Downfall is a 2004 German
war film depicting the final ten days of
Adolf Hitler's reign over
Nazi Germany in 1945. It is based upon the books
Inside Hitler's Bunker: The Last Days of the Third Reich (1945), by historian
Joachim Fest;
Until the Final Hour: Hitler's Last Secretary (1947), the memoirs of
Traudl Junge, one of Hitler's secretaries (co-written with
Melissa Müller);
Inside the Third Reich (first published in German in 1969), the memoirs of
Albert Speer, one of the highest-ranking Nazi officials to survive both the war and the Nuremberg trials;
Hitler's Last Days: An Eye–Witness Account (first English translation 1973), by
Gerhard Boldt;
Das Notlazarett unter der Reichskanzlei: Ein Arzt erlebt Hitlers Ende in Berlin by Doctor
Ernst-Günther Schenck; and
Soldat: Reflections of a German Soldier, 1936–1949 (1992),
Siegfried Knappe's memoir. The film, directed by
Oliver Hirschbiegel, and written and produced by
Bernd Eichinger, was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.