# Apocalypse: The Rise of Hitler (2011)

> A two-part French documentary traces how the 1929 economic crisis and public fear helped deliver Germany to Adolf Hitler.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/60171

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 2
- Episode runtime: 55 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: documentary, history
- Created by: Daniel Costelle, Isabelle Clarke
- Network: France 2
- Cast: Mathieu Kassovitz, Adolf Hitler, Rudolf Hess, Hermann Göring, Joseph Goebbels, Paul von Hindenburg, Eva Braun, Benito Mussolini
- TMDB rating: 8.2/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2094220/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: mild
- Tone: sober, grave, unsettling, measured, cautionary

## What critics say

Acclaimed by audiences for its rigorous archival storytelling on how Hitler rose to power, though its per-season rating is more modest.

## Synopsis

Apocalypse: The Rise of Hitler (2011) is a French documentary history miniseries created by Daniel Costelle and Isabelle Clarke for France 2. Across two 55-minute episodes it follows the career of Adolf Hitler from his obscure beginnings to his consolidation of power in Germany. Its engine is a single question that the narration keeps returning to: how a population that dismissed him as an eccentric dreamer came to vote him into office, and how few voices stood up for democracy as the dictatorship tightened. Rather than dramatized scenes, the series is built from archive footage of Hitler, Rudolf Hess, Hermann Göring, Joseph Goebbels, Paul von Hindenburg, Eva Braun and Benito Mussolini, with a measured French narration voiced by Mathieu Kassovitz tying the images together. The setting is Weimar-era Germany and the economic collapse of 1929 that shook the country. The tone is sober, grave and deliberately unsettling, a clear-eyed look at complicity and propaganda. Viewers who appreciate the archival rigor of The World at War and the historical reckoning of The Nazis: A Warning from History will find the same kind of resonance here.

## Shows like Apocalypse: The Rise of Hitler

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- [Mussolini – Son of the Century (2025)](https://ember.film/tv/133539)
- [The Sorrow and the Pity (1969)](https://ember.film/tv/106041)
- [NSU German History X (2016)](https://ember.film/tv/67455)
- [D-Day Sacrifice (2014)](https://ember.film/tv/56215)
- [The Power of Nightmares (2004)](https://ember.film/tv/5768)
- [Apocalypse: World War I (2014)](https://ember.film/tv/54675)
- [The World at War (1973)](https://ember.film/tv/712)
- [Hitler: A Film from Germany (1977)](https://ember.film/tv/1104910)

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