Reinhold Schünzel was a German actor and director, active in both Germany and the United States. The son of a German father and a Jewish mother, he was born in St. Pauli, the poorest part of Hamburg. Despite being of Jewish ancestry, Schünzel was allowed by the Nazis to continue making films for several years until he left in 1937 to live abroad.
Reinhold Schünzel in 1921
The Hitler Gang is a 1944 American pseudo-documentary film directed by John Farrow, which traces the political rise of Adolf Hitler. Described as a "documentary-propaganda" film by its studio, Paramount Pictures, the historical drama is based on documented fact and marks the first serious effort to portray Hitler in film. The filmmakers chose to avoid casting stars in the lead roles, assembling instead a remarkable company of lookalikes to play Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler, Göring, and other leading Nazis.
Theatrical release poster
Robert Watson as Adolf Hitler and Poldi Dur as Geli Raubal in The Hitler Gang
Robert Watson as Hitler and Martin Kosleck as Joseph Goebbels
Untitled (The Hitler Gang), a 1944 collage by Kurt Schwitters, incorporates a newspaper advertisement for the film.