Downfall

Seen largely through the eyes of Hitler's young secretary Traudl Junge, the film depicts the final days of the Nazi regime inside the besieged Führerbunker as Soviet forces close in on Berlin. Hitler descends into denial and rage while his inner circle fractures amid mass suicides and desperate defenses of the ruined city. It culminates in Hitler's suicide and the regime's collapse.

As Soviet forces encircled Berlin in the Battle of Berlin during April 1945, Adolf Hitler and his closest associates sheltered in the underground Führerbunker beneath the Reich Chancellery. Hitler married Eva Braun and both died by suicide on April 30, 1945, days before Germany's unconditional surrender on May 8.

The film is drawn from Traudl Junge's memoir and historian Joachim Fest's research and is widely praised for its historical rigor, though some dramatized dialogue and scenes are compressed for narrative flow.

Soviet fronts broke through at the Seelow Heights and fought into the centre of the German capital, ending the war in Europe.

The city was defended by remnants of army units, Volkssturm and Hitler Youth. Hitler killed himself in the Führerbunker on 30 April; the garrison surrendered on 2 May and Germany capitulated unconditionally on 8 May.

Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel

Cast: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Corinna Harfouch, Ulrich Matthes

Positioned at April 20 - May 2, 1945 within the Fall of Berlin phase of the war, as part of the Battle of Berlin. This is entry 143 of 150 in the chronological archive.

• Hitler
• Führerbunker
• Battle of Berlin
• Nazi collapse
• Traudl Junge

• 

  A Woman in Berlin

  April-June 1945

• 

  The Fall of Berlin

  April-May 1945

• 

  Valkyrie

  20–21 July 1944

• 

  Stalingrad

  August 1942 – February 1943

• 

  The Bridge

  April 1945

• 

  1939 Battle of Westerplatte

  1–7 September 1939