Germans learn to laugh at Hitler

Is it supposed to be part of the fun that the author of the text below is named "Rosenberg"?

He has put one finger under his nose like a fascist moustache, and has one leg raised in the air as if he is about to goose-step down the street.

This is not some kind of illegal neo-Nazi demonstration - it's the red carpet at a film premiere.

In the cinema behind, they are about to show Germany's first ever mainstream comedy about Adolf Hitler.

The film, Mein Fuehrer - the Truly Truest Truth about Adolf Hitler, shows a dramatically different image of the Nazi leader from the one Germans are used to seeing at their cinemas.

In one scene, Hitler, played by a top German comedian, is splashing about in the bath with his toy battleship.

This Hitler is a manic depressive, who is sexually impotent and wets his bed. He is reduced to a bumbling buffoon.

"Making comedies about hateful people is weird! Usually you're making comedies about people you really love," he told the BBC.

"As a Jewish person who's been living in Berlin more than 25 years, I felt I needed a new approach, and create a comedy to deconstruct the Nazi figures, to have a better understanding of what made German people follow Adolf Hitler."

More than 60 years after his death, Adolf Hitler's murderous rule still feeds a sense of collective guilt, and collective responsibility in Germany.

But Germans are learning to laugh out loud about some aspects of the Nazi regime.

"In the 1960s, the younger generation - the sons and daughters of the perpetrators - were asking hard questions," Rudolph says, "and making jokes about the subject would have been totally inappropriate in their eyes.

"Now there's a new generation and I guess we have a more distant view. Without neglecting the horrors of what happened we can also see the ridiculousness of the top brass in this regime".

Too depressed to give his big speech to the people, he demands that a former acting coach, who is Jewish, be brought in to help boost his confidence.

In this picture, Adolf Hitler comes across as a sick, weak individual, used by those around him.

"He had a horrible childhood, so he is traumatised and I feel some pity for him. He is surrounded by horrifying creatures, like Goebbels and Goering, everyone is using him like a puppet.

"This is something I find quite dangerous, because Hitler is responsible for everything that happened in Germany, and especially the Holocaust."

As Mein Fuehrer hits cinema screens across Germany, what is interesting is that the debate here is no longer about whether it is right or wrong to laugh about Hitler.

Even local Jewish groups have said they have nothing against making fun of the Nazis.

The question is what kind of jokes and what kind of humour are appropriate, and - ultimately - whether the film is good or bad. And that's a sign that Germany is slowly moving on, out of the shadows of its Nazi past."

Do you think this movie can make people remember and wish to learn more about the real historical background to it?

I don't know. I would hope that most people know the historical background. And I think the main reason this satire would be funny is because people who remember Hitler or know about him and hate him would enjoy watching satire in which a Hitler character is humiliated. I can't spit on his grave but I can laugh at jokes about him - that sort of thing.

''It bothers me to no end that Germans are now able, and so eager, to make light of their crimes against humanity. How soon, and how conveniently, they forget''

That's utter BS. Nobody - I know over here - wants to forget anything. But the real problem today are people like you, who are unable to differentiate, and try to judge people by their heritage, race or wrong deeds( supposedly or real) of past generations in a collective manner. This was exactly what the NAZIS did. What an irony!!

No, the problem isn't people like me who won't forget; it's people like you who chuckle at comedy skits about tossing millions of people into ovens.

Don't cry about collective punishment. Collective punishment for collective deeds... Seems right to me. If you prefer, let's exempt the one German in a couple of thousand Germans who might have behaved admirably after Hitler's rise to power. That could well be you. But for heaven's sake, let's at least ostracize the rest. And that's all it is. It's not like we're throwing Germans into gas chambers.

By rights, every German should hang his head in shame for 50 million years. One year for every person who died in that war (and we won't mention Germany's earlier pogroms, for which there has NEVER been the slightest hint of personal or collective regret). That's not too much to ask, is it? If you take a life, throw a baby onto a bonfire, say, you should feel bad for at least a year because of it, shouldn't you? But no! Germans can barely muster 50 years of remorse for killing 50 million people and now actually want to make a big joke out of it.

First of all: The one who wants "to make a big joke out of it" is a SWISS jew (Dany Levi). Is it ok to laugh about Hitler? Certainly, the guy was a cretin. Is it ok to make fun of the Holocaust? Personally, I don't think so, I found "La vita e bella" utterly tasteless.

Secondly: Once you're two to three generations removed, certain events enter into history. Whether that's good or bad is not up for discussion, it's simply an unavoidable fact. A German born in the 1910s had been instilled with an insatiable rage towards France during his childhood (due to the unequivocally unjust Treaty of Versailles). A Western German child of the 1970s like myself grew up 3 miles from a US army base, played with his or American neighbors and slowly came to realize that if there should ever be a nuclear war, both Germanys would be hit first and the hardest.

Yes, history must be remembered, but you can't hold someone who by pure coincidence was born a German and not an American or Briton, PERSONALLY responsible for the crimes of his or her great-grandparents. Even collective guilt only goes so far.

So while I totally agree with you that certain things simply aren't funny, I also have to point out that remembrance indeed is possible without perpetuating blantant racism and anti-German stereotypes.

''Is it ok to laugh about Hitler? Certainly, the guy was a cretin. Is it ok to make fun of the Holocaust? Personally, I don't think so, I found "La vita e bella" utterly tasteless.''
Personally, I agree to this as well. But living in a free society, we have to live with the fact, that other people have other ideas. And despite the fact, that they are not even of German nationality, we got the blame, as usual.

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