SBS - Hitlers Warriors (1998) Part 2 Udet The Flyer

Since the early 1980s popular German TV journalist and presenter Guido Knopp has unearthed a wealth of new material about the leading figures of the Third Reich. Subsequent to the successful series “Hitler - A Profile” and “Hitler's Henchmen”, Guido Knopp and his team continue this significant television analysis of the Nazi period with a series of the six most important German generals. He has spoken to countless contemporaries and eyewitnesses, relatives and friends of these men, and has been given access to documents that until now have been kept under lock and key. In this series, Guido Knopp's reassessment of Germany's guilty past, turns to the careers of six key military leaders of the Third Reich, and their relationships with Hitler. Profiling these men, the series continues to pose the question as to why it all happened. Rommel, Canaris, Keitel, Paulus, Udet and Manstein. Six careers caught in the tangle of Nazi political intrigue and ultimate disaster. What led all these officers to put their military talents at the service of a murderous dictator? To what depth was their involvement in Hitler's crimes? To what limits did their obedience lead them?

Part 2 Udet The Flyer

Ernst Udet, the most successful German fighter pilot to survive the First World War, was personally selected by Hitler to build up and equip the Luftwaffe, but all he had ever wanted was to fly. As the model for Carl Zuckmayer's character Harras in the famous novel “The Devil's General”, the fate of Ernst Udet lingered on in Germany's postwar memory. But the writer's license also obstructed the view of the “real” Udet. His fame as a fighter pilot ace during World War I served the regime well as welcome propaganda material for the build-up of the National Socialist Air Force. He himself was promoted by Goring from the cockpit to the desk of “Chief Air Inspector General” where he coordinated the build-up of Hitler's plans of aggression. The successes of the German Air Force in the “Blitzkrieg” would lead Udet to believe in the invincibility of German bombers and fighter planes. The nimbus of the “flying ace” gave him access to the “higher” society in Berlin. At lavish parties and receptions of the party he fully savored his fame. Only with the defeat of the Air Force against the British Royal Air Force and the setbacks of German pilots on the Eastern front did his illusion of invincibility shatter. Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force Goring branded Udet the scapegoat. Offended and disillusioned in view of the hopelessness of the Russian campaign he took his own life on November 17, 1941. The regime covered up the suicide, announced the cause of Udet's death in a crash during a test flight and staged a pompous State funeral.

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