History Characters / Downfall2004

** Unlike [[NeverMyFault the other examples]], most of his rant against [[GeneralFailure Göring]] is justified to some extent.

!!''Reichsmarschall'' Hermann Wilhelm Göring, Reich Minister for Aviation and Supreme Commander of the Air Force

* BadBoss: While he can be nice to the people daily around him, he has zero sympathy for his {{Mooks}}. During his most infamous rant, he also alludes to this, saying that he should have liquidated his generals like Stalin.

* PutOnABus: Just as quickly as he arrived, von Greim immediately leaves Berlin for Plön Platz to hunt down Himmler.

A ministerial director and head of the Radio Division in the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. Fritzche was Nazi Germany's most prominent radio commentator, as his distinctive voice was recognized by the majority of the civilians. In the film, he tries to send a telegram of surrender to Marshal Zhukov against Goebbels' orders, but is nearly shot by Wilhelm Burgdorf as a result. Upon the surrender in Berlin, Fritzche was imprisoned in Moscow and later acquitted in the Nuremberg trials. He died of cancer on September 23, 1953.

* AdaptedOut: His attempt to send a message of surrender to Marshal Zhukov is heavily condensed. In RealLife, he actually left the bunker for his office in Wilhelmplatz to write the letter of surrender, and Burgdorf followed him all the way there to prevent this. Burgdorf's gunshot was stopped by a radio technician rather than General Weidling and a crowd eventually forced the angry general to return to the bunker.

* DemotedToExtra: In the movie. Despite being one of the most prominent Nazi officials, [[TheVoiceless he doesn't get a single word]].

* YouHaveNoIdeaWhoYoureDealingWith: Krebs served as a military attache to the Russian embassy before the war, and as Chief of Staff of Army Group Centre on the Eastern Front, but he clearly has no idea that Chuikov commanded the 62nd Army at Stalingrad and saw firsthand exactly how far the Germans were willing to go for victory. If he had, he wouldn't have the temerity to suggest to Chuikov's face that a negotiated peace would be ''"good for both our countries."''

A colonel general in the Soviet Red Army and the highest-ranking Russian officer present in Berlin. He commanded several important formations during World War II including the Soviet 8th Guards Army (formerly the 62nd Army) which was the primary fighting force of the Red Army in Berlin. Chuikov was present when General Hans Krebs sought a negotiated surrender which he had no authority to grant and thus rejected anything but unconditional surrender. After the war, Chuikov would take over from Vasily Sokolovsky as commander-in-chief of Soviet occupying forces in Germany from 1949 to 1953 and eventually promoted to the nation's highest rank, Marshal of the Soviet Union. He passed away on March 18th, 1982.

* NotSoStoic: Weidling is a rock throughout the whole film, spending days at the frontline under artillery bombardment, calmly reporting to the Führer to argue against his own execution (successfully), daring to tell the other general officers that it's madness to keep fighting, and finally recording the radio announcement of Germany's surrender and his order for its troops to stand down. But as soon as the tape recorder clicks off, he can barely get out a request for a glass of water, before collapsing to the floor in a dead faint.

* NotSoStoic: Wiedling is a rock throughout the whole film, spending days at the frontline under artillery bombardment, calmly reporting to the Fuehrer to argue against his own execution (successfully), daring to tell the other general officers that it's madness to keep fighting, and finally recording the radio announcement of Germany's surrender and his order for its troops to stand down. But as soon as the tape recorder clicks off, he can barely get out a request for a glass of water, before collapsing to the floor in a dead faint.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: After enduring a surreal war council with Hitler, who insists that surrender is out of the question because General Wenck will launch the counter-attack that Steiner should have, Wiedling endures an even more surreal conversation with the remaining generals, who admit that Wenck has no forces with which to confront the Russians, but nevertheless Hitler's order not to surrender must be obeyed. When Burgdorf explodes that he refuses to repeat the humiliation of Germany's surrender after World War I, Wiedling curtly says he needs to leave the room, and Mohnke follows him out.

* EtTuBrute: After his confession, Hitler refuses to say farewell to him, shake his hand or even look at him in the eye. When Speer leaves the room, Hitler is shown shedding ManlyTears. However, he doesn't have him executed and lets him go, perhaps because Speer had the courage to admit it to his face, unlike Himmler and Goering.

* OnlySaneMan: The first one to consider an unconditional surrender to the Soviets and the other Allies, and tries to talk Hitler out of his suicidal [[SaltTheEarth Nero Decree policy]].

* UriahGambit: Unlike Fegelein, who begs Hitler to leave Berlin, Speer tells Hitler that "[he] should be on stage when the curtain falls." Later it's revealed that Speer disobeyed Hitler's orders to burn down Germany because he wanted Germany to have a future, a future where Hitler will have no part in.

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: In an exercise of {{Realpolitik}}, he believes the Allies want to keep the former Nazi regime in power to prevent the Communists from taking over. He either doesn't know that the Allies have found the [[ThisIsUnforgivable death camps]] (unlikely), or hasn't figured out that the Allies now don't consider the Nazis the lesser evil to ''anything'', and for moral reasons will ''never'' allow the Nazi regime to remain[[note]]he's not entirely wrong that the Allies would be willing to keep some Nazis in power, however, as a massive chunk of the future Bundeswehr's leadership and officers would be made up of former Wehrmacht and even some SS personnel. He's just wrong in assuming that anyone would be willing to keep ''him'' in power after what he did.[[/note]].

* ItsAllAboutMe: He wants to negotiate peace terms with the Allies, but not out of concern for the German people. Rather it's because he knows he will be punished for being the architect of the Holocaust if he doesn't use early peace talks as leverage to spare his life (and possibly become the new leader of Germany as the [[TheQuisling Allies' puppet]]).

* PleaOfPersonalNecessity: He plans to do this when he meets Eisenhower. He assures Fegelein that the Allies need to keep order in Germany after the war (i.e. after Hitler's death) and the SS is the only group capable of doing so. What Himmler fails to realize is that while the Allies may need German troops to keep order, they do not want a notorious criminal responsible for the death camps to be in charge of any peacekeeping organization.

** He finds Goebbels' usage of the Volkstrum volunteers as mere CannonFodder to be senseless and is horrified that Goebbels doesn't care.

* PragmaticVillainy: He tries to persuade Goebbels that sending the Volksturm to their deaths is not even useful as a military tactic, since they have no proper weapons or even good combat experience to be efficient CannonFodder. Goebbels rebukes him, all but stating that the real reason he's sending Volksturm to the frontlines [[InsaneTrollLogic is to punish them for putting the Nazis in power]].

* SenselessSacrifice: Is against using the Volksturm volunteers for this reason.

* TokenEvilTeammate: Of the Allied leaders, due to being a ruthless dictator. The Germans in Berlin fear leaving under his rule.

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: In an exercise of {{Realpolitik}}, he believes the Allies want to keep the former Nazi regime in power to prevent the Communists from taking over. He either doesn't know that the Allies have found the [[ThisIsUnforgivable death camps]] (unlikely), or hasn't figured out that the Allies now don't consider the Nazis the lesser evil to ''anything'', and for moral reasons will ''never'' allow the Nazi regime to remain[[note]]he's not entirely wrong that the Allies would be willing to keep some Nazi in power, however, as a massive chunk of the future Bundeswehr's leadership and officers would be made up of former Wehrmacht and even some SS personnel. He's just wrong in assuming that anyone would be willing to keep ''him'' in power after what he did.[[/note]].

!!!'''Dubbed by:''' Creator/GeorgesClaisse (European French)