From political instability to totalitarian rule

Berlin 1933. The newspaper of a capital

Tuesday January 24, at 8:55 p.m. on Arte

From 1933, the Weimar Republic in Germany suffered a triple crisis: economic, with hyperinflation and rising unemployment; sanitary, with the spread of disease; and politics, with confrontations in the streets and even recurring murders. The documentary traces the way in which a soldier from the Bavarian troops of the First World War, Adolf Hitler, was able to take advantage of this social climate to enter the government, to impose a totalitarian regime.

Divided into two parts of an hour and a half each, Berlin 1933 is constructed from writings – diaries, letters, political speeches, press articles – the reading of which accompanies the archive images. It is the main contribution of this polyphonic documentary to offer the point of view of diplomats, journalists, Nazi dignitaries and critics of the regime.

The first part is devoted to Hitler’s installation in power, from January to May 1933. We see this outstanding orator, who was able to negotiate a chancellor’s status at the end of January, hastily form a government, acclaimed by Berliners, torn between suspicion and hope. With the reconquest of power, he intends to break with the wanderings of democracy and eradicate Marxism.

The establishment of the anti-Semitic regime is the subject of the second part of the documentary, from the banning of Jews from holding positions in the fields of justice and medicine to the burning in front of the Berlin Opera, condemning at the stake the books of a hundred Jewish authors. From July, Hitler eradicated his opponents and instituted press censorship. Multi-award winning director Volker Heise was able to create an immersive, very dense chronology to account for the effects of this totalitarian regime on German society, during a disastrous year of changeover.

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