Scenes 1 - 2
The Cauliflower Trust goads Dogsborough into giving city funds for "dock repairs." Dogsborough joins the Cauliflower Trust. |
1926: The Weimar government’s Eastern Aid policy funds bankrupt estates owned by Prussian Junkers.
1927: Junkers purchase Hindenburg’s deceased brother’s estate and gift it to him for his 80th birthday. |
Scenes 3 - 5
Ui attempts to blackmail Dogsborough for protection, which he gains by murdering the witnesses in the city's dock funds investigation. |
1932: A partisan newspaper alleges Junkers spent their aid money on vacations, luxury cars and other extravagances. Though he is implicated in the government’s investigation of the scandal, Hindenburg is re-elected as president, by a narrower than comfortable margin.
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Scene 6
The old Actor trains Ui in elocution. |
January 1933:
After two Reichstag elections resulting in no absolute majority, or a hung parliament, Chancellor Franz von Papen persuades Hindenburg to install Hitler as Chancellor to placate the Nazi Party without handing them too much power. |
Scenes 7 - 9
As Ui speaks to the greengrocers, the gang sets fire to Jim Crocket's warehouse, framing Fish for the crime. Fish is apparently poisoned on the stand and rendered unable to testify, dooming him to death. |
February 1933:
A Dutch communist named Marinus van der Lubbe sets fire to the Reichstag building in Berlin. The Nazis use this to justify their suppression of the German Communist party, their main rival in the Reichstag. Hitler convinces Hindenburg to sign the Reichstag fire decree, suspending almost all civil liberties, like freedoms of expression and assembly. Hindenburg also signs the Enabling Act, which allows the Chancellery (Hitler) to enact laws without the Reichstag. |
Scenes 10 - 11
Dogsborough composes his will, which Ui and company rewrite for their own purposes. Roma and Giri separately try to turn Ui against the other, leaving Ui conflicted between his loyalty to Roma and his own ambition. |
August 1934:
Hearing Hindenburg’s death is imminent, Hitler assumes the office of Reich president alongside the chancellery, but instead styles himself "Leader and Reich Chancellor" (Führer und Reichskanzler). |
Scenes 12
Believing Giri's conspiracies, Ui has Roma and his men murdered. |
June - July 1934:
Hitler orders the deaths of his enemies within and outside the Nazi Party, including brownshirt commander Ernst Röhm, in a purge now called the Night of the Long Knives. |
Scenes 13 - 14
Cicero newspaper editor Ignatius Dullfoot and his wife Betty visit Givola's flower shop, where Givola poisons Dullfoot and Ui woos Betty. At Dullfoot's funeral, Betty resists Ui's offer of protection. |
July 1934
Hitler orders the assassination of Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, dictator of Austria, for his and the Austrian press’ actions against the Austrian Nazi Party and his refusal to union with Germany. |
Scene 15
Roma's ghost appears to Ui in a nightmare. |
We're reasonably sure this didn't happen to Hitler. |
Scene 16
The greengrocers of Chicago and Cicero vote to take Ui's protection after Betty cedes the Cicero vegetable trade to the Cauliflower Trust. |
March 1938:
Nazis march into Austria as Dollfuss’ successor attempts to hold a referendum on forming a union with Germany. The Nazis hold a nationwide election to legitimize the annexation, claiming a 99% vote for the Nazi Party in Austria. |