Gölz, Peter. HaHa Hitler! Coming to Terms with Dani Levy.

“HaHa Hitler! Coming to Terms with Dani Levy” is an article by German Studies scholar Peter Gölz, focusing on the debate surrounding Dani Levy’s 2007 film Mein Führer—Die wirklich wahrste Wahrheit über Adolf Hitler (English: Mein Führer—The Truly Truest Truth about Adolf Hitler). To understand the debate, Gölz first places it in the historical context of presenting Hitler as a comic figure, in other words, in the historical context of ‘Hitler humour’, which he defines as “humorous depictions of Adolf Hitler as a person, his politics, and his immediate surroundings” (174). Afterwards, Gölz concludes that while Levy intends, with his use of humour, to challenge the viewers’ perception of the representation of the Third Reich, he adheres too much to the Holocaust etiquette to actually do so. Also, the humour in the film is overshadowed by its sad and tragic elements, which is why the film does not allow a radically new perspective. Gölz concludes: “It attempts to go where no German feature film had gone before, but in the end it does not go far enough. At the same time, it makes a significant contribution to the ongoing attempts of coming to terms with the past.” (184).

Author of this entry: Melissa Geerars

Gölz, Peter. “Haha, Hitler! Coming to Terms with Dani Levy.” Cinema and Social Change in Germany and Austria, edited by G. Mueller and J.M. Skidmore, Wildfrid Laurier University Press, 2012, pp. 173-189.