It’s always interested me that while there’s a contstant fascination with Naziism, not that much attention is paid to how Hitler actually got to be running Germany in the first place. It’s probably because it raises very awkward questions about how a general population could vote in a political machine with such a hideous ideology (the Nazi Party had more members voted into the Reichstag by July 1932, with Hitler made Chancellor the following year).
It wasn’t exactly democracy’s finest hour, especially as the Nazis didn’t exactly hide what they were all about, so people couldn’t really say they didn’t know (although admittedly things did eventually go further than many had probably expected).
Now Variety reports that German-born director Robert Schwentke (Red, Flightplan, RIPD) wants to take a look at what happened via the true story of the Muenchener Post newspaper. The Poison Kitchen will look at how while much of Germany was coming round to Hitler’s ideas and signing up to his party, the Muenchener Post was loudly declaiming him and warning of the dangers of what Adolf was espousing.
For over a decade it waged a war of words against the Nazis, but unsurprisingly this didn’t impress the Nazi Party, with Hitler referring to the paper as the Muich Pest. Once he became Chancellor in 1993, he sent storm troopers to destroy the editorial office and printing presses, and threw the staff into prison.
Martin Moszkowicz of Constantin Films, which is backing the movie, says “”We’ve always wanted to do a movie about the ramp up to 1933: What happened in the early years, how did Hitler get to where he ended up and how did that work? That’s really about this time.” It is a fascinating era that raises all sorts of questions that most people would rather not deal with, but perhaps looking at why normal people would vote for a monster would be a good way to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Matthew Sand (Ninja Assassin) is on scripting duties for the film. Don’t expect it for a while though, as Schwentke needs to make RIPD first, as that doesn’t begin shooting until later this year.