Doomed to repeat

'Look Who's Back'

'Er ist Wieder Da' (Look Who's Back) - film review

As I wrote in an earlier post, a new comedy film in Germany has caused tremendous controversy and not a little soul-searching among the German people.

Er ist Wieder Da is the half film, half mocumentary-style adaptation of the 2012 bestselling German satirical novel about Adolf Hitler by Timur Vermes. The book was published in the UK as Look Who's Back.

Marketed very much as a comedy, the film uses the monster from Germany's past as a comedy tool with which to explore the German (and European) people's darkening attitudes to multiculturalism and immigration, pitching parallels with pre-fascist 1930s Germany with razor sharp clarity.

In 2011, Adolf Hitler wakes up in a small patch of scrubland in Berlin, with no memory of anything that happened after 1945. Initially unaware of the intervening years he determines to continue his plans for Europe to fruition, interpreting everything he sees in 2011 from a Nazi perspective (for instance, he assumes that Turks in Germany are an indicator of Karl Dönitz having persuaded Turkey to join the Axis) — and although everyone recognises him, nobody believes that he is Hitler; instead, they think he is either a comedian, or a method actor. He meets a documentary film-maker who sees comedy potential and seeks to cash in.

So far, so fish-out-of-water slapstick funny: Hitler discovers the internet and, when invited, searches Wikipedia for 'world domination'. He laments with a dog-breeder about how the German Shepherd eventually loses its identity when it reproduces with other breeds. He pours utter disdain on modern-day German politics, but sees hope in 'a bunch of oddballs called the Green Party', misintepreting their ecological policies for a desire to preserve the pure Germanic hinterland – although, 'of course, their rejection of atomic energy is absurd!'

A TV channel, realising the ratings potential of their new star, puts Hitler on as many of their shows and internet platforms as possible. Of course, this gives him access to millions of German viewers, allowing him to transmit his propaganda of German nationhood, Aryan purity and National Socialism in ways that, as he notes while sneering at the banality of daytime TV, Nazi propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels could barely dream of.

In a remarkable performance, actor Oliver Masucci plays Hitler dead straight from the opening scene, not as a comedy send-up, but as a shrewd and charismatic political operator and orator.

21^st Century Germany celebrates what it sees as a post-modern satirical performance on their TV, a ridiculous character designed to mock and traduce the national collective memory of Hitler. The videos of his angry rants become hugely successful on YouTube, and he achieves modern celebrity status as a performer. You can almost feel the German people laughing with relief at being given the chance to finally puncture the pomposity of the figurehead from their darkest history. “Look at how ridiculous he was! How did people ever fall for it all?”

But as the film goes on, the story begins to turn, pivoting darkly around Hitler, the politician. 

On a tour of Germany, filmed as a documentary, ordinary real-life Germans open their hearts to Hitler, often expressing prejudiced views about foreigners and immigrants and 'bearded men' (Muslims) in their country, complaining that if they ever say anything about it then they are labelled a racist. One man even suggests bringing back work camps for homeless immigrants.

What is remarkable here is that these views aren't coming from radicals or fringe lunatics, but from normal, middle class people simply confronted by a chap dressed as Hitler.

Our Hitler's determination to continue where he left off in 1945 sees him meet the genuine leaders of the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany and the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany, has selfies taken with sieg heil-ing football fans, encouraging a physical attack on a young antifascist, and talks with one particular man who asks for the camera to be turned off before replying, 'If you were real, I would do anything for you.'

In one memorable (thankfully fictional) scene, Hitler is confronted by a terrified elderly Jewish woman, her fear and hatred and memories cutting through her dementia. 'It's just satire. It's comedy,' says her granddaughter, trying to calm her agitated grandmother. 'That's what everyone thought then, too,' replies the grandmother, 'until it was too late.'

Very slowly, a nicely-polished looking-glass turns to reflect a simmering and resentful Germany back at its modern, confident self.

Berliner Morgenpost, one of Berlin's major newspapers, says of the film, "A fake Hitler, a small moustache ... allowed insights into Germany's dark side." Hitler, it said, "in a figurative sense, never really left...The far-right ideology smoulders to this day.”

After a failed assassination attempt, Hitler looks his assailant, and the camera, in the eye and says, 'You can't kill me. I am a part of you. I am a part of all of you,' reminding the watching audience that Hitler, far from overthrowing the Government of the time and installing himself as Chancellor, was in fact democratically elected by the German people in 1933 on an explicit and well-publicised anti-Simitic Nazi manifesto.

The film was made in 2013/14, before the Syrian and Middle East refugee tragedy brought hundreds of thousands fleeing war and violence to Europe's borders. Following the public and political backlash to the crisis and the arrival of the refugees, the film seems prescient. 

Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

The final, terrifying scene sent a cold chill straight down my spine, and should act as a call-to-arms for antifascists and right-thinking people everywhere: real-life, recent news footage of violent racist attacks, mass demonstrations across Europe against immigrants and asylum-seekers, huge far-right rallies, rightwing and Conservative political parties pushing anti-immigrant policies and using dangerous rhetoric to whip up xenophobia and fear - all shown against Hitler being driven through the streets, smiling at waving Berliners and, with some satisfaction, declares:

'I can work with this.'