Downfall Parodies Timeline

This article is about the timeline of the Downfall parody meme. For character timelines in Downfall, see Downfall timelines.

This article lists out important events throughout the history of Downfall parodies.

Timeline

Downfall Parodies Timeline

Year	Date	Event
1940/ 1942	Unknown	Charles A. Ridley from the British Ministry of Information creates the first video to use footage from a film to make the Nazis look stupid.
2004	8 September	Downfall has its premiere in Munich. The date has been recognized as the International Untergangers' Day.
	16 September	Downfall is released in Germany.
2005	18 February	Downfall is released in the United States.
	3 September	The first recorded parody, La Caida (La versión No Oficial), is uploaded. (Re-upload is linked)
2006	10 August	The second recorded parody, Sim Heil, is uploaded.
2007	6 June	Bowlch uploads Hitler gets banned from Xbox Live, which would be reuploaded by MOTURK49 a day later.
2008	May	Wired and Laughing Squid covers the phenomenon.
	28 October	New York Times Magazine reports on the mass appeal of “Downfall” parody phenomenon: “In the best parodies -- and “Hillary’s Downfall” is a good one -- Ganz embodies the role assigned him by the parodist by the time his glasses come off. This is the moment in the original film after Hitler has been informed that he cannot win; as he eases up on denial, he’s coming down on fury. In “Hillary’s Downfall,” you can’t believe how quickly the haircut and costume recede and the Hitler factor fades, eclipsed by Ganz’s tough old fork-tongued grandpa performance. Hitler becomes not the author of the Holocaust but a salty dog who, though all is lost, doesn’t stop piercing pretense and speaking in slangy, heartfelt language, expressing the most deeply felt needs of the human id. We may have repressed that speak-for-the-people Hitler, the one he decided to be in “Mein Kampf”; but in the form of these videos, he has returned.” ―New York Times Magazine
2009	April	Hitler Rants Parodies is created.
	October	Downfall Parodies Forum is created.
	6 October	The Telegraph publishes an article explaining the meme, as well as a selection of 25 best parodies.
2010	15 January	Downfall director Oliver Hirschbiegel expresses his approval of the meme to New York Magazine’s entertainment blog Vulture: “Someone sends me the links every time there’s a new one... I think I’ve seen about 145 of them! Of course, I have to put the sound down when I watch. Many times the lines are so funny, I laugh out loud, and I’m laughing about the scene that I staged myself! You couldn’t get a better compliment as a director.” ―Oliver Hirschbiegel
	21 April	Constantin Film started sending DMCA takedowns to the parodies in YouTube.
	28 July	A second wave of takedowns begins.
	16 September	Hitler Parody Wiki is created.
	October	Mass takedowns ended and YouTube began to place ads on them. The first Unterganger of the Month award took place (for the month of October, the results might have been announced in November)
2011	January	Vzorkic hosts the Downfall Reenactment Contest.
	August	Fegelbook is created.
	Unknown	The /r/HitlerParodies subreddit is created, but was quickly abandoned.
2012	January	The first Downfall Parody Awards is held. The first Parody of the Month award takes place.
	14 January	Tom Harris uploaded his controversial parody. This may have indirect consequences on the Unterganging community, as a short round of blockings (February 20-23) ensues, though dismissed as a glitch on YouTube's part.
	19 March	Three schoolchildren and a rabbi are shot in the last round of the Toulouse shootings, which naturally spurs YouTube reaction videos. With the involvement of Jews, some of these videos come under attack of flagging, the most notable of which on Unterganger PiretBCN.
	12 April	Untergangers Chat created.
	July	The Unterganger Hall of Fame begins its first induction.
	1 September	The Parody of the Year Awards is announced. However, it did not come to fruition.
	16 September	yuanjin8899 uploads 元首Rap：江南Style Gangnam Style from Hitler, parody that gathered over 5.4 million views in only 3 months.
	October	The first Unterganger Awards takes place, replacing the biased Downfall Parody Awards.
2013
	26 January	Untergangers.org is created.
	20 March	Swedish television channel STV1 aired episode Hitler Humour of the series Kobra about Downfall parodies, with interviews from Hitler Rants Parodies. The show is the first publication to use the term Unterganger to describe Downfall parody makers.
	June	Unterganger Minecraft Server opened. The Hitler Rants Parodies Chat Room is opened as well, but did not gain a lot of activity until much later.
	August	JennieParker87 begins hosting her first Downfall parody contest.
2014	2 January	Downfallparodies.net created.
	March	The first Best New/Unknown Unterganger Award takes place.
	May	The first Unterganger Lifetime Achievement Award takes place.
	20 December	Untergangers Chat is closed.
2015	26 January	Untergangers.org is closed.
	16 September	The Hitler Parody Wiki celebrates its 5th anniversary. The /r/HitlerParodies subreddit is taken over by a few Untergangers.
	20 October	The Hitler Rants Parodies Contest of 2015 is announced.
	December	The final Best New/Unknown Unterganger Award takes place.
2016	January	The first Best Unterganger Award takes place. The Parody of the Year award is revived, along with the creation of the Unterganger of the Year award.
	March	The Downfall Parodies Society Chat Room opens.
	August	The Hitler Rants Parodies Chat Room moves to Discord.
	5 November	The Unterganger Awards moves to its own website.
2017	January– mid-2018	Triggered Trio incidents: TraitorLoxoz, TailzParodies, and Green Penguin Parodies are involved in several incidents including trying to rig awards, raiding Discord servers & hijacking the Drachenlord Rants Parodies collaboration.
2018
	January	January incident: Multiple Untergangers including HRP and Parker87 leave the Unterganger community after a doxxing attempt in the Downfall Parodies Society Chat Room. The Unterganger Awards, Best Unterganger Award, Unterganger Hall of Fame and Unterganger Lifetime Achievement Award are shut down in response.
		The Downfall Community Awards are founded.
	11 February	Unterganger Chat Central is created by Delphox, The Jononator and Ninetales95NL.
	Between July and November	downfallparodies.net vanishes and becomes a redirect to hitlerrantsparodies.com.
2019	16 February	Hitler's actor, Bruno Ganz dies overnight to Saturday in his home in Zurich, Switzerland, according to German media.
2020	25 May	May 2020 Incident (Second Doxxing Incident): HRP accuses Die Deutsche Orthopädiespezialist of leaking his home address on VileHQ's discord server. Accusations are soon after confirmed and ddOs is promptly banned from all aspects of the community. However UCC suffers cyberterrorism from HRP even after giving in to his demands since he felt it was the final straw. The Downfall Community Awards suffer from extreme delays due to several mods and admins deciding to leave the community in response, including Delphox himself.

Notes

• This timeline is incomplete. You can help to expand it by adding more info on significant events.
• Events are colour-coded based on event type:
  • blue represents important creations and releases
  • green represents major parody releases
  • purple represents coverage by official news or publications
  • red represents negative events.
• Do not insert any inaccurate, unconfirmed or false information into the table. If your edit screws up the table badly, contact an active wiki admin.

See also

• Downfall parody controversies