Steven Spielberg demanded Megan Fox be fired from Transformers, says Bay

The actor was reportedly forced to leave the franchise for her remarks likening director Michael Bay to Adolf Hitler

• Catherine Shoard
• guardian.co.uk

Before the fallout ... Megan Fox in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009). Photograph: PR

As Lars von Trier knows, comparing a film director to Hitler – even if it's yourself – is rarely wise. And it's now been confirmed by Michael Bay that it was Megan Fox's remarks likening Bay to the German dictator that led to her being dismissed from the Transformers franchise.

1. Transformers: Dark of the Moon
2. Country: USA
3. Directors: Michael Bay
4. Cast: Hugo Weaving, John Malkovich, Josh Duhamel, Patrick Dempsey, Shia LaBeouf
5. More on this film

Speaking ahead of the 4 July premiere of Transformers 3, in which British model Rosie Huntingdon-Whitley replaced Fox as the female lead, Bay has revealed it was the film's executive producer, Steven Spielberg, who demanded Fox's dismissal. Bay said: "You know the Hitler thing? Steven (Spielberg) said, fire her right now."

Fox, 25, made the offending remarks to British magazine Wonderland shortly before production was scheduled to begin on the third instalment of the franchise. "He's like Napoleon and he wants to create this insane, infamous madman reputation," she said of Bay. "He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is. So he's a nightmare to work for but when you get him away from set, and he's not in director mode, I kind of really enjoy his personality because he's so awkward, so hopelessly awkward. He has no social skills at all. And it's endearing to watch him. He's vulnerable and fragile in real life and then on set he's a tyrant. Shia [Labeouf] and I almost die when we make a Transformers movie. He has you do some really insane things that insurance would never let you do."

At the time, Fox's departure was credited to her desire to pursue other acting opportunities.

Bay's appointment of Fox was not universally popular. In an open letter posted on Michael Bay's website, a Transformers crew member disparaged Bay's decision to cast her over more experienced actors. "He told everyone around to just trust him on his choice … she became one of the most Googled and [ogled] women on earth. She was famous! She was the next Angelina Jolie, hooray! Wait a minute, two of us worked with Angelina. Second thought: she's no Angelina. You see, Angelina is a professional. We know this quite intimately because we've had the tedious experience of working with the dumb-as-a-rock Megan Fox on both Transformers movies."

Adolf Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' to be republished in Germany

Adolf Hitler's autobiography "Mein Kampf" is to be republished in Germany in 2015 for the first time since being banned under the country's constitution at the end of the Second World War.

 

By Allan Hall in Berlin

Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

 

Under the post-1945 German constitution, the dissemination of Nazi philosophy has been a crime punishable by fines and imprisonment.

But the copyright, held by the state of Bavaria where the Nazi movement began life in the 1920s, expires in 2015, 70 years after the death of its author in his Berlin bunker.

On Thursday the Munich-based Institute of Contemporary History (IfZ) pledged to publish an "annotated version" with historical notes that it hopes will see the book used in schools and colleges.

The finance ministry in Bavaria said it had still not decided whether to give its permission but it is understood that with the lapse in copyright, the IfZ will not need the green light from it. "Besides, we think our version, with sensible notes and comments pointing out the falsity of much of what he wrote, will be far better than neo-Nazis putting out their own versions," said the IfZ.

Jewish leaders in Germany have already pledged their support for the project, saying they believe it "would prevent neo-Nazi from profiteering from Mein Kampf. while an aggressive and enlightening engagement with the book would doubtless remove many of its false, persisting myths".

The IfZ wants the agreement of the finance ministry in Bavaria before the 2015 deadline so as to begin work on the project right away.

Mein Kampf became a better seller than the Bible in the Third Reich.

Hitler became a multi-millionaire through royalties while newspapers around the world, including some in the UK, serialised his work.

It was written when he was sentenced to five years in jail for attempting to overthrow the government in 1924. It is filled with the prejudices and hatreds of an uneducated man and within its pages are endless rants against the Jews, who he would soon attempt to eliminate altogether.

In another passage he foretells his plans for the conquest of Russia, writing: "We must eliminate the disproportion between our population and our area...... Some of this land can be obtained from Russia. We must secure for the German people the land and soil to which they are entitled."

Over 12 million copies were sold in Nazi Germany. Recently an edition of the book became a best seller in Turkey.

Recording of Nazi officers who found Hitler's body released

A tape recording of Nazi officers describing the moment they found Adolf Hitler's body in his Berlin bunker has been discovered.

 

By Allan Hall in Berlin

Adolf Hitler Photo: PA

The remains of Hitler's bunker in Berlin Photo: AP

The skull fragment that is believd to belong to Adolf Hitler Photo: EPA

The recording was made on October 25 1956 in a courtroom in Berchtesgaden, site of the Fuehrer's mountaintop home in Bavaria. The court was convened to officially declare the former leader of Nazi Germany dead so that his fortune and rights to his book "Mein Kampf" could be seized by the state government.
Among those giving evidence that day were Otto Guensche, an SS officer, and Heinz Linge, a valet, who first discovered the corpses of Hitler and his new bride Eva Braun.

The remains of Hitler's bunker in Berlin Photo: AP

 

On the recording, discovered by researchers for the German Spiegel TV channel, the men speak under oath of entering the Fuehrer's study after hearing shots ring out on April 30 1945.
"When I entered to my left I saw Hitler on the sofa," said Linge, who died in 1980.
"Hitler had his head bent forward somewhat and I could see a bullethole approximately the size of a penny on the right side of the temple."
Guensche, who went to his death in 1983 refusing to give details about the dictator's end, said: "Hitler sat on the arm of the sofa with his head hanging down on the right shoulder which was itself hanging limp over the back of the sofa. On the right side was the bullethole."
Martin Bormann, Hitler's secretary, was with them when they first entered Hitler's study, the pair testified.
They arrived at 3.30pm and participated in removing the bodies, carrying them upstairs to the devastated garden of the Reich Chancellery and assisting in their cremation.

The skull fragment that is believd to belong to Adolf Hitler Photo: EPA

Both men were captured by the Soviets after the fall of Berlin and shipped off to Moscow for over a decade. It fuelled the myth which Russian leader Josef Stalin wanted to perpetuate that Hitler might somehow have escaped and was on the run. They came back to Germany in 1955.
The testimony of Guensche and Linge lay hidden in the Munich public records office. Spiegel has restored the recordings to allow them to be heard by scholars and historians.

Adolf Hitler alive: weird conspiracy theories

The discovery that the skull believed to be Adolf Hitler's was actually a woman's has reignited conspiracy theories.

By Tom Chivers

Adolf Hitler: alive and well and living on the Moon? Photo: BRITISH PATHE

Rumours of Hitler’s survival have been widespread for years, with some even claiming he is alive today.

While that is unlikely – the Nazi leader would celebrate his 121st birthday in April – the possibility that he made it out of the Berlin bunker has been seriously put forward on several occasions. Here are four of the strangest theories.

Hitler fled on a 'ghost convoy' to Argentina
Several prominent Nazis – including 'architect of the Holocaust' Adolf Eichmann and Dr Josef Mengele, the 'Angel of Death' – certainly did flee to Argentina.

And the arrival of two U-Boats in the South American country in the weeks after the war led to more speculation that Hitler joined his former underlings there. But Heinz Schäffer, one of the officers on the U-Boats, has alwas strenuously denied being part of a 'ghost convoy'.

The two U-Boats, U-530 and U-977, surrendered at Mar del Plata in Argentina in July and August 1945 respectively.

Hitler 'fled to Antarctica in a U-Boat'
Among the theories of Hitler's whereabouts after the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945 was that he was smuggled out of Germany and onto a U-Boat.

From there, the story goes, the Nazi leader was taken to a secret military base in Antarctic. In the late 1950s British and American forces found the base and destroyed it with atomic weapons.

The theory falls down on three major points. One, there was never a German military presence in Antarctica, despite a pre-war mission there to see whether a whaling base would be feasible.

Two, while the two U-Boats mentioned above did arrive in Argentina after the war, they could not possibly have made it to Antarctica. The sea ice in the winter blocks all access to the land where any base would have been.

Three, while atomic bombs were detonated in the southern hemisphere in 1958, they were atmospheric tests, hundreds of miles above the surface of the Earth. All three took place between 1400 and 2150 miles north of Antarctica.

Using secret rocket technology, Hitler fled to a Nazi base on the moon
The point when Hitler conspiracy theories lose touch with reality altogether. The Nazis' development late in the war of high-technology weapons – including the V2, an early ballistic missile, and the Me 262 jet fighter – inspired some to believe that Germany had secretly won the space race.

It was also suggested that the Nazis had made contact with UFOs and that they had made it to the Moon as early as 1942. Furthermore, Russian and American astronauts actually made it there in the 1950s, and stayed at a Nazi lunar base.

For added measure, it is claimed that the Moon is perfectly habitable for humans, but that NASA claims it is barren and airless in order to stop Third World countries visiting it.

Hitler is alive and well and staying in San Diego
Well, not really. This one is a joke – but there is a structure, visible on Google Maps, that might make you think otherwise. A barracks building in the US Navy base in San Diego's Coronado island, known as the 'Seal's Lair', is very definitely in the shape of a swastika.

In 2007, the US Navy said it was going to redesign the 1960s-built edifice, spending around $600,000 (£375,000) to make it less master-racy. They admitted they noticed the shape when it was built, but didn't think anyone would spot it from the ground.

Germany's New AIDS Ad — Starring Hitler

By Tristana Moore / Berlin

Germany's latest AIDS-awareness commercial evokes some strong emotions: shock, disgust, nausea. And that's exactly the point. The controversial ad, which was released online on Sept. 3 and starts running on German TV on Wednesday, Sept. 9, shows a couple having steamy sex in a dimly lit room with menacing music playing in the background. The viewer sees only the back of the man's head until the very end, when the camera pans to his face — to reveal that he's Adolf Hitler. Then the slogan flashes across the screen: "AIDS is a mass murderer."

Photos

Africa's AIDS Crisis

It's a strong message, but HIV/AIDS organizations in Germany are arguing over whether it's the right one. Rainbow, the AIDS-awareness group spearheading the campaign — which also includes newspaper ads and posters featuring the images of other dictators, like Stalin and Saddam Hussein — says it deliberately wants to provoke people, especially young Germans, into using condoms to help prevent the spread of HIV. "We want to give this terrible virus a face," Jan Schwertner, spokesman for Rainbow, tells TIME. "AIDS is a forgotten issue in Germany. It's been swept under the carpet. This shock campaign is necessary to get people thinking again." (See pictures of Hitler's rise to power.)

But the use of Hitler's image — always a highly sensitive topic in Germany — has angered mainstream HIV/AIDS organizations, which say the ad stigmatizes HIV sufferers. On Tuesday, Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe, an umbrella group for HIV counseling centers and Germany's biggest AIDS organization, called the video "disgusting" and demanded an immediate end to the campaign. "The video ridicules all victims of the Nazi regime, and it equates HIV-positive people with mass murderers," says spokeswoman Carolin Vierneisel. "The advertising campaign just relies on provoking anxiety among people. That's the wrong approach. Successful HIV prevention is based on factual information about the risks of HIV transmission and encourages people to use condoms." (Read "The Battle in Uganda Over Female Condoms.")

Germans need the encouragement — the facts about HIV rates in the country are alarming. According to Rainbow's research, eight people become infected with HIV in Germany every day. Across the country, 60,000 people are living with HIV. To help explain the advertisement's shock tactics, the campaign's website states, "Over the past number of years, public interest in AIDS has massively declined. The number of victims, however, has not. As of now, over 28 million people worldwide have died. And every day another 5,000 fatalities are added to that number. This makes AIDS one of the largest mass murderers of all time."

The ads will be shown in German cinemas and broadcast on TV starting on Wednesday, aiming for maximum impact. The agency that created the commercials, Hamburg-based Das Comitee, has robustly defended the campaign, pointing out that the video has already had thousands of viewings since last Thursday, when it was posted on video-sharing sites like YouTube. "We need to warn young people about the dangers of AIDS and the risks of unprotected sex," says creative director Hans Weishäupl. "AIDS is the mass murderer of the 21st century, and we have to show people how awful it is." He adds that he's received a lot of positive feedback on the commercials from young people and their parents. (See pictures of Kristallnacht.)

Weishäupl agrees that his agency's methods are controversial but insists that the end justifies the means. "It's the message that counts, and of course it was provocative to use the picture of Hitler," he says. "But how would you visualize a terrible virus?"

See TIME's Hitler covers.

The fast and the Führer: Own Hitler's car for £5.5m

In Adolf Hitler’s estimation, the Auto Union D-type was up there with the Blitzkrieg – lightning fast in the 1939 season. Now you can own it but – schnell! – at £5.5 million you’ll be facing stiff Russian opposition...

By Simon Lewis

The Auto Union D-type racer is one of the rarest vintage cars in the world - and one of Hitler's favourites

Expected to fetch at least £5.5million at auction in August, this Auto Union D-type racer is one of the rarest vintage cars in the world – and one of Hitler’s favourites.

Driven by the Führer’s friend Hans Stuck in the 1939 Grand Prix racing season, it is one of only three D-types known to exist – and was lost behind the Iron Curtain for 50 years.

Hitler was obsessed with motor racing as proof of German technological superiority and the Silver Arrows – as the Mercedes and Auto Union teams were known – utterly dominated the sport in the Thirties. Stuck, originally a hill-climb champion and friend of Hitler’s chauffeur, impressed the Nazi leader when they met on a hunt in the mid-Twenties and was protected throughout his career by the acquaintance.

When the Red Army overran Berlin at the end of the war, all Silver Arrows cars were immediately shipped back to the NAMI motor research institute in Moscow to be reverse-engineered: a brutal process that destroyed almost all of them, one being chopped in half to serve as a trailer for an apparatchik’s car.

Nobody knew this chassis – number 19 – had survived, until American car enthusiast Paul Karassik tracked it down, adding an original engine from a separate D-type carcass and handing it over to British Silver Arrow specialists Crosthwaite and Gardiner to restore to its original form.

For more details about the D-type auction, visit bonhams.com/quail

COCKPIT

Wider and shorter than modern race cars because, in the Thirties, drivers still sat upright. The broad steering wheel has to be removed to get in, and the only instruments are a huge rev counter and gauges for the temperature and pressure of the oil and water. A chunky five-speed gear lever is by the driver’s right knee, with a long rod linkage to the rear-mounted gearbox. There is no seat belt or crash protection of any sort.

ENGINE

Three-litre 485hp V12 with two valves per cylinder, a Roots-type supercharger and two Solex racing carburettors. The D-type uses magneto ignition, these days used only on lawnmowers and chainsaws. Audi’s modern equivalent 12-cylinder uses electronic ignition and fuel injection, and has twice the capacity – but still only produces 450bhp to the D-type’s 485. Weighing less than a ton, this was one of the most powerful cars seen until the era of turbocharged Formula 1 – 40 years later. Torque is so great that the driver can easily spin the rear tyres at 100mph. Top speed is over 200mph.

Adolf Hitler receiving winner Rudolf Caracciola and second place driver Manfred Von Brauchitsch in the German Grand Prix at Bayreuth, also Josef Goebbels (back to camera)

Hitler's favourite driver was Hans Stuck

DRIVERS

Hitler took a personal interest in motorsport and the dominance of the Silver Arrows in the Thirties served as good PR material for his Nazi party. He’s pictured above with Rudolf Caracciola after the Mercedes-Benz team leader won the 1939 German Grand Prix, but his favourite driver was Hans Stuck. Indeed, when Auto Union offered Stuck’s place on the team to someone else, the SS somehow persuaded them to change their mind...

FUEL TANKS

The D-type’s ‘Toblerone’ shape is due to the fuel tanks lying down each side, which gives a lower centre of gravity – previously, racing cars had the tank behind the driver’s head. Starting the D-type is quite an operation: the spark plugs are removed and a remote starter-motor is plugged in to build up oil pressure, then the plugs are refitted and the carburettors primed with four-star petrol – but once up and running, twin aircraft pumps feed
the engine from the main tanks with high-performance methanol-benzole. It is very loud.

TYRES

Continental racing tyres, much taller and narrower than modern tyres. No power steering.

BODY

All aluminium on a steel chassis, designed by Auto Union engineers – whereas their A-, B- and C-types had been designed by Porsche Engineering.

SUSPENSION

The front axle has Porsche Engineering’s torsion bar suspension, later found in the VW Beetle. The DeDion
rear suspension was the D-type’s chief competitive advantage, guaranteeing much better road-holding than the opposition’s swing-axle rear suspension.

BRAKES

Wide drum brakes with air-cooling fins (modern cars use disc brakes).

THE FOUR-RING BADGE

Auto Union brought together four struggling car manufacturers during the Great Depression, the four rings of the badge representing Horch, Audi, DKW and Wanderer. It became ‘Audi NSU Auto Union’ in 1969 before reverting to simply Audi in 1985.