''Goebbels und Geduldig'' is a 2002 German

war comedy A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the olde ...

television film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

about

Joseph Goebbels Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 19 ...

and

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, directed by Kai Wessel, written by Peter Steinbach, and starring

Ulrich Mühe Friedrich Hans Ulrich Mühe (; 20 June 1953 – 22 July 2007) was a German film, television and theatre actor. He played the role of Hauptmann (Captain) Gerd Wiesler in the Oscar-winning film ''Das Leben der Anderen'' (''The Lives of Others'', 200 ...

in the two titular roles.

Plot

Harry Geduldig is a Jewish

lookalike A look-alike, double, or doppelgänger is a person who bears a strong physical resemblance to another person, excluding cases like twins and other instances of family resemblance. Some look-alikes have been notable individuals in their own right, ...

of Goebbels, who has been held captive and a secret by

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...

ever since the Nazi rise to power in 1933. In 1944, Goebbels finds out about this and intends to liquidate his double. When the two men meet in person, Geduldig manages to escape and is from now on considered the real Goebbels by his entourage. Meanwhile the real Goebbels is held captive by Geduldig's prison wards and thought to be his own Jewish double.

Cast

/ Harry Geduldig *

Eva Mattes __notoc__ Eva Mattes (; born 14 December 1954) is an Austrian-German actress. She has appeared in four films directed by director Rainer Werner Fassbinder (''The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant'', ', ''Effi Briest'' and ''In a Year of 13 Moons' ...

Magda Goebbels Johanna Maria Magdalena "Magda" Goebbels (née Ritschel; 11 November 1901 – 1 May 1945) was the wife of Nazi Germany's Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. A prominent member of the Nazi Party, she was a close ally, companion, and politic ...

Götz Otto Götz Otto (born 15 October 1967) is a German film and television actor who is perhaps best known internationally for his roles as henchman Richard Stamper in the 1997 James Bond film ''Tomorrow Never Dies'', as Adolf Hitler's adjutant Otto Gün ...

: Brenneisen *

Dagmar Manzel Dagmar Manzel (born 1 September 1958) is a German actress. She has appeared in more than 80 films and television shows since 1979. She starred in the 1986 film ''So Many Dreams'', which was entered into the 37th Berlin International Film Festiva ...

: Grete Zipfel *

Dieter Pfaff Dieter Pfaff (2 October 1947 – 5 March 2013) was a German actor and director. The son of a police officer, Pfaff was best known as police officer Hans Sperling in the series ''Sperling''. Sperling also appeared in two films about Swed ...

: Eugen Haase *

Katharina Thalbach Katharina Thalbach (; actually ''Katharina Joachim genannt Thalbach''; born 19 January 1954) is a German actress and stage director. She played theatre at the Berliner Ensemble and at the Volksbühne Berlin, and was actress in the film ''The T ...

: Hertha Haase *

Katja Riemann Katja Hannchen Leni Riemann (, born 1 November 1963) is a German actress. The daughter of two teachers, Riemann grew up in Weyhe, near Bremen. After high school she went to Hamburg to study music and theater. She is the mother of actress Paula ...

Eva Braun Eva Anna Paula Hitler (; 6 February 1912 – 30 April 1945) was a German photographer who was the longtime companion and briefly the wife of Adolf Hitler. Braun met Hitler in Munich when she was a 17-year-old assistant and model for his ...

Jürgen Schornagel Jürgen Schornagel (born 1939) is a German actor. He has appeared in more than one hundred films since 1966. Selected filmography References External links * 1939 births Living people German male film actors {{Germany-actor-s ...

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

Tilo Prückner Tilo Prückner (26 October 1940 – 2 July 2020Heinrich Hoffmann Heinrich Hoffmann or Hoffman may refer to: Hoffmann * Heinrich Hoffmann (photographer) (1885–1957), German photographer *Heinrich Hoffmann (author) (1809–1894), German psychiatrist and author * Heinrich Hoffmann (sport shooter) (1869–?), Germ ...

Tobias Schenke Tobias Schenke (27 March 1981) is a German actor most famous for playing the character of Florian Thomas in '' Ants in the Pants'' and ' and the older Jürgen Bartsch in ''The Child I Never Was''. In 2002, he was a lead actor in Alexander Pfeuff ...

: Prisoner in Concentration Camp

Production

Due to its controversial nature as a Nazi

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...

, the film was in development for seven years, throughout which the script went through a number of substantial changes (18 different scripts were written). Even though the film was in fact finished in 2000, it was widely tested on international film festivals for two years to see how foreign and especially Jewish audiences would react to it, before it was eventually broadcast on ARD in 2002 after the broadcast had been announced and rescheduled several times.

Reception

German reviewers praised especially the performance of Mühe in his double role. The German ''Lexikon des internationalen Films'' praised the cleverly written satire script and its "enlightening wit".

External links

* 2001 films 2000s satirical films 2000s war comedy films 2001 comedy films 2001 television films German war comedy films 2000s German-language films German World War II films Cultural depictions of Adolf Hitler Cultural depictions of Joseph Goebbels Secret histories Films about Nazi Germany Films about lookalikes Films set in 1944 2000s German films {{2000s-Germany-film-stub