History Characters / Downfall

->'''Portrayed by:''' Aline Sokar, Amelie Menges, Gregory Borlein, Laura Borlein, Julia Bauer

* OnlySaneMan: The first one to consider an unconditional surrender to the Soviets and the other Allies.

* LickedByTheDog: Licked by the Goebbels kids and Traudl

%%* MoodSwinger

%%* YouHaveFailedMe

%%* LifeOfTheParty

* YouAreInCommandNow: After Hitler's suicide

%%* DrivenToSuicide

%%* TurnCoat

%%* VillainProtagonist

%%* DrivenToSuicide

%%* StepfordSmiler

* UnholyMatrimony: With Hitler

%%* InfantImmortality: Ouch...

* WarIsHell: In case the audience didn’t yet get the message.

%%* AntiVillain

* 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.

%%* OnlySaneMan

%%* NeverMyFault

Chief Adjutant of the Wermacht Heer during the closing days of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. As a veteran of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, Burgdorf was passionate about preventing a repeat of Germany's humiliation after that war, and thus sworn fealty to Hitler, including having to facilitate the suicide of ErwinRommel as punishment for an assassination attempt on Hitler. At the war's end he and Krebs handled Fegelein's court-martial, and both also committed suicide on May 2, 1945.

->'''Portrayed by:''' Thomas Kretschmann

!!Hitler's inner circle

Brigadier General and one of the original 120 members of the SS during its inception in 1933. Renowned for his meritorious service in France during the opening days of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, he was eventually transferred into Berlin to personally lead the portion of the city's LastStand within the vicinity of Hitler's hideout. After the war's end he was imprisoned by the Soviets for a decade before returning to Germany, where he spent the rest of his life as a truck dealer until his death on August 6, 2001.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: As with Schenck, some critics accuse the film of portraying him in too heroic light while forgetting his alleged war crimes; again the director answers he doesn't believe in the accusations.

* VillainousBreakdown: Falls down on her knees and begs Hitler to escape from Berlin instead of committing suicide. When turned down, she breaks down in hysteric crying and has to be dragged away by Günsche. In contrast, she shows no fear or sadness while calmly waiting for her husband to shoot her.

* HeyItsThatGuy: This isn't the first time Thomas Kretschmann has played a Nazi. You may also recognize him from ''Resident Evil Apocalypse'' as Timothy Cain.
** He has also played a Nazi in films such as ''Film/ThePianist'', ''Film/{{Valkyrie}}'', ''Film/{{Stalingrad}}''…

* FanNickname: “The Map Pointer”

* FanNickname: "Boozing Burgdorf", and less commonly "Fast-Talkin' Boozin' Burgdorf"

* HeyItsThatGuy: Apparently [[Film/InglouriousBasterds Eric the Bartender]] somehow survived the MexicanStandoff and became a doctor.

* FanNickname: "Bonkers" - Due to the difficulty English-speaking viewers sometimes have in pronouncing his name, many fansubs have taken to calling him "General Bonkers", because "Mohnke" sounds somewhat close to this. The in-universe fan-joke is that Hitler is the kind of annoying boss who invents demeaning pet names for his subordinates, but Mohnke is too afraid of Hitler to correct him. Other joke fansubs straight-up say that "Bonkers" is his actual name.

* BigBad

* BreakTheHaughty
* TheCaligula
* ChewingTheScenery
* DrivenToSuicide
* FauxAffablyEvil

* HotBlooded

* LargeHam

* ManipulativeBastard

* AMillionIsAStatistic
* MoodSwinger
* TheNapoleon
* NiceToTheWaiter
* NeverMyFault

* StrawNihilist

* YouHaveFailedMe

* VillainProtagonist
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity

* DrivenToSuicide

* LifeOfTheParty

* StepfordSmiler

* WhileRomeBurns

* DrivenToSuicide

* {{Gonk}}

* ProfessionalButtKisser

* DrivenToSuicide

* IceQueen
* LadyMacbeth

* TheStoic

* UndyingLoyalty

* {{Cheerful Child}}ren
* ChildrenAreInnocent
* InfantImmortality: Ouch...

* AntiVillain

* NiceGuy
* OnlySaneMan

* AffablyEvil

* DrivenToSuicide

* FourEyesZeroSoul

* TheStarscream
* TurnCoat

* TheFriendNobodyLikes

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

* BreakTheCutie

* CurtainsMatchTheWindow

* HeelRealization[=/=]HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Until her dying day, Traudl never forgave herself for not seeing Hitler as the monster he was. To quote an interview with the RealLife Traudl at the end of the film...

* NiceGirl
* PluckyGirl

* TokenGoodTeammate

* TheQuietOne

* TheStoic

* DrivenToSuicide

* PrettyLittleHeadshots
* RedOniBlueOni: The blue to Burgdorf’s red.

* DrivenToSuicide

* HotBlooded

* PrettyLittleHeadshots
* RedOniBlueOni: The red to Krebs’ blue.

* BaldOfAwesome
* HerrDoktor

* TheMedic

* PunchClockVillain
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight

* OnlySaneMan

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure
* TheStoic

* PunchClockVillain

* ActionSurvivor

* BreakTheCutie

* {{Child Soldier|s}}

An SS Major and Hitler's personal adjutant. As one of the saner characters of the movie, all he did was stand by and wait for Hitler's orders, including having to cremate his body. He was later captured by the Soviets and served a decade in Russian and East German prisons, during which time he wrote his own account of life with Hitler, specifically prepared for JosephStalin. He died peacefully on October 2, 2003.

Head of the ''Oberkommando der Wehrmacht'' (effectively making him the war minister) and one of Hitler's most prominent yes-men. He signed the documents that accepted France's surrender and declared Germany's surrender. Despite being the third in the German chain-of-command (behind Hitler and Göring), Keitel's job eventually devolved into applying his signatures to various papers, including a decree that condemned millions of Russian prisoners and civilians to brutality by their German captors. After being ordered to regroup with Admiral Dönitz, Keitel began to grovel before him just as he did before Hitler. He was hanged on October 16, 1946 (like a criminal), after being denied by the Allies a request to be shot by firing squad (like a soldier).

* YesMan: Even midway through the war, he refused to speak up to Hitler. When Luftwaffe Intelligence picked up vast Soviet fighters ready for deployment, Göring insisted they were merely dummies and Keitel ''still'' agreed with this bogus claim.

This is the character sheet for the German UsefulNotes/WW2 movie ''Film/{{Downfall}}''. The movie has become famous in the internetland for the long living Website/YouTube Meme ''WebVideo/HitlerRants'' (which now has [[Characters/HitlerRants its own character page]]) it has given birth to. Tropes listed here are related to the original movie only. Tropes for UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler should only reflect his character as seen through this movie.

* SayMyName: FEGELEIN! FEGELEIN! FEGELEIN!

* ThatsAnOrder: Steiner’s assault was an order! In general Hitler is unwilling of tolerating any kind of opposition to his will.

* AmbitionIsEvil: Not interested in the Nazi ideology or serving his country, but advancing his own position. Fegelein was deeply disliked by many both in RealLife (Speer described him as one of the most disgusting men in Hitler’s circle) and to some extend in the movie (Burgdorf calls him a careerist at his face.)

This is the character sheet for the German WW2 movie ''Film/{{Downfall}}''. The movie has become famous in the internetland for the long living Website/YouTube Meme ''WebVideo/HitlerRants'' (which now has [[Characters/HitlerRants its own character page]]) it has given birth to. Tropes listed here are related to the original movie only. Tropes for UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler should only reflect his character as seen through this movie.

The principal character of the movie, Austrian-born AdolfHitler rose to power in his adopted Germany as Führer in 1933 with a promise to bring Germany back to [[YeGoodeOldeDays its glory days]] when it ruled much of the world. As of the movie's span, however, Hitler has become a shrunken, near-defeated shell of a man who would ultimately put a bullet through his skull on April 30, 1945.

Chief Adjutant of the Wermacht Heer during the closing days of WorldWarII. As a veteran of WorldWarI, Burgdorf was passionate about preventing a repeat of Germany's humiliation after that war, and thus sworn fealty to Hitler, including having to facilitate the suicide of ErwinRommel as punishment for an assassination attempt on Hitler. At the war's end he and Krebs handled Fegelein's court-martial, and both also committed suicide on May 2, 1945.

Brigadier General and one of the original 120 members of the SS during its inception in 1933. Renowned for his meritorious service in France during the opening days of WorldWarII, he was eventually transferred into Berlin to personally lead the portion of the city's LastStand within the vicinity of Hitler's hideout. After the war's end he was imprisoned by the Soviets for a decade before returning to Germany, where he spent the rest of his life as a truck dealer until his death on August 6, 2001.

* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Is ashamed of his WorldWarI veteran father, who tries to order him and his [[ChildSoldiers Nazi Youth friends]] to give up fighting or even employ a modicum of sense in defending their position, as their cause is lost, and more importantly because [[JustAKid they’re just kids]] who can’t do any real good in a battle.

* FanNickname: “Dolfy”

* UndyingLoyalty: Stays in the bunker until everyone else have left.

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: He believes the Allies want to keep the former Nazi regime in power to prevent the Communists from taking over. It escapes him that after all the horrendous crimes they've committed, any human of normal moral code wouldn't consider co-operating with them for a split second.

This is the character sheet for the German WW2 movie ''Film/{{Downfall}}''. The movie has become famous in the internetland for the long living Website/YouTube Meme ''WebVideo/HitlerRants'' (which now has [[Characters/HitlerRants its own character page]]) it has given birth to. Tropes listed here are related to the original movie only.

* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Is ashamed of his WorldWarI veteran father, who tries to order him and his [[ChildSoldiers Nazi Youth friends]] to give up fighting, as their cause is lost, and more importantly because [[JustAKid they’re just kids]] who can’t do any real good in a battle.