A fictional play in Mel Brooks' The Producers, Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp With Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden is a musical about Adolf Hitler written by fictional Nazi Franz Liebkind.

The play is chosen by the washed-up producer Max Bialystock and his neurotic accountant Leo Bloom in their fraud scheme to raise substantial funding by selling 25,000 percent of a play, cause it to fail, and keep all the remaining money for themselves. In order to ensure the play is a total failure, Max picks the worst director he can find, Roger DeBris, a stereotypical homosexual/transvestite caricature, and gives the part of Hitler to an uncontrollable hippie named Lorenzo St. DuBois, who calls himself LSD.

Synopsis

The play starts with a musical number, Springtime for Hitler, which contains the memorable chorus "Springtime for Hitler and Germany / Deutschland is happy and gay.../ Springtime for Hitler and Germany/ Winter for Poland and France / Springtime for Hitler and Germany/ Come on Germans, do your dance."

Accompanied by dancing stormtroopers who at one point form a Busby Berkeley-style swastika, the play immediately horrifies everyone in the audience except the author, an unbalanced ex-Nazi named Franz Liebkind, played by Kenneth Mars, and one lone viewer who breaks into applause—and is pummelled by other disgusted theatregoers. As the audience is storming out of the theater, the first scene starts, with LSD dressed up in full Nazi uniform and talking like a beatnik. The remaining audience starts to laugh, thinking that it is a satire, and the spectators return to the theater.

Franz, disgusted, goes behind the stage, unties the cable holding up the curtain and rushes out on stage explaining that this is not how it should go. One of the actors hits him with a pipe through the curtain, and he falls over. The play continues, and the audience thinks that his performance was part of the act.

In the real 2001 Broadway version of The Producers and its subsequent 2005 movie, the part of LSD was not included and Hitler was played by the director, Roger DeBris, who sang a flamboyant solo Heil Myself. Franz was originally chosen by Max to play Hitler, but due to an unfortunate accident after the Good Luck song when he broke his leg (the irony here is that the term 'break a leg' is used instead of 'good luck' on Broadway), Max asked Roger to play Hitler. The swastika choreography at the end is maintained through a large mirror that is raised to show the swastika to the audience. In these versions, Franz does not interrupt the play, but waits until after the play to confront the producers and threatens to kill them, breaking his other leg in the process.

Quotes

• "Springtime, for Hitler and Germany / Rhineland's a fine land, once more / Springtime for Hitler and Germany / Watch out Europe, We're going on tour."—Lead Tenor Stormtrooper in beginning of song
• "You mean, "Springtime for 'you-know-who?"—Franz Liebkind, when first asked if he will allow Messrs. Bialystock and Bloom to produce his play, which they have described as a "love letter to Hitler."
• "I haven't been this happy since we crushed Poland!"—Franz Liebkind, after signing the agreement with Bialystock and Bloom to produce his play.
• "Springtime, for Hitler, and Germany / Winter, for Poland and France"—The opening number
• "Springtime, for Hitler, and Germany / U-boats are sailing, Once more!"—Sung while the actors are in a large Swastika formation
• "You're German. We're all Germans. That means...we cannot attack Germany."—LSD in a briefing room scene
• "Vat is zis 'baby, baby'? Ze Führer has never said this 'baby'"—Franz, grieving about LSD's way of talking (using words like "baby" and "groovy")
• "You are the victims of a hoax!"—Franz, to the audience, after letting down the curtain
• "Don't be stupid, be a smarty / Come and join the Nazi Party!"—line from the opening number sung in a cameo appearance by writer/director Mel Brooks.

Fictional plays | Adolf Hitler