The Hitler Eating Scene or Hitler Dining Scene is a scene in Downfall that is one of the most commonly used in parodies.
In Downfall[]
The scene starts with a slow zoom shot of the hallway where two officers are sitting reviewing documents. Another two are standing wearing white gloves who are the waiters standing next to a cart with dishes, food and a bottle of wine, and a guard who stands next to the door.
Dining in the conference room, Hitler tells Robert Ritter von Greim that he has a huge responsibility on his shoulders: to rebuild the Luftwaffe after Hermann Göring's betrayal. He also informs him that many mistakes have been made before, so he has to be ruthless.
Continuing, Hitler states that life will never forgive weakness, and states that humanity is just priests' drivel. He also believes compassion is a sin, and thus compassion for the weak is a betrayal of nature's law. Joseph Goebbels agrees, stating that the strongest can only be victorious by eliminating the weak, which gives him an objective glance by Gerda Christian. Hitler continues on to say that he's always followed that rule, because he oppressed domestic opposition and destroyed resistance of alien races, then states he had to deal with it.
Heinz Linge arrives with a report, just as Hitler begins to explain how apes kill outsiders and believes that it should apply to human beings as well. Traudl Junge raises her head at that remark as she and Gerda share a brief moment of eye contact. As he reads the report Hitler suddenly falls silent, and Goebbels stares at him in suspicion.
Hitler finds out from the report that Heinrich Himmler attempted to make a deal to surrender to the Western Allies at Lübeck through Count Bernadotte, according to the English radio (presumably BBC). At first, he could only utter Himmler's name in pure disbelief, but then starts ranting that Himmler was the last person he expected to betray him, and he was the most loyal of the loyal, before yelling, "This was the worst betrayal of all!" (Das ist der schlimmste Verrät von allen!)
He then continues with "Göring, ja, he was always corrupt". Speer, ja, an absent-minded artist". For everyone else, he yells "JA! JA! JA! JA! JA!" Hitler, in his disbelief of what Himmler has done, wonders if Himmler went insane. He goes on that Himmler might have told the Allies that he was sick, or even dead; all the while everyone else can only sit and watch Hitler in silence.
Hitler finally recovers his composure and tells everyone he wants to be alone with Von Greim and Hanna Reitsch; while they are leaving, he tells them to find Himmler's adjutant Hermann Fegelein. However, Linge points out that Fegelein was nowhere to be seen, while Hitler counters that as he is Himmler's adjutant he should be in the bunker. Wilhelm Burgdorf adds that Fegelein has not been seen for days, to which Hitler responds that he wants his report at once, and they leave before Hitler talks to the remaining people and requests Goebbels to sit back down.
In the Parodies[]
This scene is one of the most commonly used scenes in Downfall; it shows the characters having a discussion, or, in story parodies, it could bring bad news for Hitler. This scene is similar to the Original Bunker Scene and the Hitler is informed scene because it features bad news and Hitler's eventual rant.
This scene is also commonly used as a scene in story-based parodies to show Hitler and the gang having a meal. Sometimes, special effects are added to show the characters having a celebration, such as Christmas.
The earliest surviving parody, La Caida (La versión No Oficial), by Pajarojuarez, where Hitler complains about the restaurant bill, is based on this scene. Many other parodists subsequently took advantage of the setting and produced parodies talking about food.
When Hitler says "Ja, vielleicht schon tot!", the "tot" part is sometimes cropped and looped for some FX parodies showing Hitler screaming or yelling "FUUUUUUUUUUCK!". The "tot" part is also heavily used in DPMVs, due to the wide range of uses with the line. One extreme example is Awesome Face!'s Super Hitler Land - Overworld DPMV.
A rare use of this scene was in Benad361's Tukhachevsky's First Antic, where Hitler reads Soviet propaganda, which was switched from the Downfall scripts. Plus, rather than saying "Yah yah yah..." when Hitler says that, he uses "No no no no no!"
This scene is used in Fegelein turns Hitler and the Bunker into a Flash Cartoon for the scene when Hitler turns into a Flash Cartoon.
Two most easily picked up mondegreens from the scene are the words "crappy" and "epic[ly]", from "um krempeln" and "unerbittlich" respectively. These are not easily missed, resulting in more and more Untergangers incorporating them into their parodies to the point of attaining catchphrase status. Another common, but not an exact mishearing, is the phrase "Göring, yeah, he's a corrupt imbecile". Also the word HIMMLER!!! in the phrase Himmler... Unter allen ausgerechnet, HIMMLER!!! can sometimes be cropped or slowed down and you can hear Hitler screaming "HELP ME!!!", or if reversed, "MOMMY! MOMMY!".
A mondegreen of Hitler saying "fuck the police" has been pointed out with a loop by mfaizsyahmi in this parody. Several comments pointed out that it sounds more like "farts a priest", but mfaizsyahmi justified his mondegreen with Hitler's heavy Austrian accent.
Transcript[]
German transcript and English translation | ||
---|---|---|
Speaker | German | English |
HITLER | Eine große Verantwortung liegt nun auf Ihren Schultern: Sie müssen die Luftwaffe vom Grunde auf umkrempeln! | A big responsibility now rests on your shoulders: you must restructure the Luftwaffe from the ground up! |
Es wurden viele Fehler gemacht. Seien Sie unerbittlich. | Many mistakes have been made. Be relentless. | |
Das Leben vergibt keine Schwächen. | Life does not forgive weaknesses. | |
Die sogenannte Menschlichkeit, das ist ein Geschwätz der Schweinepfaffen. | The so-called humanity is babbling from pigs. | |
Mitleid ist eine Ursünde. Ich sage immer, Mitleid zu haben mit den Schwachen ist Verrat gegen die Natur! | Pity is an original sin. I always say feeling sorry for the weak is treachery against nature! | |
GOEBBELS | Das Starke... kann letztlich nur triumphieren, indem es das Schwache ausmerzt. | The strong... can ultimately only triumph by eliminating the weak. |
HITLER | Ich selbst habe mir, diesem eisernen Gesetz der Natur gehorchend stets jedes Mitgefühl versagt. | I myself have always refused to sympathize with this iron law of nature. |
Ich habe die Widerstände im Innern wie die Gegenwehr der Fremdrassigen immer mit brutaler Härte eiskalt niedergeschlagen! | I have always crushed the opposition from the inside as I do the resistance of the foreign race with an icy cold, brutal heart! | |
Anders kann man das nicht machen. | You can't do it any other way. | |
Die Affen, zum Beispiel, trampeln jeden Außenseiter als gemeinschaftsfremd tot. | The apes, for example, trample every outsider dead as a stranger to the community. | |
Und was für die Affen gilt, muss doch in erhöhtem Maße für den Menschen gelten. | And what applies to the apes must certainly apply to humans to an increased degree. | |
Himmler hat in Lübeck... | Himmler has in Lübeck... | |
...den Westmächten ein Kapitulationsangebot gemacht... | ...made an offer of surrender to the Western Powers... | |
...bei dem Grafen Bernadotte. | ...to Count Bernadotte. | |
Der englische Rundfunk berichtet das. | The English radio is reporting that. | |
Himmler. Unter allen ausgerechnet Himmler! | Himmler. Himmler, of all people! | |
Der Treueste der Treuen. | The most loyal of the loyal. | |
DAS IST DER SCHLIMMSTER VERRAT VON ALLEN! | THIS IS THE WORST BETRAYAL OF ALL! | |
Göring, ja. Er war korrupt, immer schon! | Göring, yes. He was corrupt, always was! | |
Speer, ja! Ein weltfremder, unberechenbarer Künstler! | Spear, yes! An unworldly, unpredictable artist! | |
All die anderen: JA, JA, JA, JA, JA! | All the others: YES, YES, YES, YES, YES! | |
Aber Himmler? Ja, ist er denn wahnsinnig geworden? | But Himmler? Yes, did he go insane? | |
UM SICH ZU AUTORISIEREN, BEHAUPTET ER, ICH WÄRE KRANK! | IN ORDER TO AUTHORIZE HIMSELF, HE CLAIMED THAT I WAS SICK! | |
JA, VIELLEICHT SCHON TOT! | YES, MAYBE ALREADY DEAD! | |
Bitte, lassen Sie mich mit Ritter von Greim und Fräulein Reitsch allein. | Please, leave me alone with Ritter von Greim and Fräulein Reitsch. | |
Und holen Sie mir Fegelein! | And bring me Fegelein! | |
LINGE | Mein Führer, wir wissen nicht, wo er sich im Moment aufhält. | My Führer, we don't know where he is at the moment. |
HITLER | Was soll das heißen? Er ist Himmler's Adjutant, er muss zur Verfügung stehen! | What do you mean by that? He is Himmler's adjutant, he must be available! |
BURGDORF | Wir haben ihn schon seit Tagen nicht mehr gesehen. | We haven't seen him in days. |
HITLER | Ich will sofort seinen Bericht! | I want his report at once! |
Sie bleiben, Doktor, bitte. | Stay here, Doctor, please. |
Trivia[]
- This is a critical scene in Der Untergang for Fegelein; this event starts the chain reaction which leads to Fegelein's execution. Had this not happened, Fegelein would've survived the war, although other factors could have played a role in Fegelein's Fahnenflucht and execution.
- In the Theatrical edition, the line of Hitler appointing Greim as commander of Luftwaffe is heard during the hallway shot, as that line was in the Extended version of the previous scene.
- This scene features Hitler getting furious over Himmler, much like the Günsche informs Hitler scene later on where he rants over Fegelein. Due to this, and Fegelein being Himmler's subordinate, the two people become the earliest characters associated with antics.
- Bormann informs Hitler scene has Hitler ranting over Hermann Göring but the latter's role is horribly reduced in the film, so he mainly avoided the antics connotation.
- Eva Braun, Traudl, von Greim, Hans Krebs, Gerda Christian, and Reitsch appear in the scene, but don't have any lines.
- Burgdorf, Goebbels, and Linge only have one line each.
- A line spoken by Hitler immediately before Linge enters the room is used in the Pros and Cons with Adolf Hitler series for when Hitler asks Günsche if there's "anymore questions".
- "DAS IST DER SCHLIMMSTE VERRAT VON ALLEN!" can be mondegreened in Chinese as "that's the shit!!! 造反啦!! to die".