One of the hallmarks of this miniseries about the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany is the amount of liberties it took with history. It got so bad that Ian Kershaw - the renowned historian brought on as an advisor for the show, whose deeply researched two-volume biography of Hitler even inspired the show - regretted ever taking part to it and wondered why he was brought on in the first place, because he felt that everything he said was being ignored.
- Some anachronisms:
- Several German soldiers, including Hitler, can be seen using the Karabiner 98k rifle during World War I and in the 1920s. That rifle was introduced in 1935.
- When Ernst Hanfstaengl sees Hitler speak for the first time, a swastika banner can be seen in the background, well before Hitler chose that as his symbol historically.
- The Parteiadler (party eagle) appears while Hitler speaks in Munich in 1923. It did not get adopted until he assumed power in January 1933.
- Hitler had blue eyes, something none of the actors playing him in the series have. His contemporaries often noted his "hypnotic gaze" that added to his charisma.
- Hitler's mother and father (Klara Hitler and Alois Hitler) were first cousins once removed (Alois' grandparents were Klara's great-grandparents) instead of uncle and niece. She only called him "uncle" because Alois and Klara were Practically Different Generations—he was 23 years her senior.
- Alois Hitler did die of a heart attack, but he was visiting the local pub (inn) at the time, not in front of his wife and son during a heated argument.
- The doctor who treated Hitler's mother for cancer is depicted as noticeably Hasidic. Austrian Jews of the turn of the century were among the most assimilated and liberal in all of Europe, so most dressed, behaved, and looked like Austrian Christians. Hitler himself noted in Mein Kampf that he never saw a Hasidic Jew until he moved to Vienna... a passage they actually quote in this very production. The real man who treated his mother, Eduard Bloch
, was no exception. - In the series, Hitler goes to Germany just on the outbreak of World War I in 1914. In reality, he moved to Germany in 1913.
- Hitler is told he's being deployed to the Eastern Front, right before the gas attack that blinds him. The Eastern Front ended in March 1918, with Russia collapsing due to the Bolshevik Revolution, seven months before Hitler being sent to hospital. There was still a sizable German force in the area between the Baltic and Black Seas to occupy the short-lived client states that were carved out of the Russian Empire, but many of their eastern units were redirected west. Hitler only served on the Western Front, and never received any orders to go East.
- Also, during that above scene, German soldiers remark that they're so close to Paris that they can "smell perfume from the city". The Germans made their closest approach to Paris during the first month of the war in 1914 and were stopped around the Marne river. In 1918, the closest Germans could push towards Paris was 65 kilometers. Of course, they could just be speaking hyperbolically.
- When Hitler is in the hospital, one of the doctors announces that Germany has surrendered. In actuality, Germany had only signed an Armistice with the Allies. Furthermore, for most Germans the Armistice had been long expected. The abdication of the Kaiser would have been much more of a shock.
- When Hitler returns to Munich after the war, he witnesses a couple of Communist revolutionaries toppling a statue of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Not only did such a specific incident not occur in Munich (it did occur in places such as Strasbourg, Alsace, which was reannexed by the French after World War I), it is also never clarified why there is a statue of Wilhelm II in Munich to begin with. Wilhelm was officially the King of Prussia as well as the "German Emperor"note , but quite explicitly not the monarch of the Kingdom of Bavaria.note
- When the Beer Hall Putsch collapses, Hitler is depicted fleeing to the Hanfstaengl home, where he is immediately arrested. He was actually arrested two days later.
- The Enabling Act and the Reichstag Fire Decree are conflated into a single act, somehow.
- The Enabling Act is shown as passing only with Nazi Party support. In reality, nearly every single party in the Reichstag supported the bill. The Communists had been banned due to the earlier Reichstag Fire Decree so weren't present, and the Centre and other moderate parties had been cowed into accepting the bill with promises and threats (namely by the SS surrounding the building vowing to retaliate if they didn't vote "yes"). Only the 94 members of the Social Democratic Party voted against the bill, to Hitler's rage.
- After Hitler finishes reading the provisions of the Enabling Act, Göring then gives the Nazi salute and sings "Deutschlandlied," immediately followed by all the Nazis, and soon joined by non-Nazi representatives. This did not happen in reality.
- The scenes in the Kroll Opera House make it look like the Nazis control a majority of the seats. The Nazis were never able to win a majority of seats. Even when Hitler had been appointed chancellor and had turned Germany into a police state, the best they could manage was 44% of the vote. They only got a majority as part of a coalition government (which, obviously, they later nullified when they cowed their partners into accepting a one-party state).
- Hermann Göring, Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich and Rudolf Hess are all either minor characters or non-existent in the story. In reality all of these men played a huge role in Hitler's rise to power. Trusted putsch comrades of Hitler like Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter, Robert Heinrich Wagner and Friedrich Weber are not featured either. On the other side of the coin, Ernst Hanfstaengl is given a vastly elevated role in Hitler's political rise.
- Hitler is depicted as recruiting Ludendorff to the far-right cause to lend himself credibility. In reality, it was taken for granted by all far-right parties and groups that Ludendorff was their de facto leader and future dictator of Germany since immediately following the end of the war. Ditto with Röhm, who was the leader of the Steel Helmets, a powerful paramilitary group and the most influential extremist organization in Bavaria until the Nazi party swallowed them up. Röhm and Hitler were also much closer in Real Life than the movie depicts as well.
- At Hitler's trial, he is fined 200 goldmarks. The goldmark refers to German currency when the country was on the gold standard, which Germany stopped using in 1914. In actually, Hitler's fine for the Beer Hall Putsch was 500 Reichsmarks.
- Ernst Röhm is present for the Bamberg Conference in 1926. He was actually in Bolivia from 1925 until 1930.
- When the Reichstag is set on fire, Hitler is shown arriving to inspect the damage the following morning. He actually arrived just as the fire was being put out around midnight.
- After Röhm is executed, Hitler tells the SA members that he's incorporating them into the Reichswehr. This never happened. While the SA had their numbers significantly cut after the Night of the Long Knives, they remained a separate organization up to the end of the war.
- Paul von Hindenburg's funeral happened at the Tannenberg Memorial in East Prussia (now part of Poland), the mini-series features said monument but somehow locates it in Berlin. Also, the funeral is said to be taking place on August 2, 1934, which is actually the date that Hindenburg died. The actual funeral took place five days later, on August 7, 1934.
- At Hindenburg's funeral, Göring announces to the assembled troops that the offices of president and chancellor will be merged, making Hitler the sole leader of Germany. There was actually a national referendum on the matter, albeit one in which voter intimidation made the outcome certain from the beginning, and this was held on August 19, 1934, after the funeral.
