BLOODY EXCESS IN THE LEADERS BUNKER

Original title: Blutige Exzesse im Führerbunker

Early no budget experimental Super-8 short film made by Buttgereit in just one day in 1982.

Nazi leader Adolf Hitler has survived the war, holed up in his bunker. There, he re-created his former wife Eva Braun as a Frankenstein monster, along with a “Germanic breeding bull”(played by Buttgereit). With the help of these Nazi-zombies, he wants to take over the world again. But as soon as the monsters awake, they tear their maker to shreds. Much fun and gory effects!

Johannes Schönherr

In 1982 Jörg Buttgereit shot "Blutige Exzesse im Führerbunker" on Super 8 in Berlin. Today the movie is available on DVD and much more widely accessible. What were the times like back then? Why is the movie experiencing a comeback these days? We’re asking for contexts. We could also ask the author. “Mr. Buttgereit, why did you shoot this splatter film?” His answer will be what he always says: “Well, because Norbert brought this Hitler-mask back from London, and from then on we were flying blind.” This is an answer truly worthy of the fine arts. First comes the image; that is his thing. And then comes the interpretation.

For the movie Buttgereit himself, 18, had sown a swastika flag and hung it up on the wall. Mask-bearer Hähnel, famous in Berlin as "the real Heino", kept his recordshop "Scheißladen" closed on Saturdays. An ideal location for shooting the movie. Length of shoot: 1 day. Disposal of the bloody and slimy splatter-props: the toilets at Burger King.

Buttgereit, influenced by Godzilla and Frankenstein movies, turns Hähnel-Hitler into Dr. Frankenstein, who is in the process of resuscitating Eva Braun, while on the operating table next to her a Germanic stock bull (Jörg Buttgereit), made up of separate body parts sown together by the adept creator and surgeon Hitler, also starts breathing. Hitler: “The young viewers may not know me, but I am alive. And I will clean up.” The couple however, awoken by Hitler and designated to conceive a new generation of Nazis, grabs an axe and reduces Hitler to more manageable pieces. They are visibly enjoying themselves.

A self arranged massacre and a splatter film that turned Buttgereit into a pioneer of the Super 8-scene, in which punk-rockers and stand-alones saw themselves reflected. Today that it is considered chic to be fond of Hitler again (see "Der Untergang") it feels good to know that "Blutige Exzesse im Führerbunker" is also a significant presence again.

Dietrich Kuhlbrodt