Ransom Riggs
Hitler’s Downfall Was Bad Subtitles
by Ransom Riggs - May 29, 2009 - 7:55 AM

downfall.jpg

You may remember a 2005 Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film called Downfall, about the last days of Hitler. It was almost universally lauded by critics — especially the performance of Bruno Ganz as the Great Dictator himself. You may not realize, however, that some three years later, the film became — and still remains — an internet meme, in which one scene in particular (where Hitler, shaking with impotent rage over battlefield maps, is told by his generals that all hope for the German cause is lost) has had its subtitles changed dozens of times now, making Ganz-as-Hitler seem to explode with fury not over the loss of his once-formidable empire, but being banned from Xbox Live, J.J. Abrams’ controversial adherence to Trekkie canon in the new Star Trek, or that his subtitles are wrong.

Let’s take a look at one of the most popular versions, “Real Estate Downfall.”


In this clip, Hitler’s displeased with the new Star Trek movie.

Hitler gets his Wikipedia editing privileges revoked, much to his dismay. (Also see videos pertaining to Hitler getting banned from World of Warcraft, Xbox Live, Twitter, Call of Duty 4 and, as if that weren’t enough, getting scammed on eBay. I daresay he just should just stay away from technology entirely.)

Finally, Hitler discovers that someone’s been messing with his subtitles. I bet he gets real mad!

You can follow my own personal downfall on Twitter.

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Comments (15)

  1. I’ve actually seen a few of the Hitler videos online.
    I honestly laughed and just thought it was real, and didn’t really think twice about it. Which is odd, because I know basic german and should have known the subtitles were wrong. Silly me!

    (I don’t think the one I saw was in this list though, which means there are more floating around out there! YAY!)

    posted by K. Schaubz on 5-29-2009 at 8:53 am

  2. There are definitely more out there. I encountered this first in the form of a version where he appears to be planning a folk music festival, and they’re having some flooding problems. Because the water prevents Bellowhead’s new enormous tour bus from reaching the stage, they either have to find a new venue (not in a field, Bellowhead refused to play in a field), or accept Show of Hands as a substitute act (who he describes as long-haired pillocks with no connection to the tradition).

    It probably only makes sense once you’ve seen live footage of both bands, of course…

    posted by MaW on 5-29-2009 at 9:11 am

  3. I just want to say thanks. I needed a good laugh after a long hard week. IMHO the ‘subtitles are wrong’ version is by far the funniest. Great Post!

    posted by TXCherokee on 5-29-2009 at 10:12 am

  4. The best one I’ve seen on Youtube was “The Downfall of Grammar.” I’ll have to check these out later when I’m not at work.

    posted by Meg on 5-29-2009 at 10:55 am

  5. This was amazing. Thanks!

    posted by Hastings on 5-29-2009 at 11:49 am

  6. The best one I’ve seen is Hitler ranting about Texas and the flawed BCS ranking system. Also check out the other Big 12 clips, especially Hitler realizing Texas A&M football is terrible..

    posted by Kristen on 5-29-2009 at 2:30 pm

  7. My favorite one (being a good New Englander) is the one where he is informed about the 2008 super bowl upset (Giants beating the 19-0 Patriots with 35 seconds left). If I wasn’t at work I’d link to the site, but alas youtube is blocked here (le sigh). Search for it though, it’s worth it!!

    posted by BioloBri on 5-29-2009 at 2:32 pm

  8. My favorite was when he exploded in anger over the Harry Potter movie theatre release being pushed back from winter to summer.

    posted by librarianhawk on 5-29-2009 at 3:16 pm

  9. Thank you so much for this.

    posted by bryn on 5-29-2009 at 4:08 pm

  10. I loved the Watchmen one where he was hoping to wear his Rorschach costume.

    posted by dan on 5-29-2009 at 4:40 pm

  11. Silly Adolf, the new ST movie takes place in an alternate timeline! You should watch it before you go crazy.

    posted by Jen Pen on 5-30-2009 at 3:13 am

  12. The only one I saw was of Hitler being outraged that Warner Brothers was giving their support to Blu-Ray, meaning that his HD-DVD format was going to be dead.

    That honestly kind of offended me. I got the impression it was a really immature insult to HD-DVD, because really, characterizing them as Hitler just seems way out of line. (The fact that “Downfall” was released by Sony, the people who make Blu-Ray, only made it more offensive to me.)

    posted by Sillstaw on 6-2-2009 at 4:46 pm

  13. anybody have the link to the real clip from the movie?

    posted by Amanda on 1-5-2010 at 6:19 pm

  14. anybody have a link to the clip from the actual movie, by chance?

    posted by Amanda on 1-5-2010 at 6:21 pm

  15. sorry bout the double post. thought it didn’t go thru the first time

    posted by Amanda on 1-5-2010 at 6:23 pm

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