In Nazi Germany none of their political leaders have ever been impersonated by actors on film. For obvious reasons the German movie industry, completely supervised by the Nazis between 1933-1945, shunned from showing its audience the reality of politics and life for entertainment.
This TV production marks a historical moment by featuring Hitler and Göring in distinctive roles. In the Federal Republic of Germany (former West Germany) there appeared to exist a kind of agreement among movie makers and TV producers not to give especially the person of Adolf Hitler important screening time or dialogue in their products for over 40 years. Where he had to appear, he was either shown as a shadowy figure or his voice could be heard only. In many other scenes Hitler's appearance came from newsreel clips.
TV critics as well as the audience were quite surprised that Michael Degen (by that time a busy actor, mostly seen in family TV productions) had accepted to play the part of Hitler, since being of Jewish religion, he had been pursued by the Nazis in his youth. Neither he nor the actor Udo Weinberger bore any resemblance to their roles as Hitler and Göring. It can be assumed that this was the intention of the director and the producers.