BEFORE THE RISE

PART 1 : 1930 - 1933 (2022)

Through the point of view and words of the international press correspondents in Germany, this documentary narrates the advent of the National Socialist Party as the first political force during the period of 1930 to 1933.

What did the journalists report about the weaknesses of the German democracy, the consequences of the crash, the struggles between Nazis, Communists and Social Democrats? What did they see of the spread of misery and violence, of the madness and faith of the supporters of each camp? What can these privileged witnesses tell us of those years, when the brown plague reached Germany through the ballot box?

PART 2 : The birth of Nazi dictatorship 1933 - 1936 (2024) - New

Shortly after Hitler's accession to the Chancellorship on January 30, 1933, the Weimar Republic disappears within a few weeks.The lives of Germans are regimented. Among the crowd of spectators, hundreds of foreign journalists stand, reporting the gripping German political experience to readers worldwide. These correspondents, the main independent witnesses of the drama unfolding in Germany, are quickly monitored, threatened, or even expelled.

Thanks to the words of some of them (British, American, and French) published in the press, this documentary recounts in real-time the history of Germany in the early days of the Third Reich. From the seizure of power in 1933 to the 1936 Olympic Games, the Nazis' legitimization project unfolds before and through them, an astounding normalization inevitably paving the way towards catastrophe.