your Party's position, effective immediately.
[Georg Bell visits the Straight Path offices]
Georg Bell: Hitler's just called an emergency meeting at the Reichstag. He wants our approval for something he calls the "Enabling Act", which will turn this country into a police state, with him as absolute ruler.
Fritz Gerlich: My God. No matter what he does, he just gets stronger!
Sepp: I'll bet the Nazis set the fire themselves.
Bell: There's something I haven't told you. Once this is out, Röhm will identify me as your source. My job as Röhm's press secretary was just a front. He hired me to get financing outside of Germany.
Sepp: Financing? For what?
Bell: The SA. He agreed to sign a contract with a man in London in exchange for exclusive oil imports to Germany.
Sepp: The Nazi Party was giving economic incentives to a foreign investor?
Gerlich: What happened to Germans for Germany?
Bell: Exactly.
[Hitler convenes the Reichstag's emergency session inside the Kroll Opera House after the fire]
Adolf Hitler: In order for the government to carry out the necessary procedures against terrorism, Reichstag must support an Enabling Act. This act is your opportunity to hand power over to those who can wield it most effectively. From now on, all legislation will be handled by the Administration, which will have sole right to make constitutional changes. Freedoms of speech, association, and the press are temporarily suspended. Privacy rights in relation to telephone and postal communication are revoked.[the non-Nazi delegates are agitated as someone calls for order] The government assumes the right to intervene in any situation to restore order. The right to draft laws passes from the Reich's President to Chancellor. I offer the Reichstag the chance for peace in Germany!
Franz von Papen: Never! If you respect our Constitution...
Hermann Goering: [bangs gavel] Will the Vice-Chancellor return to his seat!
Hitler: I will take any refusal as a statement of opposition! Gentlemen, you must decide. Will it be peace, or war? [stunned silence until Goering and gradually everybody sings Deutschland uber Alles]
Adolf Hitler: We were friends once, Ernst; you saw my potential before anyone else; you speak your mind unlike the others; and you love your men more than yourself, which is rare in a leader. But you refuse to bend. Why? You have power.
Ernst Röhm: I don't want power, I want justice. My men were promised...
Hitler: I don't care. I don't give a damn about promises! You know this!... you know this. Ernst, the SA are not now, nor will they ever be the official German army. You must stand down.
Röhm: You're right, Adolf. We were friends once; and I will always speak my mind; and I will not betray my men!
Fritz Gerlich: [via a letter to his wife] My dearest Sophie. I don't know when, or if, I will ever see you again. I don't say this to shock. I say this because I must ask one more thing if you; please live. Urge others to speak out, even when what they have to say is not popular. Tell them to embrace courage as a gift, and pass it onto their children. [a montage ensues of Gerlich and other prisoners being escorted to Dachau Concentration Camp, and various arrests and executions of perceived Nazi opponents during the Night of the Long Knives, before we cut to Gerlich about to be executed in his cell at Dachau] You have always been my hope; the promise of goodness, and truth, and devotion. Knowing that those qualities still survive in this world lets me leave it with a lighter heart. Don't mourn; I've given everything I have to this struggle, and my only option, now, is to give the last, most precious thing. It will mark this moment in time forever, so that people will remember. Yours always, Fritz.

Tagline

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  • The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Cast

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  • Robert Carlyle - Adolf Hitler
  • Liev Schreiber - Ernst Hanfstaengl
  • Peter Stormare - Ernst Röhm
  • Friedrich von Thun - Erich Ludendorff
  • Peter O'Toole - Paul von Hindenburg
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