Hitler and Speer | Final Meeting | Downfall Scene

A vivid reconstruction of the final weeks of Hitler’s regime.
In mid-April 1945, the Soviets launched an offensive against Berlin “with twenty armies, two and a half million soldiers, and more than forty thousand mortars and field guns”—an avenging force of an almost unimaginable size and scale. Hitler retreated into the Reich Chancellery, but not before warning that this “Asian onslaught” had to be stopped; if it were not, he warned, Germany’s “old people, men, and children will be murdered, and women and girls will be forced to serve as barracks whores.” Thus inspired, the Volksturm and Wehrmacht units charged with defending the city put up a stiff fight, even as Hitler continued to imagine that with Franklin Roosevelt’s death the Western Allies would realize that their enemy was Russia and join Hitler’s crusade. The fall of Vienna to the Soviets put an end to that vision, and Hitler—physically and mentally ill—waited out Marshal Zhukov’s arrival while gorging himself on chocolate cake. An inglorious end, that, and German historian Fest (Speer: The Final Verdict, 2002, etc.) surprises with a number of unreported or overlooked details—such as a letter that Albert Speer had written to Hitler only a few weeks before, chiding him “for equating the existence of Germany with his own life span, describing this as an egocentricity unparalleled in history.” For all that, Hitler shot his wife and then himself, leaving it to the handful of remaining stalwarts to burn their corpses.

I was with Speer when he paid his first visit to the Zeppelinfeld at Nürnberg, long after the war. It was an emotional moment for him: this ghost city was the place where the Nürnberg Rallies were held before the great catastrophe. In close order, drilled by military choreographers, the orders of German power from the pimply, white-kneed columns of Hitler Youth to the older ranks of Waffen SS, banners uncurling and trumpets blaring, would march up and down under the exigent eyes of Hitler.
We were climbing one of the seemingly interminable flights of limestone steps when Speer observed an enormous ragweed, an accursed thing the size of a sequoia, sprouting from a crack in the limestone cladding covering the reinforced concrete understructure. Speer hated that particular weed. The Zeppelinfeld was hairy with them, but that was his weed, his emblem of the decay of a utopian idea, and he would not let it survive. After much tugging, during which the former Generalbauinspektor of the Third Reich went nearly purple with effort, the ragweed gave way, and Speer stood there, panting, the earth crumbling from its defeated roots. "The Führer," he said, slowly, to no one in particular, "would have been very mad at me for this poor stone quality."
Most important, he was the man closest to Hitler; absurdly, and precociously so. Hitler's relationship to Speer has been called a love affair but, if there was a homosexual flavour to it, it was sublimated as an epic of narcissism with the young Speer cast as Hitler's unfulfilled other self. "Hitler quite often told me: 'You are fulfilling my dream. I would like to have been an architect. Fate made me the bildhauer Deutschlands, the sculptor of Germany. I would have liked to be Germany's architect. But I can't: you are. Even when I am dead you will go on, and I give you all my authority so that even after I am dead you will continue.' "

Hitler and Speer final meeting scene
Speer leaving the Bunker scene
Speer exiting Hitler's Bunker
downfall with english subtitles

[William_]

Speer admiring the Berlin architecture for the last time

[flipper-b]

That last scene, where Speer looks back, you can almost feel a eerie connection. In the sense that Speer was an architect, he loved architecture and was practically put in charge of designing a new Germania. Berlin itself is an architectural masterpiece. Imagine the world you once knew and loved is all about to be reduced to rubble and debris. All you can do is walk away and leave.

[gevkrusty]

It's weird seeing Hitler cry in silence rather than throwing a tantrum about it.

[erenyeager]

We can all be fair, Downfall is the best ww2 movie ever made.

[Doctor]

Hitler surrounded himself with yes men for years and years. Imagine being told over and over for decades that you're right. That you're making the right decisions, without those closest to you ever challenging you. Then in these last days as it's all falling apart so rapidly, your closest and dearest friend gives you the brutal and honest truth. Sort of like your orders aren't even worth following. That would feel like a sharp dagger through the heart.

Let me be frank though, I have no sympathy for Hitler. I'm just imagining how horrible that would feel.

[gonzobliteror]

2:40 It's a great little detail. When Hitler breaks the pencil, it's right in front of his chest, so it's like hearing his heart physically break from Speer's betrayal. Just my humble interpretation.

[thenameisgsarci]

TLDR:

Hitler: I will not shed a tear for my people.
Speer: Then, I'll make you shed one.

[dunkim]

Speer had a different, much different loyalty for Hitler. Even how Speer got to be in the Nazi was mystical. This betrayal truly hurt Hitler in a soft part of his heart. He cried alone. He had soo much trust and faith in everyone, this scene showed his most vulnerable state. In other portrayals Speer was seen crying, as well...

[sirbowman]

As Speer walked through the bunker to leave, you'd think they were winning the war based on the immaculate uniforms, cheerful atmosphere, and plentiful food and drink. It's funny how even during Goebbels' last radio broadcast to the German people, he sounds perfectly calm while you can literally hear shelling in the background. It's honestly crazy to think about.

[abominusrex]

Speer was smart, the moment he figured Germany was doomed, he started collecting brownie points for the forthcoming trial, making him look better than what he actually was.

[destubae]

They casted Speer flawlessly, he looks exactly like him.

[settekwan]

Speer is like that only friend the school shooting kid made.

[reinforcer]

You can tell that was a Julius Caesar moment. Speer sank the final dagger into Hitler and all Hitler can do is accept it like "et tu?"

[matrinyer]

Imagine your closest best friend and trustest companion betrayed to you, it must been felt hurt
Hitler cried the last time before his death that day.

[kentrosaurusboi]

4:14 Speer quite frankly stands in the ruins of what was once almost the biggest empire in Europe, on par with Napoleon's genius and speed, once threatening Great Britain and the Soviet Union, only to come crashing down so quickly. He leaves, never to return to the Neue Reichkanzlei, understanding clearly it's over.

[cmoran]

Hitler breaks a pencil, the tool that an architect and artist uses - the thing that united him to Speer

[ITILII]

Bruno Ganz gives one of the finest performances in the history of makes Hitler seem much more complex than the pure evil character he is usually portrayed he was

[edvinparmeza]

Imagine the balls you must have to tell Hitler "I sabotaged your orders" without sugarcoating it, straight to the point.

[dr.spectre]

One of the best movies I've ever seen

[JReed]

As much as it's rude to not shake someone's hand when they offer it to you, I don't blame Hitler for refusing to shake Speer's hand, because I can see how betrayed and broken he looked.