Synopsis
More than any other Hitler biography, the Chronicles depict everyday European life between 1889 and 1945 in impressive images, many of them in color.Based on the most extensive compilation of archive material to date, with almost half of it previously unpublished sources, Hitler's life is shown in detail against the social backdrop of the first half of the 20th century in a contemporary interpretation.
The film roots Hitler's life story in a fifty-year period that will also be examined in parallel and provides the basis for understanding the person – if this is at all possible. The film relates the life of Adolf Hitler as it interacts with and responds to Austrian and German society as well as the national and international political trends and events during the first half of the 20th century.
The film makes no attempt at a speculative psychological interpretation of Adolf Hitler's actions, rise to power and criminal acts based on his personal background and the social circumstances. The makers instead see the "Führer" as a welcome and willingly accepted "projection" of a large part of the German nationalist circles. In these traditionally authoritarian and ultimately "apolitical" sections of society, Hitler's actions and those of his followers express and highlight a latent chauvinistic consciousness, which ultimately led to the catastrophe of World War II and the holocaust. The writer and producer therefore consider it possible to avoid giving the viewer answers, to confront contradictory statements of contemporaries with others, including Hitler's, and to limit the commentary to the hard and established facts.
The film is produced in HD quality. Many of the historic film sources have been scanned again in HD and are restored where possible. The result is a new, modern visual aesthetic, which is essential to achieve acceptance among an audience that is increasingly accustomed to ultra-sharp "glossy images" (especially in the case of younger viewers). The mostly silent original sources are dubbed as faithfully as possible, giving a historically appropriate atmosphere to achieve a contemporary form of representation even with respect to the soundtrack.