As the credits roll at the end of Mein Fuhrer: The Truly Truest Truth About Adolf Hitler, a number of Germans – young, old, Caucasian and not – are seen being asked who Adolf Hitler was. Some of the responses, all of which the audience is presumably expected to believe genuine, seem to stretch the realms of credulity. At the same time, though, they could be said to be quite a bit less imaginative than the portrait of the Nazi leader painted over the course of the previous 90 minutes or so of film.

Much earlier on in this cinematic work set during the last few days of 1944 and New Year’s Day 1945, it is stated about Hitler that “millions of men went to war for him” and “millions of women wanted to have his child”. The makers of Mein Fuhrer then proceed to characterize this infamous man as a self-described “hopeless case” who wet his bed, was impotent and whose bullying ways he inherited from the father who humiliated and beat him more than once in his youth – presumably because “we want to understand what we can’t understand” as much as for comic effect.

Why comic effect? Because this offering from director Daniel Levy has been touted as the German film industry’s first comedy about Hitler in more than 50 years. However, even while the movie does have some absurd moments, too many scenes are alternately sad, serious, chilling and thought provoking – and too few genuinely laugh-out-loud – to deliver on that promise. Additionally, although it is obvious Mein Fuhrer focuses on Hitler, the heart, soul and conscience of this film actually lies with another Adolf.

Adolf Israel Gruenbaum (Ulrich Muehe) first appears on screen as an inmate of the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen. A former professor and theatrical luminary, the modest-sized man is asked by propaganda-meister Joseph Goebbels (Sylvester Groth) to help the Fuhrer (Helge Schneider) prepare for a major public appearance in front of 12 cameras and an audience of a million Berliners. (Along the way, the Jewish man is also, almost incidentally, requested not to take the ‘final solution’ personally!)
Although Gruenbaum would rather kill than coach the man responsible for the unjust incarceration and deaths of millions, he agrees to the assignment subject to certain conditions, one of which is that he is reunited with his family, including loving wife Elsa (Adriana Altaras), with another being that Sachsenhausen will be shut down. The former demand is met but, almost needless to say, the latter is not. But even if its actual conclusion is predictable, the depiction of the attempt to deceive Gruenbaum into believing that something is true when it’s not has a strong emotional impact.

Judging from a lot of the goings-on in Mein Fuhrer, Hitler was also subjected to copious doses of Goebbels’ ‘staged reality’. Due in part to this, he can – as Gruenbaum, and the audience, at times horrifyingly find – come across as an object of pity and even sympathy. To say the least, that is not what most people would expect to feel about a man many would suggest was evil personified. And most definitely not when viewing a comedy! Consequently, more than most films, Mein Fuhrer confounds expectations – though whether for better or worse individual viewers must decide for themselves.

Yvonne Teh