Goebbels and Geduldig (German: Goebbels und Geduldig) is a 2001 German black comedy/dramedy TV film directed by Kai Wessel and written by Peter F. Steinbach.
In Nazi Germany, Harry Geduldig (Ulrich Mühe) is a Jewish man who happens to look exactly like Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels (also played by Mühe). He has been held captive in a castle and an absolute secret ever since the Nazis gained power in 1933 for this reason. 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 as Goebbels by his entourage, while the real Goebbels is held captive by Geduldig's prison wards and thought to be his own double.
This film provides examples of the following tropes:
- Black Comedy: A comedy film set in the dark times that were Nazi Germany and World War II.
- Fat Bastard: SS Standartenführer Eugen Haase is fat, prone to Kick the Dog and has an inflated opinion of himself if a painting of him as a medieval knight with a steel helmet and swastika armband is any indication.
- Identical Stranger: Geduldig and Goebbels look strikingly similar.
- Identity Impersonator: Geduldig finds himself having to impersonate Goebbels.
- Kick the Dog: SS Standartenführer Haase tells the young Jewish inmate played by Tobias Schenke to go as if he was sparing his life, only to shoot him In the Back when he's upstairs.
- Tagline: " ̶B̶r̶o̶w̶n̶ Black satire".
- Those Wacky Nazis:
- Goebbels is ridiculed on several occasions.
- Standartenführer Haase is so full of himself that he has a ridiculous portrait of himself as a medieval knight painted by a servant.
- Time Skip: The first twelve minutes of the film take place shortly after 1933. Then there's a time skip to April 1944.
