Der Untergang - a parallel translation of a famous scene

Today I bring you a parallel translation of a famous scene from the brilliant German film "Der Untergang" (English: "Downfall") mostly about the last days in Hitler's bunker. The screenplay is by Bernd Eichinger who unfortunately passed away in 2011. He was also a producer for the film "Nirgendwo in Afrika" which I watched a couple of years ago. Apart from being a brilliant film, with the insanity of Hitler being portrayed astoundingly well by Bruno Ganz, it has also spawned a massive number of parodies based largely on providing new translations for a scene in which Hitler discovers that his last grand plan for saving Berlin from capture by the Russians could not be mounted due to a lack of manpower. I can't understand the criticisms of this film which say it humanises Hitler too much. He comes across as being completely deranged in the film!

Here's the link to my parallel translation:

Der Untergang - Szene: "Der Angriff Steiner ist nicht erfolgt"

Note that my source for the German was a subtitles file I found on the internet, but which needed some minor fixups at the start. The rest of it seemed fine. I did my own translation and learnt some new stuff along the way, like that "durchbrechen" has a few slightly different meanings - to "break through" as in "come through or suddenly appear", as well as "to break in two" both of which are separable verbs, and then there's the meaning of "break though and destroy the thing in the process, coming out the other side; to smash through" which is inseparable! It is this latter which appears in the text above ("zu durchbrechen" instead of "durchzubrechen"). I also learnt the expression for "to blow one's brains out".

You can find the original scene on youtube fairly easily - here's one that's working at the moment. I used RealPlayer's "Download this Video" and then "Save mp3" options to extract the audio so I can listen to it as I drive to work. Along with the fact that I had to listen to the beginning several times to figure out what corrections to make to the subtitles I was using, I have listened to it and am becoming quite familiar with it. When I feel like I hear every word fairly clearly, I'll find a scene from another movie.

This movie has quite clear audio and speaking overall, so I rate it as less challenging for the learner than movies like "Stalingrad" which is full of moody, wounded, mumbling soldiers, gunfire, explosions and howling winds. I think I'll find a challenging scene in that movie as my next target!

One final disclaimer: as usual, I claim no rights over any of the original text and especially not the audio of the movie! The translation is largely my own, but guided by the efforts of others. I post this here only to help other German learners improve their understanding and appreciation of the German language and cinema.

Enjoy!